Is Advocacy Your Side Gig or Career?
I have found such a great way to make a little change from speaking and writing about my health condition. At first, I felt bad making money off of my story, but I realized my story is worth being told, and I am worth being paid to tell it.
If you are making money from your advocacy, How many of you felt weird at first but now are ready, willing, and able to make money for your advocacy?
Honestly, the thought never occurred to me to feel bad about earning money due to advocacy regarding my illnesses. The pain has been so great, it's about time someone paid me for it, lol!
I felt the same way at first. It felt weird to make money from something that came from pain, survival, and two years in hospice!
But my mentors kept telling me to stop feeling guilty and ask for reimbursement. Doctors and experts get paid for their expertise, and patients should too. Our knowledge matters just as much we’re the missing piece.
So if I’m giving my time, my heart, and my lived experience to make things better, then yes I’m 100% okay getting paid for it. We deserve that., I likethat - "the missing piece" - so true because the professionals so often forget about the human side of the technical things they deal with every day. - Warmly, Donna (Team Member)
I’ve participated in a couple volunteer advocacy opportunities. My first paid job is next month. I don’t feel bad to make money from my story but it does feel weird. I talk and give my perspective on things all day, and now someone is paying me to do it?? Someone paying to hear me talk about myself is weird. Similarly, I understand that my story is important and it brings value to the community.
It was my career finale, in that in my last decade or so, I was a Long Term Care Ombudsman & Ombudsman Program Director for an ASAP- elder services agency- covering a region of my state. Now retired, I wamt to make it a "side gig", not as a volunteer but paid, to supplement my Social Security, AND to put what I have learned through the years to good use. But, I don't quite know how.
