By Ellie Langford Parks

Salt Spring has a wealth of passionate citizens who care about conditions beyond their immediate family and community. You might call this activism, social change, community service or involvement, volunteering, charity work, being a good citizen — whatever you call it, there’s a lot of it happening on Salt Spring.

There are 23,000 non-profit organizations in B.C., with 1.5 million people volunteering and with total revenues of about $11 billion. On island we have over 200 non-profit groups focussing on myriad issues. They raise awareness or dollars for AIDS/HIV, the environment degradation, climate change, anti war, peace, homelessness, GMO foods. These and many more issues are being addressed by local efforts. Social movements are made up of many individuals and organizations that believe in the same overall goal. These individuals and organizations have a diverse range of methods and strategies to achieve their goals.

The Midwest Academy outlines five methods of organizing for social change: direct service, education, self help, advocacy and direct action. To understand the different approaches, imagine a community with a number of homeless people. A person or group might arrange so that churches allow homeless people to sleep in their buildings, that is a service method. Another method is to research the causes of homelessness or what other communities are doing to deal with homelessness and letting others know, that’s education.

If there were workshops or support groups for homeless people on how to get a job or find housing, that’s self help.

If you lobbied elected officials to open shelters or for a guaranteed annual income, that’s advocacy.

If the people affected got organized and they themselves decided what they wanted and worked towards it collectively, that is a direct action approach. All strategies are legitimate and useful, yet it is important to analysis your issue and the current context to decide which tactic to use when.

While there are many ways to categorize social change efforts, broadly there are two different approaches, charity and social justice. Charity collects from those that have and redistributes to those that don’t have. Looking at the issue of poverty and hunger, food banks are classic examples of the charity approach. The social justice approach is more human-rights-based and focuses on structural change, which is changing the conditions that result in the need for food banks. Community gardens and collective bulk buying groups, even skills upgrading, employment counselling or advocacy on welfare rates would be a social justice response to poverty.

How you frame the issue shapes the solutions you choose. A charity model view might say people are lacking food, so we will provide food. The social justice view looks at what are the conditions that cause them to not have enough food. These conditions might be addiction, mental health concerns, immigrant settlement barriers, low wages, no work available, skills not suited for the available work or food prices too high.

Charity responses often address emergency needs for food, shelter, health care, and clothing, and the social justice approach is longer term, looking for structural change so the need no longer exists. Both approaches are needed. We should relieve suffering and work for system change.

My work is based on a belief in social justice, beautifully articulated by this quote by an aboriginal activists group in Queensland, Australia, “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

All actions are needed, whatever your method or approach. Continue to contribute to a better world by relieving suffering now and working for systemic change.

The writer works in the adult education and community development field and volunteers locally.