Personal Advocacy Reflection

I worked with someone named Katie a few years back. She worked for my regional Resource & Referral Agency. She understood my passion for the early childhood years but also understood that I could rarely speak about my opinions. I work in state government and there are strict rules about giving an opinion on a topic because I would be speaking on behalf of state government. When she and I would get together, we could talk for hours about early childhood education, and private child care specifically. I knew how busy she was, but she always took time out to listen to my suggestions. We talked about the latest research and how we wished we could get our communities to understand that research. She was not only advocating for early childhood education, but by giving me her time and attention, she was advocating for me. She was giving me an outlet to talk about issues that I was passionate about. She listened to me talk about all those things that I wished I could talk in public about. Her compassion and time truly impacted my work, and still does today.