Welcome to the “A” Spot
Welcome to the “A” Spot, and welcome to our inaugural post!
And just what, you must be wondering, does the “A” stand for?
Why, it stands for “advocacy,” of course. The Advocacy Spot.
Hmmm. Yeah… And I guess now you’re probably wondering what we mean by “advocacy”.
Good question! That, in fact, is exactly what the A Spot is all about! Now that’s out of the way, we can get started.
Pardon me? Oh. Right.
Well, then. Advocacy. Just what is it, anyway? All kidding aside, we have lots of ideas about what advocacy is, and how it’s practiced, and how important it is, but it can be hard to put into words. One of those things that’s easier to talk around than spit right out. But I guess if you forced me, I’d say that advocacy is trying to persuade people that your point of view is the right one — and more specifically, that taking a certain action is in the best interests of everyone involved. This spans everything from where to go for dinner to how to build a school to whether we should invade Mars. Which is nice, because it gives us a lot to talk about here at the A Spot. A lot of ground to cover. To illustrate further, I’ll give you some examples I was thinking about as I was preparing this post:
- History is full of inspiring examples of advocacy. Anyone remember the Montgomery Bus Boycott? Those who participated were advocating for Civil Rights — arguing that Jim Crow laws were not just unfair, they were anti-American. They argued — and demonstrated — and boycotted — to persuade others that their point of view was right, and that things had to change in very specific ways. That’s advocacy.
- A year later, 1956, Budapest, Hungary. Students and citizens across the country revolt against the Stalinist government. They succeed in toppling the regime, only to be defeated by Soviet forces a couple of weeks later. There’s two different kinds of advocacy at work there, and I’m being anything but flip — advocacy can be world changing and it can be violent, make no mistake.
- But it doesn’t have to be either. It can actually be pretty mundane. My daughter likes to argue that she should be allowed to read Harry Potter books, listen to Harry Potter books on tape, and watch Harry Potter movies, to the exclusion of everything else in her life. I tend to disagree, and that’s where things stand at the moment — each of us trying to convice the other of a passionately held point of view. Advocacy.
- A group of concerned citizens in my town recently petitioned the Select Board to adopt a “green procurement policy” — to ensure that municipal facilities showed leadership on environmental issues by using public funds to purchase exclusively “green,” or environmentally friendly, cleaning products, vehicles, and supplies. Advocacy.
- A former friend of mind, a public defender in the Midwest, used to spend his days arguing to judges that his clients deserved fair treatment, and arguing with his clients about what course of action was in their best interests. Advocacy.
Still with me? Good, because I promise, we’re finally getting to the really good part, the meat of what the A Spot is trying to tackle, and that’s this: What makes advocacy effective? And also, just how important is the practice of advocacy in free and democratic societies? On the first question, are there skills that can be taught, strategies that can be employed, successes that can be replicated, to make one a better advocate? If so, what are they, and how do we go about transferring that knowledge to others? On the second question, if citizens aren’t free to advocate — if they lack freedom of speech or assembly, for example, or if there is no forum in which to express their opinions, or if their opinions are heard but simply ignored — then is that a repressive, or closed, society, as opposed to a free and democratic one? If so, is there anything that can be done to change that?
Teresa and I spend our time trying to answer these questions. You might say it’s our business, but it’s also our passion. The organization we work for, the Institute for Sustainable Communities, has been fostering the practice of advocacy at all levels in countries across the world for more than 17 years. We have some strong opinions on the subject, and we want to share them with you. But we also want to hear about your experiences, your opinions, your advocacy successes. The A Spot is about the science, and art, of advocacy. It’s meant to be a hub for discussing advocacy in all its forms, and promoting its wider and more effective practice by individuals and communities across the globe.
We hope you’ll come back and help us out — we’ll do our best to keep things interesting and useful, and we look forward to hearing from you.
Tags: advocacy, introduction