Yesterday I attended an event about advocacy, and it included a very informative group of speakers and attendees. Today, I want to share some of the highlights I took away from the event. I feel that they can apply to advocating for many issues, especially mental health. Here they are in a list form:
1.What if we didn’t retrofit our work to an existing system, but rather created a new one?
2.Anger about injustices and action can lead to power.
3.You may want to run for office not to win (although that would be great!), but to spread the word about issues that are important to you.
4.Think twice about saying you are not interested in politics. Your landlord, your mortgage lender, your insurance carrier, the people who run the businesses you shop at, and many others that affect your life are interested in politics, so you should want to have a say in matters that affect you.
5.You may not be interested in politics or advocacy until you become a parent, and then having children may change that dramatically.
6.Intergenerational conversations are important in politics and advocacy – we need to include the voices of the young, old, and middle-aged.
7.In advocacy, you need to use your brain and your voice.
Now, these are somewhat random, but I think they are all helpful or interesting. When it comes to advocating for mental health, I think they are all also very applicable, and they will be useful for me as I work to continue my dive into advocacy work.
How about you? Do you agree with my list? If not, which parts do you disagree with? This is by no means a definitive or comprehensive list, but I thought these were nuggets worth sharing. I hope you will enjoy thinking about them too.