Advocating for better and brighter ☀️
Welcome to the July 2022 #SocialImpactComms newsletter. This month, we're talking about all things Advocacy and how that relates to social impact communications.
Dear members and friends of The Channels Network,
A very warm and hearty smile from The Channel’s Newsletter Editor, Tanya, to you. We are super excited and happy to be back in your inbox. The love we have received over the past month since we sent out our June Newsletter has been overwhelming and so personal to all of us, volunteers and readers alike.
With that being said, the past month also hasn’t been easy for many of our Channels family members, especially with the recent news from the US. There’s a lot going around in the world and while we continue to address social change, we at Channels would love to enable meaningful advocacy through the work we do. So this month, we’re talking about advocating for our rights and how we can blend activism with advocacy.
If you are working in advocacy, communications campaigns, or for organisations fighting for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for women and people with uteruses around the world, we would love to feature you and your work. Please email us at thechannelsnetwork@gmail.com and let’s talk about how our platform can help you amplify the impact!
Here’s to forward thinkers and changemakers!
To advocating responsibly,
Tanya K
Introducing: Advocacy
Why is the #SocialImpactComms newsletter talking about advocacy? Well, advocacy and communications can’t exist without one another. If you’re to drive social change through advocacy, you’ll most likely require some communication flair to achieve it.
Here are the basics you should know:
Advocacy is a set of targeted actions directed at decision/opinion-makers in support of a specific policy issue. Advocacy represents the strategies devised, actions taken, and solutions proposed to influence decision-making at the local/state level to create positive change for people and their environment.
Advocacy involves getting those with power to correct a situation. Directed at influencing policy, laws, regulations, programmes, or funding decisions made at the uppermost levels of public or private sector or community.
Advocacy is often done with public-facing campaigns, which seek to demonstrate to decision-makers that members of the public, voters, and consumers are concerned about the issue.
Q&A with Beatrice Mariottini
While we’re on the topic of advocacy this month, we wanted to share some insights from one of our members, Beatrice Mariottini, Advocacy Assistant at AIDOS - Italian Association for Women in Development.
Channels: Hey Beatrice! Can you tell us a bit about your background?
Beatrice: My background is a bit non-conventional in the sense that I studied various disciplines, but the common denominator I’d say is Social Sciences: I studied Linguistic and Cultural Mediation, then International Relations, then I specialised with an MA in Migration and Intercultural Relations and finished with another MA in Gender Studies.
How did you get into advocacy?
Beatrice: Honestly, by chance. I interned with AIDOS first, and after my internship, there was a job opportunity with them in advocacy. They asked me if I’d be interested and I said yes. I had done some advocacy work in the past but it had never been my main focus. Now I'd say that besides helping a bit with projects, I do advocacy 80% of the time.
How are comms and advocacy related?
To quote my boss: ‘you can’t do advocacy if you don’t know how to communicate it’.
Why are you passionate about what you do?
I am passionate about it because I discovered it’s a good way to link the work an NGO does in the field to the “higher level” policymaking. For me, personally, it’s a good blend of the fieldwork and the knowledge acquired with and from beneficiaries, academic knowledge, politics, being good at networking, knowing how to communicate and be persuasive, always being up to date with current policy developments but also what happens in the activism sphere. I like how these different aspects blend together in advocacy.
Channels Meet-Up: 28 July
We're excited to announce that our monthly Channels meet-ups are back, and this July we're inviting Ipsita Divedi, an advocacy professional as well as activist-illustrator (those are her illustrations in the image below!).
During the event, we’ll introduce you to the nexus of advocacy, artivism, and social impact communications. We’ll also do an advocacy and messaging activity, so everyone will walk out of the event with some new ideas and inspiration! 💡
Privacy notice: The event will take place on Zoom so we’ll all get a chance to interact, and parts of it will be recorded and shared on our public LinkedIn profile for those who can’t attend. It's a great opportunity to network with other Channels members. See you there in 1 week!
