At a school event last night, a parent handed out a flyer wanting to know if anybody would be interested in volunteering in school. Like many parents, I used to mistake volunteering for advocacy, then later found out they were different things. When not sure about the differences between the two, I turned to the Internet and found the definitions from Wikipedia are more descriptive than many dictionaries:
"Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws, and budgets by using facts, their relationships, the media, and messaging to educate government officials and the public."
"Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster."
In short, advocacy is about educating government officials and the public to influence their decision-making, while volunteering focuses on task fulfillment and getting the work done.
Being in public school for 8 years, I realized that 99% of the time parents volunteer rather than advocate.
Volunteering matters, but if that's the only thing we do, who do we expect to advocate for our children?
