You can’t have one without the other
This last week at my day job, we spent some time in a leadership retreat in Tigard at a wonderful facility. We had a great time listening to our colleagues share about their teams’ accomplishments and lessons learned throughout the fiscal year so far. We also spent quite a bit of time thinking through the nexus between networking, advocacy, and human services work. We had an amazing speaker and friend come and school us a little bit about this important relationship between advocacy, networking, and social service work.
The last five years of my career have been spent managing in the social services world. It’s heart work to say the least. I’ve noticed though, that there seems to be a disconnect between the critical heart-work we do every single day and the other hard work we do in creating conditions that keep that heart work flowing and functioning well. When we talk about advocacy or networking, I’ve noticed some people say “Well, that’s your job, right?” (folks talking to me). Or, “I’m not really into that political stuff, that’s not really my jam.”
I would wholeheartedly disagree.
Every life that we touch with this critical work is another effective tool in your toolbox to advocate for more lives to be changed. Advocacy is what helps keep the lights on, keeps the money flowing, affects the ways we process assistance for people, and even whether or not assistance programs exist. Sure, we can absolutely rely on the goodwill of other people who make these sorts of decisions in the halls of power - or, we can partner with them in creating the conditions suitable to do our work the best ways we know how. I would argue the latter is way more satisfying. And you, dear leader, are the one who can help bring that nexus to life.
With that said, here are a couple recommendations that I encourage you to consider as you journey through your career:
Meet at least one new person a month. This is a principal my personal mentor shared with us this past week. He reminded us that investing time in genuine relationship building with people in your field or those you come across with in your day to day work is really important. It keeps you connected to what’s happening the community and who knows, you may end up becoming colleagues with someone who can really make a huge difference in your work in the future (or maybe that person is you and you end up helping those you meet!).
Spend time going to and listening to city council meetings, board of county commissioner meetings, etc. Now yes, they can be rather boring sometimes. But listening in is a critical step in learning more about how decisions are made in your local government. You can learn how money flows, which people influence what in specific spaces, and when and where you can plug in to make a change you’d like to see.
Meet with an elected official at least once per quarter and share your work. Take some time to develop a quick elevator speech where you can share about your work in 1-minute or less and expand on it in five, and meet with elected officials in your area at least once per quarter to share that speech. This will help you build relationships and knowledge about your work in a way that will open doors as they make decisions about how to spend money or direct public resources.
What you do has a huge impact on the people you work with yes, but also can make a difference in the lives of many others depending on who you know and how you share your story. It’s important to know that the human services work we do every single day is just as important as the political work that happens in the halls of power. You can’t have one without the other.
