Is it worth it? Activism and Advocacy
On a navy background, a blue circle is in the center with wavy white blobs surrounding the title “Is it worth it? Activism and Advocacy.”
Activism and advocacy is a thankless effort. You are putting time, energy, and effort into something you feel emotionally connected to in the spirit of changing the status quo. As time has passed, energy is drained, and effort goes unnoticed, the question remains, is it worth it?
Is it worth it to contribute to a cause that you may never witness the result of your work?
Is it worth it to exhaust physical and mental energy into something that others may not realize as important yet?
Is it worth it to go past your boundaries with the idea that more stories on a personal level will help your activism and advocacy?
The questioning process is an experience in which every advocate and activist goes through whether the journey is positive or negative. The internal struggle of moving forward for justice and sustainability is a deeply personal one for the majority of people who find themselves on this path. Considering that we also have responsibilities outside of advocacy work, the question of is it worth it is likely never going to end.
For the past year, this question keeps popping up for me. While the international cooperation sector is full of learning opportunities and lessons I want to soak in on areas outside of accessibility, it is largely inaccessible for me due to the lack of consideration of the barriers that persons with disabilities face.
Even with the opportunities that I was fortunate to participate in, I hit the limit much sooner than my peers who did not have to deal with the communications and attitudes barriers surrounding access.
Don’t get me wrong, I love advocating for more meaningful accessibility in spaces. However, I have other interests in advocacy that I cannot fully explore because more often than not, I hit the barriers shifting the gears to advocating for consideration of accessibility in processes and decision-making instead.
It is emotional labour of being forced to make a decision of whether or not to ignore the inaccessibility, or bring it up with my experience. Choosing to share is one thing, having to bring it up because I am put into an unsafe, unfair, or unreliable situation due to lack of access is not the situation I particularly ask for.
My experience is not unique. Many of us have to make those decisions due to our identity and lived experience. While no one could be particularly asking for advice and feedback, feeling obligated due to past experiences is typically what encourages the reaction, whether or not it was intended.
So, what experiences can make encouraging and taking action so hard leading to the quest of questioning whether continuing with the work is worth it?
Not seeing any “real” change
If you are doing activism and advocacy work, chances are you are working with issues that are systemic with many moving parts determining its cause and consequences. It is not an easy fix. In fact, it is entirely possible that you may not see the change you want in the timeframe you expect. More likely, you will see the setbacks, the barriers, and the hardships more than the little moment of success.
It can be difficult to continue moving forward when you feel like you are fighting every problem and it never seems to be resolved. Learning to appreciate the little rewarding moments of achievements in the movement is a process and you are not alone in the collective action.
Emotional Labour
Many of the causes that we are working towards are to help improve societal issues that impact our quality of life and well-being. We are emotionally connected to them whether or not we experience it directly or indirectly. For some of us, we are living with the consequences of societal issues making the motivation to help improve our lives and our communities in hopes that no one has to experience what we currently live with.
If we have the lived experience, it can be emotionally draining with the potential of reliving our traumas and hardships to be where we are. It can be emotionally draining knowing that there are people in your community who are made marginalized from the experience that you are attempting to improve. It is a consistently difficult decision of whether or not we feel comfortable and have the energy to advocate, act, and share our story to inform others who do not experience it.
Barriers to Advocacy and Activism
Along with emotional labour as a barrier, there are many decisions and actions that make advocacy and activism hard to continue. We all have responsibilities in order to survive and live in our society which we likely put first on our list of things to do. If we do not meet our needs, advocacy and activism would not be worth our energy if we have to consider ourselves first to be able to take action sustainably.
Some of the barriers can include financial, accessibility, number of opportunities, access to information, learning of (or access to) skills, government priorities, use of language, environment, energy, and so much more. The more barriers you experience, the less likely you are to feel like you can contribute to the efforts.
Lack of Recognition
For advocacy and activism, I am not talking about awards and accolades that are a form of recognition. While it is crucial to promote to the general public the importance of the work, it is not one that most of us gravitate to or need on a regular basis to continue the work. It is a nice to have and a way for all of us to celebrate the work that is being done.
Recognition can be smaller wins within the work such as testimonials of individuals or groups that what you are doing is impacting them positively and people around you acknowledging the hard work. Another side of recognition is having the system you work in actively acknowledge the importance of your efforts and implement solutions that you either advocated for or support and standards that would make your work easier to scale the impact effectively. Not feeling like your work is recognized, especially those you interact with on a regular basis can be difficult to find the momentum and energy to continue.
When you are questioning, is it worth it?
The experiences that make you question “is it worth it” will always come up at your hardest moments. However, the crucial skill you learn with doing activism and advocacy is the ability to reconnect to yourself that made you want to do it in the first place. Take a look at the questions below when reconnecting yourself to your journey.
Why did you start advocating and activism in the first place?
Did you do it out of necessity for yourself or wanted to act to help create change in general? (Note: important to recognize if it was out of necessity)
How have you contributed to activism and advocacy?
Are there other ways that you have not explored (or previously explored) that better fits your lifestyle and energy you have currently?
What motivated you to do the work? People? Energy? Personal Connection? Time?
Once you explore the questions above, then you can start finding ways to cultivate the passion and drive to continue advocating on the issues you care about. It could consist of pivoting or changing your approach, taking a break, finding like minded people to connect and do the work with, and it could be setting boundaries in your work. This journey has its highs and lows that requires you to adapt to changing circumstances. You may have to change the way you contribute to the societal issue but that does not mean you have nothing to say or worth contributing. It is a signal that reminds you to check in and evaluate just in case you need to make a change.
Amanda