#ChannelsMemberFeatures: Meet Élodie!
Our Channels Member Features initiative is all about looking out for our talented members and finding ways to support their work! When you see a feature pop up on your LinkedIn feed, make sure to give it a like, a share, or an encouraging comment to the up-and-coming job seeker. Remember that what goes around comes around. 😉
This week, we featured Élodie Mbida, an Influence Communications Consultant. Read more about Élodie here!
Here are some other people we think you should meet:
Maria Topo is Interested in communications & marketing in the area of sustainability and digital innovation. She is also interested in other social impact causes such as refugee protection, women empowerment, and education.
Tanya Kathuria is a do-gooder with almost 4+ years of experience in social impact comms, branding and marketing. She's worked with corporate brands, nonprofits and social impact orgs worldwide. She's always looking for something new to pick her brains with, however REMOTELY!
Evelyn Kandin Geler is a queer, feminist Illustrator and graphic designer. Her work spans different mediums such as illustration, digital, design and advertising.
Want to be featured? Fill out the form below:
*Disclaimer: #ChannelsMemberFeatures are for members only. Learn how to become a member here. Also, please help us out by making your submissions resemble other features we posted.
#SocialImpactComms Jobs
Earlier this week, we posted our 46th #SocialImpactComms job board! 🥳
There are some awesome opportunities we rounded up which have some upcoming 🚨 deadlines 🚨, so don’t delay in applying:
Channels recommends 💙
Here are some things we’ve been enjoying over the past month:
Have you heard of ethical storytelling? “Ethical storytelling is more than just a way of writing, it is a movement and a platform to help nonprofit communicators be more respectful, responsible, and effective when telling other people’s stories.” Check out this blog post from Constructive.
A few months ago we shared a link to participate in the annual European Communication Monitor survey, and now the results are out! The 2022 survey explores diversity and inclusion, empathic leadership, CommTech, consulting in communications, strategic issues and characteristics of excellent communication departments. Find the results here.
Interested in political communication? For all the Portuguese speakers in the group: check out Priscila Minusso’s interview in the podcast ‘Como comunicar política nas redes?’.
Hot tip of the day: Check out this guide on how to use stories to communicate abstract concepts by Charlelie Jourdan on LinkedIn.
The International Media Supports' 2021 annual report, ‘Journalism Against the Odds,’ shares triumphs and challenges, analyses and developments and personal stories from journalists, who, despite the odds, have continued to produce good journalism.
Check out this helpful 15-minute webinar during your lunch break: Developing a Communications Strategy by Sola Abulu (w/ The Comms Avenue).
Ever wondered why communication always needs a human touch? Read this LinkedIn Blog piece on Why Human Centred Communication is The Key To Having Meaningful Conversations.
Are you a human rights defender or leader in the EU? Join the RARE Group cohort 2022-2024 and take action together for civic space and the rule of law in Europe.
Working on sensitive topics? Not sure what term to use, or what current debates are saying? Vox Media recently published Language, Please, a living resource for all journalists and storytellers seeking to thoughtfully cover evolving social, cultural and identity-related issues. “Journalists all too often turn to the few representatives of marginalized communities in their newsroom for the answers on how to talk about Blackness, disability, gender, and more,” wrote Andrew Losowsky on LinkedIn.
Are you sharing cool stuff on social media? Use #SocialImpactComms or tag Channels so we can amplify it! Feel free to send something to thechannelsnetwork@gmail.com for it to be included.
Next month at Channels, we’re talking all about Public Relations! Want to get involved? Reach out at thechannelsnetwork@gmail.com.
Like what we do? Here’s how you can help:
💬 Share The Channels Network substack with your network.
🤝 Join Channels as a member, and let the networking begin!
☕️ Buy us a coffee to keep this operation going. Thank you!
📩 Reach out to thechannelsnetwork@gmail.com to get involved.