Advocacy, Asylum Seekers, Refugees and the Language we Use

Todays' show was a revisit to an earlier show I did with Mount St Benedict students Future Problem Solving Team talking about the language used around Asylum Seekers and Refugees. Since seeing them they have been interviewed by UN Youth, they have presented their projected at the Beecroft Forum Dinner where they met Matt Tinkler CEO of Save the Children and Ben Doherty from the Guardian. They have so much to share and this interview gives a snapshot of their infectious passion. How do they keep their passion and do they have a self care routine to support themselves to maintain their dedication to advocacy?

Our topic is all about the media and politicians and how their language is manipulating the Australian public, so we didn't want to manipulate people by saying you can't say these words, we just wanted to give them our information and let them choose their own opinions.

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Self Care in Advocacy

How you set yourself up for your day to say so that you can have the stamina to be an advocate?

• Sleep - how to let go of the day before you go to sleep so your body an recharge
• How, when and what to eat to support yourself to have a clear thought process
• How to work as a team and get support when you hear things that upset you. 
• How to debrief with a counsellor, mentor, family.
• How to cope when people disagree with you​

Key messages and tips:

• Know who you are and why you are doing what you are doing
• Make sure it is not for recognition or acceptance - because if you need them to agree with you, you might be devastated when they disagree - it is very hard to let people have their own opinions when you need their approval or agreement.

How to bring understanding when people have differences of opinion:
​Not everyone has the level of understanding on the subject you have. Everyone has different influences and backgrounds and
​there are a lot of factors that contribute to their opinions.

Resources

Julian Burnside article - What Sort of Country Are We?
Sarah's article on their Mind Your Language in Spineout
Join the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai Womens Shelter Coffee Crew
Streetwork and Glam and Grunge http://www.streetwork.org.au/our-services/
KYDS have a number of talks - Online Gaming is next up with Dr Philip Tam 
John Lee Scholarship Program - offered to students of the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai area 
​TripleH Gold Challenge - 18 holes of Golf and help support your local community radio station
TripleH fm John Lee Scholarship Program

With thanks to...

As ever, enormous thanks go to Triple H Fm for use of their airwaves for the live broadcast of this show, to the World Champion Future Problem Solving Team from Mount St Benedict College for being my guests and to Glorious Music for the use of their music in my show and podcast.