Change is Important
The world wouldn’t be the world it is without people pushing for change. If governments made every decision on their own, it would be a disaster land! You can even see situations like this in a few countries. This is why advocacy is so important! People can agree on a change, and fight for it to happen.
My Experience as an Advocate
If you really think about it, lots of things can be considered advocacy. No matter if it’s standing up for someone being bullied, saving trees in your neighbourhood, or influencing the government to make a change! Today, I want to focus on one experience I had in 2018.
Back in June of 2018, an election was held to find the new leader of the Canadian province, Ontario. After the leader was elected, he immediately removed funding to the Ontario Child Advocate Office, a place where children and youth could receive help to advocate for themselves. Just around that time, we were completing a writing project in class. I thought that maybe, just maybe I could send a letter to the premier of the province. Maybe, just maybe he might reconsider his decision.
So there I was, working with my teacher and family to write this letter. I’ll admit, I didn’t have plans for the letter yet. It just sat on the table for a couple of days. That was until my mom decided to post a picture of my letter on Twitter and submit it to a newspaper. About a week after posting, we discovered the letter in the Toronto Star (A City Newspaper)! We weren’t quite sure how my letter got chosen among hundreds of other submissions, and ended up in a newspaper read by over 6 million people per day, but we were very excited. The only thing left to do was hope for a response.
Sadly, there was no response or action from the government. This shows that although advocacy is important and can be effective and important, it doesn’t work all the time. However, that doesn’t mean that we should stop. Advocating for things is more important than almost anything, and it has helped billions of people achieve their goals.
Advocacy Pro-Tips
There is one secret to protestation and advocacy: be passionate! The change will not occur if you don’t show passion for your subject. But just in case you need some tips to get started, here they are!
- Find something you care about. You have to put lots of emotional energy into advocating for something.
- Identify your end goal. If change is going to happen, there has to be a goal to achieve.
- Find out to whom you’re directing your advocacy. Someone needs to make the change!
- Be clear on your message. Make it easy for other people to understand, and join you!
- Pace yourself. Be organized with the way you present your arguments.
That’s it! You are now on the road to advocating for your own topic. Remember to find something you care about, and get out there!
