Are you ready to help build the Roadmap to Advocate Wellness?
We are! Before we build the roadmap, we need to tell you a bit about the state of domestic and sexual violence advocacy.
Sexual and domestic violence advocates and leadership are not OK.
RAFT is hearing about challenges with turnover, low staffing (50% or lower), new hires leaving after only a few days or weeks, low pay, vicarious trauma, toxic work culture, and challenges with a feeling of “us vs them” in organizations.
The last few years have only increased the stress and anxiety advocates are experiencing. This struggle with physical and mental well-being is impacting advocates' work, families, friends, values, and their personal identity as people who care and want to help others.
Since 2015 supporters like you have helped RAFT teach, as well as speak with and listen to hundreds of advocates about the challenges they are facing and the easement that they need. Through outreach calls, workshops, monthly advocate support calls and, leadership calls, and one-on-one support RAFT gets to talk to hundreds of advocates.
And, still, RAFT can do so much more. With your help we need to answer an important question:
How do we take support of SV/DV advocates, leaders, and organizations to the next level?
RAFT's team is brainstorming strategic ideas, but we want to listen to more advocates experiences and stories to shape the most impactful approach. We can only conduct this important additional research in one measured swoop with your help.
This is why RAFT has created the Road to Advocate Wellness Survey, which will allow us (and you through ongoing updates) to hear from hundreds of advocates about what is happening, what has changed, and what support they are looking for to move forward with sexual and domestic violence advocacy as a viable and healthy long-term career.
Key insights from our advocates will empower RAFT to launch into 2023 and beyond with programs that provide advocates with the support they actually need. Whether advocates tell us they need more personal support, help with low staffing and turnover, communication, or organizational change, RAFT is going to explore solutions and figure out how to provide that support.
Feedback from advocates will inform RAFT's expansion of support, contribute to growing research on advocate wellness, and expand our free online resource library.
How can YOU help?
With your financial contribution, we want to compensate advocate respondents for their time, and additionally improve the quality and depth of their responses. We are not asking advocates to take this survey for free. They are too often doing important, caring work without proper compensation, and RAFT values their time and energy so much, that we will compensate each advocate with $25 for the 15-30 minutes of time they spend responding to the survey.
This is where you come in. RAFT has the budget to reach the first 200 advocates with the survey, but we don’t want to stop there. Our first goal, with your help, is to raise another $2500 and reach 100 more advocates. We say “first goal” because the pilot launch of the Roadmap to Advocate Wellness Survey was so successful in such a short period of time 53 respondents in just 7 days); we anticipate that hundreds of advocates will want to take this survey now that it is publicly available.
Every gift you give will go directly to an advocate respondent in the amount of $25, and thanking them for their time and their ongoing work with survivors. No matter the amount you can give, you will be helping RAFT gather vital data about domestic and sexual violence advocates. Data that will help RAFT (and possibly other organizations) better understand the challenges advocates are facing, so that we can provide programs that will directly impact advocates' lives and the organizations they work for.