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Remember to respond to two peers while being respectful of and sensitive to their viewpoints. Consider advancing the discussion in the following ways:

· Post an article, video, or visual to reinforce a peer's idea or challenge them to see their point from a different perspective.

· Engage in conversation with your peers around the concept of advocacy and social transformation. Consider asking a question or sharing your personal experience.

All sources and ideas requiring attribution must be cited according to APA style.

To complete this assignment, review the Psychology Undergraduate Discussion Rubric. You will also need:

· Programmatic Themes PDF

· Norms of Practice for Online Discussion PDF

· Ethical Usage Practices PDF

PEER1-MP

Advocacy is speaking for those who do not have a voice or the resources to have their voices heard. This is relevant to social change because there are new people who need to be spoken for every day, such as unborn babies, women, men, children, and those who feel they are disenfranchised. An agency does business between two parties, for those who want to be an agent of change one must realize it is not about the agent, but about those who we are representing.

· What aspects of your personality or lived experience inspire the advocate in you?

· I think seeing so many youths group up in single-parent households as I was a child has given me more insight to things, I would not have noticed my own. Alot of children in single parent households grew up with father issues and a lack of identity even though there was an abundance of love. Certain aspects of my personality which inspire my inner advocate would be my charisma and transparency. I am willing to speak on the truth and make it relatable to anyone but being authenticate enough to where people feel comfortable to let their hair down around me. When your able to combine these two personality traits together one should be able to advocate for a lot of people.

· Describe why you believe resilience and coping skills are critical to the success of an advocate.

· Resilience and coping skills are important because in life there will be setbacks that will either deter you or strengthen ones resolve. Most of the times setbacks or disappointments come in groups. It is never one thing at a time it is multiple things happening in the same day, week, month, or year. Oddly enough it happens right after a great high or culminating experience. The proper skills one should bounce back and continue to fight on with the advocates in mind. When advocating for something else you are often encouraged to never give up, when all other circumstance tell you otherwise. Continuing the work and fight of an advocate is what makes one successful.

· Describe one simple way that you could advocate for a social cause in your workplace, group, or community that would not require significant time, energy, or resources.

· Honestly, I do not believe you can advocate for any social cause without little time, energy, or resources. However, the easiest to advocate for a social cause is through social media. You can find articles, videos, pictures, or create content yourself to bring awareness to any social cause. Most social avenues are free and can grant you global access that traditional means cannot.

· Describe how advocacy and social transformation connect to one of the following programmatic themes:

· Social justice is a catalyst for advocacy. You cannot have social justice unless there is someone or a group of people to speak and champion for. Unfortunately, some advocacy is done for personal gain rather than for the benefit of the advocates. For social transformation to take place social must be able to bring light to injustices that have taken place. Transformation takes place when either the system, person, place, or thing is defective, inoperable, or has deviated from its true purpose for its existence.

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PEER2-DG

In your own words, define advocacy and describe its relevance to social change agencies. 

The definition of advocacy can vary per person, but in all cases, advocacy is being that voice and that cause that allows people to bring awareness to something that may be important to them. The relevance to social change is the fact that to stand for something and want to bring awareness to it is required for us to be that voice for others, those who may feel that they do not have the rights or the ability to use their voice. “Advocacy is the act of supporting, defending, or arguing for a specific cause or issue. The purpose of advocacy is to bring about change, whether that is accomplished through raising public awareness, increasing support, or influencing policy for a certain issue (Lobbyist4Good, 2022, par.1).” There are often places where people do not feel their voice matters, or do not have that confidence within to speak up, and it is important for those who are secure, and ready to use their voice for them to do so. 

 

What aspects of your personality or lived experience inspire the advocate in you? 

Thinking back to the Big Five personalities traits that I was tested on in a previous class I realize that the things that I lacked the most, once I learned to love them about myself, I wanted to advocate for them more. “The Big Five personality traits are extraversion (also often spelled extroversion), agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism (Lim,2020, par.1).” I believe that the traits in myself that I would lack, I would want to learn more about to be able to educate, rally, and advocate for others who may still be trying to find out more about themselves. Situations, events, and different struggles we face in life make up who we are. When we feel strongly about something it can be turned into a passion. Once passion was sparked within me, I have always wanted to be that voice or that person to speak up. Things I had to face in life were able to prepare me and allowed me to learn. That gave me the ability to be shown glimpses of myself being able to come out stronger to be able to be that one person who was the one who spoke up and spoke about the uncomfortable conversations. 

Describe why you believe resilience and coping skills are critical to the success of an advocate. 

Resilience is something that we must be able to grow and is only taught by occurrences and situations that change us and allow us to be faced with situations we must figure out on our own. “Resilience is the two interacting factors of 1) preventive resistance (immunity), and 2) reactive resilience (the ability to rebound from adversity). It is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It also means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences (Hoplitersilence, 2022, par.3).” It is important to have thick tough skin in this world, while kindness is everything people and life can not only be hard but cruel. Knowing how to fight your way through and hold your head up after a tough battle or life experience is important. The saying “what does not kill you makes you stronger” is such an overplay, and cliché saying and while being strong is not something we always have to be it is important to know how to carry yourself and how to stand up again after being knock down. Life is bound to happen, and we must be able to stand up after the lessons are being taught.   

Describe one simple way that you could advocate for a social cause in your workplace, group, or community that would not require significant time, energy, or resources. 

You will be available for the things that you want, and if you want to bring awareness it will require you to create time to accomplish those things. You can be proactive gradually and how you show up overtime can change. You may find yourself only being able to show up for time. A way that I could advocate for a social cause in either the workplace, group, or community that will not feel as if it requires significant energy, time or resources would be to take on small tasks or start small. Do not take on a lot at one time when you are starting out. When you take on a lot you feel as if you are overwhelmed or even as if you are doing too much and burn out may occur. You can be extremely passionate about something, and ready to pour yourself into something and go to hard in the beginning where you no longer have the energy to pour yourself into it. Find ways to just get active, find significant things your community may have weekly, monthly, or annually and just schedule an hour out of your day, speak up at the events or mingle with likeminded people, also word of mouth. You may not have access to a lot but surrounding yourself with the right people, who are knowledgeable and active in your passion that you would like advocate for. 

Describe how advocacy and social transformation connect to one of the following programmatic themes: 

Advocacy and social transformation connect to the following programmatic themes of social justice, career connections, and ethics. ““Social justice encompasses economic justice. Social justice is the virtue which guides us in creating those organized human interactions we call institutions. In turn, social institutions, when justly organized, provide us with access to what is good for the person, both individually and in our associations with others. Social justice plays a huge role in advocacy since to gain social justice we need people who are willing to speak up, advocate, and be willing to be the voice for others, for what is right and for what you believe in.  

 

Resources Cited:  

(2022). Retrieved 20 July 2022, from https://www.lobbyists4good.org/advocacy. 

 

Simplypsychology.org. (2022). Retrieved 20 July 2022, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/big-five-personality.html. 

 

Resilience — Hoplite Resilience Center. Hoplite Resilience Center. (2022). Retrieved 20 July 2022, from https://www.hopliteresilience.org/resilience?gclid=CjwKCAjwrNmWBhA4EiwAHbjEQHdUQaoHGJK2MDl0cpBLypAw23o4LwaaJmMoRMWIyiSmZ5qy2zCggRoCXQgQAvD_BwE. 

 

What is Social Justice? - San Diego Foundation. San Diego Foundation. (2022). Retrieved 20 July 2022, from https://www.sdfoundation.org/news-events/sdf-news/what-is-social-justice/.