Creating Change: Lessons, Skills and Advice

Lessons learned

You will have a very difficult time if you think you can dramatically change a society. You can influence and help individuals make decisions for change. Each community, institution or family must ultimately work things out for themselves.

Serve your term or finish your project and move on so that someone else has the chance to take the leadership role and use their gifts.

Sometimes it is necessary to speak up directly in front of others: refusing to take the responsibility to confront difficult or problematic situations may result in even further trouble down the road.

As Anne Bell explained to me once, my most effective role in community activism is to be an encourager to whomever in what they want to do.

Key skills needed

• Education
• Good communication skills.
• Being part of the group or community; not being the only one who knows how a task should be done.
• A sense of fun and enjoyment of life.

Advice to younger women

• You will need support from your family, your partner and your friends.
• Know your own strengths, know your limits, and know your gifts.
• Know how to encourage the gifts of others.
• Throw yourself into your local community, especially if you are a newcomer. Enjoy its many activities and networks; you won’t survive happily in the community otherwise.
• Help women look for their own ways to develop their own gifts and goals.