Reflecting on a Decade of Advocacy

By Caterina Giorgi

When Maik asked me to draft an article on my decade working at the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), I wasn’t quite sure how to approach it. At first, I thought I should share some insights into tactics that were effective in advocating for change. But this didn’t quite sit right, and it felt like I was missing the biggest and most important parts of the roles that I have been fortunate enough to hold at FARE.

I’ve continued to reflect on this, and it has been more than a year since I left the organisation. I am only now just putting pen to paper. Over this time, I’ve taken a big step back and considered what I really learned.

Here are three reflections. I hope they are useful for people who work to drive change that aims to keep children, families and communities healthy, safe and well. I am forever grateful to be part of a community of people and organisations who advocate every day in the hope that it will make things better.

1. Be Clear on the People We Are Here to Serve and Connect with Them Often

Advocacy roles can often have us sitting in rooms far away from the people we serve. When we’re in meetings in government offices, appearing before Parliamentary Inquiries and speaking to the media, it can feel like this is a bigger part of the role than it should be. But this isn’t the core work.

The core work is connecting with, being guided by and elevating the voices and experiences of people who have experienced alcohol harm in its many forms.

This doesn’t happen by accident. It happens by design:

It involves establishing roles within organisations for people who have lived experience and providing the scaffolding around them so that they can succeed in these roles.

It involves being respectful of people’s experiences and stories, and asking when and how they are comfortable sharing their experience and the changes they want to see.

It involves being led by people with lived experience in developing policies.

It involves listening to people who call to share that they’ve lost a loved one to alcohol.

It’s about making a conscious decision that you will be accountable to the people whom the organisation exists to serve. This is important because we need to be sure that what we are advocating for will make a difference to people’s lives. 

What we do isn’t just words on a page, or meetings or conversations – it’s walking together in the hope that it will drive change.

2. Tell a Clear Story of What People Are Experiencing and How Corporations Are Driving Harm for Profit

Alcohol corporations have been successful in pushing a narrative of ‘individual responsibility’. In Australia, they even put the phrase ‘drink responsibly’ on almost every bottle and can. This is designed to shift responsibility away from themselves as the corporations that actively work to drive harm.

In my time at FARE, I saw alcohol companies fight communities so they could build alcohol megastores in areas where they were unwanted. I saw alcohol companies actively lobby to delay reforms that would help reduce and prevent violence against women and children. I saw alcohol companies intimidate advocates and public servants into inaction.

Alcohol is sold everywhere, is heavily promoted and often discounted. With the emergence of digital media, alcohol and social media companies use data collected online about us to sell alcohol at times when we are most vulnerable. They do this even more for people who have alcohol use disorders.

If there are three key messages we need to communicate, they are:

1. We want our children, families and communities to be healthy and well.
2. This is difficult in an environment where corporations are exploiting people’s vulnerabilities and undermining policy change that would prevent illness, violence and deaths.
3. We need governments to introduce common sense measures and guard rails to help keep people healthy and safe.

This makes clear that the responsibility to change lies with alcohol companies, and the responsibility to put in place guard rails to keep people healthy, safe and well sits with governments. We need action so that the cards aren’t stacked against people who are trying to cut back or avoid alcohol, or trying to keep themselves or their children safe.

3. Build Strong Relationships Across Movements Because Change Cannot Happen in Isolation

I realised early on that my main role was to build hope and be part of a diverse movement of people who are driving change. I would often be asked if I really thought governments would drive change in a space where there are so many vested interests. My answer would always be that I absolutely believed governments would do the right thing. I had to believe this, and I still do. Without hope there is no movement. As people working in organisations, we need to maintain this hope to drive change, even though at times, it can be hard.

Another thing that is absolutely apparent is that change doesn’t happen in isolation. No one person or organisation can drive change alone. We need to work together, within movements, across sectors and beyond. The relationships and trust built between people are important for sharing ideas and insights and for keeping the momentum going.

We can spend a lot of time critiquing where we are and criticising each other if we want to. Or we can see what we have in common and use our shared power to drive change. I’ll be forever grateful to the people who trusted me with their stories, intel, information, data and more, in the hope that it would help, even just a little, to make things better for people.

About Our Guest Expert

Caterina Giorgi is the former CEO of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), Australia’s leading independent organisation working to prevent alcohol harm.

She is a public health advocate and has worked in alcohol policy for over a decade, including as FARE’s Director of Policy and Research.

Caterina is known for centring the voices of people with lived experience and for holding the alcohol industry to account.

Caterina is a Founder and Partner at For Purpose and you can follow her on LinkedIn.