I learned a valuable lesson today. When teaching advocacy the audience you are trying to reach must have enough perspective to see their reality against a more idealized version. This critical perspective is necessary for any appropriate judgment of their food system landscape and deeming it worthy of them or not. Thus, an activity to illustrate how great our health can be and a formal process of imagining a better food system. Without this context, they will not understand what systems could exist, and which systems that do exist are failing them. More, they really need to define not only the problem but what failure and success really are.
Advocacy requires a critical criteria in order to mobilize any leadership inertia into real effective action. The strategic planning process must begin with a strong assertion of intention (this requires clarity). The strategic planning process is key to the development of an advocate. Their thinking must be at once sincere and innocent, while simultaneously strategic.
Connecting the policy to the community opinion and their personal experiences will open their minds to potential actions that could potentially change their lives and their communities' life.
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