Personal Advocacy

Speaking up for a cause you feel passionate about is a great way to communicate to others about what you believe in. It can be both motivating and empowering to educate others about your perspectives and it’s an effective way to increase awareness of an issue among the general population.

Find Your Passion

When engaging in advocacy activities, SCWIST encourages you to speak up on any and all topics you feel passionate about. The more personally connected you are with an issue, and the more educated you are on a topic, the more likely your voice will resonate with others. By engaging others through your own advocacy, you pave the way for other voices to be heard, or for others to speak up and join the cause.

Please explore our STEM Diversity Champions Toolkit with resources that highlight some of the barriers that women face in their STEM careers, along with best practices and policies to address those barriers.

Find Your Platform

Advocating takes many forms, and not all advocacy looks the same.

• Speak in Public: You might have a strength for public speaking, so volunteering to speak at a panel event run by an organization with similar values might be a great platform for you. You can volunteer as a speaker with SCWIST to promote gender equality for women and girls in STEM by completing this form.
• Write an Article: If you are confident in your writing and want to extend your reach, you can write an article that you can post on your social media to extend your advocacy impact. Please contact our SCWIST Communications Team if you are interested in submitting an article for the SCWIST blog.
• Share on Social Media: Another easy way to start your advocacy journey is to simply post short messages on social media or share communications curated by others. To find advocacy messages that resonate with you, please follow SCWIST social media @SCWIST and @MakePossible_ca on twitter, as well as other organizations listed here.

There are so many different ways to advocate – even just having a conversation with a friend or coworker about something you believe in is better than not saying anything at all. Taking the opportunity to talk about current social issues is an important step. By improving your awareness of an issue, even in the smallest of ways, this helps everyone move the needle forward every day.

Curate Your Communications

If you are advocating broadly on social media, having a consistent theme or topic will help attract and maintain your audience. What is most important to you? What feels most natural to communicate about? Curate your content around the best topic for you!

Let’s be clear, you do not need to create perfect communications to have an impact. It is more important that your view be heard than your grammar be on point, your writing witty, or a social media post have the perfect filter or the most attractive background. Just get your voice and message out there!

Broaden Your Audience and Increase Your Impact

If you do want to improve your communication skills to broaden your audience and increase your impact, you can work on these skills as you progress on your advocacy journey. Our partner Informed Opinions offers a Learning Hub of resources to help you write compelling commentary, present with impact and learn to say yes to media interviews.