As a part of the Anglicare Ambassador program- our group of Ambassadors from All Saints’ were able to attend an advocacy training evening where we learnt relevant skills to enable us to effectively carry out our work raising awareness for Anglicare WA.
The event was held on College grounds, in the CPA, and many other schools participating in this program also came. The first portion of the event involved watching a presentation done by two of the Anglicare WA speakers. Although I had come into this service position understanding the importance of taking the first step when trying to “make a positive difference in our world”, this presentation really emphasised the true meaning of advocacy, and made me understand that any issue of varying scales can be advocated for. I felt like this presentation was useful, as it also taught us about how to advocate in today’s society, using platforms such as social media to reach the modern day target audience.
Following this, we guest speaker, Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa, a spoken word poet. When she performed one of her poems I felt that her words were powerful, and it was evident that there was a clear personal connection to her poem- which she later stated. It was definitely super fun and interesting to see how advocacy doesn’t only have to be done through more traditional platforms, and that through the spoken word poetry we experienced, advocacy could be seen as almost an artform. As someone who particularly enjoys expressing themselves through various arts, this segment of the night was my favourite.
Lastly, we split up into groups and followed guidelines given to us in order to advocate for a cause of choice. I saw how simple advocacy can be made, and this activity made it seem less of a massive project, and more like a process. Watching groups from other schools pitch their causes made me realise the variation in what people find important, and because of this, the importance of advocacy.
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