Computer screen listing skills in programming language

How to Start in Activism: What are Your Gifts?

Tags: activism, effectiveness, gifts, skill

Author
Recent Posts

Follow Me

The Activist for Activists. Author of Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism and The Happy Activist: Journey the 5-Step Activism Path to Focus Your Passion and Change the World. Teacher, Psychologist, Environmental Activist, Animal Lover.

Follow Me

How to Start in Activism: What are Your Gifts?

Identifying your gifts is the second step in getting started in activism. So after you have found your passion, the change you want to see in the world, take time to identify your skills.

Inventory Your Gifts

Activist Randy Schutt created a comprehensive assessment tool called the Activist Skills and Experiences Questionnaire for activists to inventory their skills and experiences. In fact, activism organizations use this assessment to understand what a volunteer has done in the past so that they can get them started using their skills in the work.

But even if you have little experience using the activism skills, don’t worry.

Apply your Gifts to Activism

Go through the list and ask yourself if you have performed these skills in other areas of your life.

You cooked Thanksgiving dinner for your extended family. Organizing a community meeting should be a breeze.
If you can mobilize a group to stop a change of zoning in your town, then you can organize a boycott.
You enjoy going door to door to ask neighbors to donate to the March of Dimes. That is the same skill you need to canvass for a political candidate.
If you can instruct someone on how to operate the copy machine, then you can teach someone how to keep membership records.

You can transfer many of the skills on the questionnaire to other areas of your life. But don’t discount the skills you have already, even if you developed them in situations unlike activism. What do people say you do well? What are you the go-to person for? Add a dash of knowledge specific to your cause, and you are ready. So shrug off those doubts and start showing what you offer to make a change.

[Did you find my blog a helpful tool? Feel free to share on social media using the share buttons on the right.]

In my book The Happy Activist (formerly What’s on Your Sign), I offer tools to focus your passion, pinpoint your gifts, and find the right activism opportunity. As the Sufi Mystic poet Rumi says, “now is not the time to stay home.” Open the door, step out, and start the challenging work of making change.

Learn more about Getting Started in Activism.