I had the opportunity yesterday to sit down with Bret Wells and Robert Bishop from the Missional Wisdom Foundation. It was a great conversation overall, but the part where I learned the most had to do with the question "Why do people not get involved?"
This is a problem that ministers, organizers, and politicians all face constantly. Ministers wonder why people don't show up to events outside of Sundays and Wednesdays. Organizers wonder why people who come to meetings don't show up to knock on doors. Politicians (the good ones, of which there are many) wonder why people don't show up to town halls, board meetings, or lobby days.
Bret showed me a framework like the one below. You might be familiar with it, but it was new to me:
The idea here is that the reasons why people don't get involved can be broken down into two main buckets: motivation and ability.
These barriers can be personal, social, or structural. A structural ability barrier would be something like lack of reliable internet. A personal motivation barrier would be individuals' inability to see the value in the activity.
Social motivation interests me. If people lack social circles, in which they are invested, that support taking part in certain activities, then people are much less likely to take part in those activities. This is a "duh" moment for me. This is one of the reasons why we have cliques and "scenes" that hang out in different parts of town, take part in different activities, and generally don't interact with one another. I could be a yuppie who also has an interest in goth-type activities, but since my main social circle is comprised of yuppies, I'm probably not going to go to a goth club.
This is also the reason why young professional groups with a strong socializing component are important for the social justice movement. If young people don't have friends that support their social justice work, they are much less likely to do that work. Young people are particularly needed in this work, but often underrepresented.
Many of us who work in social justice have a level of disdain for including socializing in our programs. There is a limited amount of time, and what seems like an unlimited amount of work to do. We feel the need to use every second to do what we view as the vital work of justice.
In reality, part of that work is to create social groups that value social justice work. If we don't, many talented people will fall between the cracks because they don't feel socially supported to do the work. This is why groups like OFA and PICO make sure to lift up the role of "comfort captain" (aka food provider) as equal to phone bank or canvass captains.
So before you pick up the phone or start printing that walk packet, think about planning a potluck or bar crawl.