Why Does Your Voice Matter?
I am currently an ARCHE (Allies for Reaching Communities Health Equity) Fellow with Center for Global Policy Solutions and The OpEd Project.
As part of the fellowship, we have been working on developing our public voices and thought leadership by writing and placing op-eds. By raising our voices together, we are rewriting the story of the world we live in, a world where health and social justice are within the reach of everyone.
The lessons learned from the ARCHE/OpEd Project fellowship can be applied by anyone looking to develop their public voice. The first step is asking why your voice matters.
Why do you do what you do?
Here are some answers from my cohort:
For me, the fellowship really helped me gain more confidence in speaking up about things. Our mentors and teachers Mary, Michelle, Becca, Katie, and Raquel (pictured below), explained to us that being an “expert” is to be the go-to person in a room. They challenged us to sharpen and defend our arguments, pitch our stories, hijack the news cycle, and deflect and shine when haters and trolls try to shut us down.
Write to change your world
The OpEd Project offers day-long training courses across the US that are open to the public. They offer need-based scholarships to make the courses accessible.
They accelerate the ideas and impact of underrepresented thought leaders, including women. They target original thinkers of all stripes — scholars, entrepreneurs, activists, executives, writers, movers and shakers.
They are currently leading a series of “Write to Change the World” workshops across the country, and I highly encourage you to join the next one near you. The day-long workshop is interactive, electric, rooted in transformational learning and designed to produce concrete results. It is also part of a larger mission to ensure we all have a chance to shape history, which is especially important right now.
I have found The OpEd Project experience to be very powerful, and I think you would too. Info on their upcoming workshops is here.
Ultimately, The OpEd Project for me was about much more than writing op-eds. It was about finding ways to connect my knowledge and expertise with others in my community and beyond. It was about finding the confidence to put my hunches out there, and choosing connection over perfection.
