THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ADVOCACY AND SERVICE

ACTION ONE: YOU JOIN A GROUP THAT CLEANS UP THE LOCAL RIVER

What do we see here? The river is polluted, people are in there, they are getting their hands dirty - and that is obviously service. If it were advocacy, we would be raising awareness around people throwing trash in the river and trying to change people's behavior by educating them. But this is service, dealing with consequences of the situation or issue.

ACTION TWO: YOU ORGANIZE AND AGITATE TO GET INCREASED POLICING AND BETTER STREET LIGHTING IN A DANGEROUS AREA

Your organize and agitate - shake, wake people up - to get increased policing and better street-lighting in a dangerous area. So you're not doing the policing yourself. You're not putting in the lighting yourself. So you're organizing and you're agitating. You're organizing your community. You're organizing a petition. You're posting on social media. You're going to the police station and you're demanding "We need policing!" We're not putting in the lighting. We're not doing our own policing. This is clearly advocacy.

ACTION THREE: YOU SPEND YOUR WEEKENDS HELPING OUT AT A CHILDREN’S HOME

It's a wonderful thing to do. It's a great community service. It's not community advocacy. It's community service, because you are directly helping out.

ACTION FOUR: THERE IS A PLAN TO CONVERT A PUBLIC PARK INTO A SHOPPING MALL. YOU ORGANISE TOGETHER WITH OTHERS TO GET THE CITY TO PRESERVE THE SITE, RAISE PUBLIC AWARENESS ON THE ISSUE, AND EVEN PLAN TO OBSTRUCT THE CONSTRUCTION IF NEEDED.

There is a plan to convert a public space, a public park, into a shopping mall. Nobody wants that. Well, developers want it, shop owners want that. Local government wants that perhaps. But residents and other affected groups?

So you organize. You come together with others. You want to get the city to preserve this site. You raise public awareness on the issue. "Look at what is happening to this park. This has been here for 150 years. It's a green space we all use. It's a valued asset for the city. We don't need another shopping mall."

And you are even ready that, when the bulldozers come, and the construction crews come, to obstruct that, and actually sit in the park to prevent construction. This is advocacy - advocacy where a community comes together - they may be different parts of the community - to preserve something.

REFLECTION

Take some time at this point to reflect about your own experience with advocacy. Perhaps you are currently involved in an advocacy program or an issue that calls for an advocacy approach. Or you may have worked on advocacy campaigns in the past.

Who were they for? What did you learn from that? What kind of approaches did you take or are you taking? And what examples of effective of effective advocacy campaigns do you your yourself know of? They could be local campaigns, national or international / global.

Things that are gaining your awareness. That's how we know they're effective - you are aware of them. Whether it's through social media, through newspapers or through people's conversations.

So what are the effective advocacy campaigns ongoing right now - in your area, nationally or globally?