Advocacy Monday: Closing the Awareness Gap

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As you know, F.E.A.S.T. is honoured to be partnering with EDC and others for the inaugural Mothers and Others March Against Eating Disorders on September 30, 2014.

Advocacy can be intimidating.  I am never quite sure I am doing it 'right'.....or even, what it is I am supposed to be doing.  Influencing public policy and resource allocation decisions seems somehow daunting.....so I don't think about it like that. I start smaller: I think about closing the awareness gap.  I think about all I didn't know about eating disorders before our fated diagnosis;  I think about how 'wrong' I had it before our fated diagnosis......and then I think about what I know now.  That is where I begin my advocacy.

What we know is tremendous and the gap between what we know and what needs to be known by legislators (and the general public) is real and frustrating.   Parents and caregivers are in a unique position to identify changes needed simply by showing  up and telling our stories. In each of our stories there are lessons.  

Participating in the March and Lobby Day is an opportunity to close the awareness gap.




Links:
 #MarchAgainstED-  Updates on March Information and Activity will be posted weekly.
A Parent's experience of Lobby Day
A little perspective on how the treatment landscape has changed over the last 40+ years.  Caregivers are now part of the equation in ways we have not been in the past.
 A 'Tipping Point' takeaway:  Messages spread like viruses and operate on the '80/20" principle; whereby in any given situation roughly 80% of 'message spreading' work is done by 20% of the participants.  We can be agents of change.

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