Introducing Girls to Advocacy: Reflections from a Mentor
By: Vanessa Beltran
The inaugural class of high school girls from Austin, San Antonio, and Houston were hired as Spark Change Project Facilitators for the 2020-2021 school year to introduce them to advocacy. This team of girls were mentored as part of the Spark Change Project, a collaborative project of the Excellence & Advancement Foundation and Girls Empowerment Network. Girls began with a Spark Change Town Hall, continued with a Girl Advocacy 101 virtual event Spark Change Day, gave testimony at the Texas Capitol, and finished with Spark Change Day Camp.
When the Spark Change Project Peer Facilitators walked into auditorium at the Capitol to provide testimony for the House Committee on Public Education, the energy in the room noticeably shifted. The Representatives watched the girls take their seats with great interest, and curiosity. Though the Committee hears dozens of bills that directly affect the lives and well-being of K-12 students all session, the youth voice is often absent.
Dhiya, Alison, and Aryana – three Peer Facilitators, from three cities across Texas – had each been researching policy issues that affect their communities. They followed the Committee’s schedule closely, ready to respond when bills related to topics ranging from mental health, school discipline, and sex education would be heard. Sitting in the auditorium, in between listening to others’ testimonies, they’d read their own and run through it (again) in hushed tones. At the podium, their passion and confidence shined bright.
Watching them, I couldn’t help but smile. Their testimonies were a breathtaking display of the learning and growth they had experienced throughout the course of the Spark Change Project. As the Peer Facilitators have demonstrated, when equipped with the tools to lead, girls WILL use their activist voice to inspire and mobilize communities toward a more equitable and just society for all. Introducing girls to advocacy is not easy, but necessary.
“Who can advocate?”
Spark Change Day, a virtual event that introduces the power of advocacy to youth in grades 6-12, began with the Peer Facilitators leading an interactive training called Advocacy 101. Some of the first questions they posed were “Who can advocate? Who is impacted by advocacy?” When the Peer Facilitators began their own training, these were among the first questions posed to them.
To help girls begin to understand the institutions, policies, and social dynamics that structure our society, we asked them to start with themselves – their identities, their communities, their deeply held desire to make a positive contribution to the world.
We discussed, and developed a common language for, the nuances of our intersectional, social identities. That critical self-awareness allowed us to then explore the communities we are a part of and the notion of embodiment, the stories our bodies tell about the conditions of our existence.
Public policy, the way our society distributes money, power, and resources at every level, thus has a material impact on a girl’s ecosystem. Looking at our schools, neighborhoods, cities, and state, we could begin to see how the circumstances in which we are born, grow, learn, and age are shaped by these systemic forces.
The issues the Peer Facilitators identified in the communities, ranging from the need for suicide prevention to the school-to-prison pipeline, are socially patterned, falling along familiar lines of race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
At Spark Change Day, one of our Peer Facilitators stated, “A big part of advocacy is believing what you are advocating for.” As they began to see and articulate their WHY, we focused on giving them tools for HOW to advocate.
"WHAT is impactful advocacy?”
During the Advocacy 101 training, the Peer Facilitators discussed the main steps of advocacy to give participants a roadmap for how to engage with the issues they care about:
identify a cause,
decide on a mission,
develop a plan,
take action.
At the Town Hall Event the Peer Facilitators hosted in March and on the registration form for Spark Change Day, we collected participant responses regarding issues girls identified in their communities to develop a policy agenda.
Content matter experts on Mental Health, Homelessness, the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Environmental Justice, Bodily Autonomy/Healthy Relationships, Racial Justice, and LGBTQIA+ Equity attended Spark Change Day to provide an overview of the issues and the opportunities for involvement.
Each of the Peer Facilitators, who had researched these topics all semester, created a fact sheet and outlined relevant policies in those areas using approachable language. By making the information on the issues and policy analysis accessible, the Peer Facilitators empowered Spark Change Day participants with the tools to succeed. They each led small groups through a call to action, ending the day with a concrete plan for how participants would engage in impactful advocacy.
“Impactful advocacy is strategic, draws attention, and builds awareness around the voices of those being advocated for.” By Aryana Mosaffa, Spark Change Facilitator
In the 87th Texas Legislature, the Peer Facilitators used the knowledge they gained about their issues to take action! Sitting together over Zoom, reading and re-reading the language of the bill, finding data to support their claims, and painstakingly editing each line of testimony, helped them feel confident as they approached the mic. However, it was their personal connection and lived experience that drew the attention of the Legislators and helped build awareness around the issues that affect girls. Through their participation at the Legislature, the Peer Facilitators gained insight into how the Texas government works and, in turn, galvanize a wider network of their peers to get involved.
Looking Ahead
To end Spark Change Day, the Peer Facilitators discussed self-care and how to avoid burnout. Making the world a better place is, after all, a life’s work. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Looking ahead, the Peer Facilitators contemplate how to remain engaged in a sustainable way. Whether it is an op-ed to promote restorative justice practices or an open letter to the school board to provide a student’s perspective on school policy, or even public testimony at the next legislative session, the Peer Facilitators have a wide range of tools at their disposal.
Learning to advocate for themselves and their community is a practice to develop each girl’s self-efficacy and promote good mental health, building resilience in the face of challenges girls confront in their daily lives. By introducing girls to advocacy, we also equip them to confront the issues that most affect them and their communities.
Learn more about the Spark Change Project, a collaborative project of the Excellence & Advancement Foundation and Girls Empowerment Network. The project’s mission is to center girls of color as leaders in advocacy, who discover their activist voices, and galvanize their peers to engage in their own passions for positive social change.
Vanessa Beltran, MPH, RDN, LD, is the mental health policy fellow for Girls Empowerment Network where she sets the agency’s policy priorities and equips girls with essential advocacy skills to improve girls’ mental health and wellbeing. She also serves on the leadership team and as a mentor to high school girls participating in the Spark Change Project.