ADVANCING THE INTERESTS OF OUR PROFESSION

Professional identity varies greatly within our profession. When one drills down to what each professional does, we quickly discover that each and every professional is unique and each has his/her own particular identity.  We need to recognize and respect the professional diversity amongst those who have chosen to be public policy advocates and strive to represent the diverse interests that make up this unique and dynamic profession.

It is our belief that we should not merely try to get along, we need to find ways to be mutually supportive of one another. Mutual support, however, means hard work and time spent discussing issues and being willing to develop a common ground. To achieve the greatest success on behalf of the profession we all need to focus on the needs of clients of public policy advocacy services and collectively find ways to assure clients and the general public that public policy advocacy is valuable and is beneficial. If clients are convinced that “it” works, there will not be a sufficient supply of public policy advocates to meet the demand for services. If we can all work together to be successful in this effort, everyone wins and consequently every public policy advocate wins, along with clients who feel they have been helped.

If you examine your own efforts and those of your close colleagues, how are you helping move the profession forward? Advancing one’s profession is part of what it means to be a good professional, isn’t it? We all should do it by how we practice our craft, but we must also do it in other ways, by: presenting sessions at conferences, posting ideas and insights on web site discussion boards, mentoring younger professionals, sharing our knowledge in newsletter and magazine articles, engaging in informal dialogue with peers, sharing content online, engaging in relevant research. Without publishing or in other ways sharing what we are learning from our practice, the growth of our profession, those we serve, and ultimately ourselves as professionals, will perish.

So many gifted individuals dutifully practice their craft each day, but their knowledge and insights remain accessible to only those in close contact with them. We would be better professionals and our profession would be more robust if more of our colleagues saw contributing to our profession as a greater obligation than they currently do.