Agency

"When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde

Agency is often defined as the “capacity to act.” This can refer to your ability to make a wide variety of decisions about your own life, to set your own course every day, choosing to take actions that will help you achieve various personal goals. In the context of community work, agency can also be thought of as your ability to effect change on issues you care about. We make judgments about the world around us and take action, especially if we see a gap between how the world is and how we think it should be. One aspect of the Community Engagement Scholars Program is your development as an agent of change and your recognition of the intersection between power and service. Audre Lorde would call this “the ability to use strength in service of vision.”

Agency can also be thought of as one’s self-efficacy; the foundation for human motivation, well-being, and personal accomplishment. A major reason people participate in community work is because they want to have an impact on their communities, and conversely, it can be frustrating and disheartening to be involved in work that doesn’t have results you can see. Indeed, unless people believe that their actions can produce outcomes they desire, they have little incentive to act or to persevere in the face of difficulties. In community work, you are often faced with challenging situations and so it is important to reflect on the things that sustain, motivate, and provide you with a sense of accomplishment and inspire you to continue your work.

Assignment Options Overview

You have four assignment options to choose from to complete your Agency theme. Below is a snapshot of the assignments available to you.

Write a Letter to an Elected Official (This is not an option for UHP Students doing Module One)

Participate in the democratic process by writing to a legislator or other elected official persuading them to take action on a specific policy or issue affecting your work in the community.

Lead a RAP (Reflection, Action, Partnership) Session

Design and facilitate a discussion with other students on an important topic affecting your work in the community. To do so, you will identify an issue, submit a proposal, discuss it with your CESP advisor, then design and facilitate a two-hour RAP session for other Scholars.

Create a Video Documentary

Imagine the change you wish to see in the world and create a short video (3-8 minutes) to present this vision to others. This is an opportunity to be creative and use technology to reach a wider audience in order to educate others and engage them in your vision and your work in the community.

Analyze Your Community Organization’s Agency

Analyze the funding of the organization and how this affects its mission and capacity to act. This will include interviewing a leader in the organization, analyzing the mission statement and funding sources, and writing a critical analysis.

Submission Process:

Upload your reflection to your google drive folder.