I think it’s safe to say a lot of sh*t has happened recently. I mean, bad shit always happens. But over the last year, we’ve been inundated with tragedy, heartbreak and injustice in every way, shape or form. It’s no wonder so many people are struggling with their mental health right now.
And as someone who’s had a lot of mental illness experience, I know how important it is to put your mental health first and step away from things that are triggering you. Having the news on 24 hours a day doesn’t benefit anyone. But as someone who has a strong core value of kindness, doing things (however small) to help is also important to me too.
Related reads about mental health:
I don’t know about anyone else but when faced with all this tragedy, it’s incredibly easy to feel utterly useless with no idea how to help, even in your own small way. When everything is so much bigger than one person and requires the work of an army to make change, how can one person make any difference at all?
I completely believe that we can all make a difference. And collectively all those small differences will add up to something monumental and real change will start to be seen. It might take years. It might take decades. It might take a millennia. But if you know you’ve done you bit to help, then you’ve left that mark on that important cause.
Today I want to share some helpful ways we can all support important causes. In the past year, things like the Black Lives Matter movement, the case of women’s safety in light of the Sarah Everard murder and the conversation of climate change and environmental impact have been in the limelight.
These are all incredibly important causes that can often leave us wondering if we’re actually helping in ANY way. Because how can just one person using a paper straw be doing any good? So hopefully these suggestions below will give you some ideas of how you can contribute towards that change!
9 helpful ways to support important causes:
Attend a protest
If you’re able, if it’s safe and if you feel comfortable to do so.
Protests can be pretty daunting things and a scary concept to a lot of people, with the crowds and the potential for something to happen. But protests are also incredibly powerful things and taking your place in a protest is an incredible way to support important causes.
Obviously only you know whether attending a protest is right or safe for you to do but definitely worth considering.
Sign petitions
A more doable option for most people is signing petitions. It’s quick, easy and helps to build up support for an important cause that you care about. Change.org is a popular site to start and browse for petitions.
Retweet resources, petitions etc.
And sharing petitions and resources is a great way to spread the word too. I do this a lot and sometimes I’ll avoid promoting any blog content or publishing new blog posts if something is going on and instead use Twitter to just share and promote important resources, pieces of information and petitions instead.
But make sure you’re RT’ing correct information
And following on from the above, making sure you’re sharing correct information and not fake news is super important because the last thing you want to do is share something that isn’t right.
Donate to charities
If you’re able to, this is a great way to support those important causes. Especially after COVID when so many charities struggled with funding, every penny helps and counts. I wrote this post on 6 charities to consider supporting in 2021 about charities I donate to regularly who are so worthy of my money.
Perhaps even create your own post around the charities you think need the support!
Volunteer your time
Obviously this hasn’t been an option for most people and most places over the last year or so due to COVID. But now it might be a viable option, if you have the time and you’re able to, volunteering could be a great way to do your bit to help a cause that needs it.
Check up on anyone you know who’s affected
If there’s something going on that you know someone might be affected by or triggered by, checking up on them in a more closer to home way to support those important causes.
Because behind those causes, are real life people who have experienced these things.
Share your own story
Only if you feel comfortable and safe doing so. But sharing your own story could seriously help someone else. This one is obviously hugely personal and you should never share anything you don’t feel safe sharing.
Write a blog post or Instagram content with important links
Sharing resources is super important and if you have a platform with followers who read what you write and listen to what you say, then you should use that platform.
Opening up your platform to a cause you’re passionate about can be a great way to get links, resources and petitions in front of a WHOLE lot of new people who might not have come across them before.
But don’t create thing content just for the views.
Thanks for sharing, these tips for supporting charities it’s always good to get the correct facts first and do your research 🙂
It’s really important to do that!
This is a really helpful post. Sometimes I get lost in knowing how to support different things but this post has really helped with that. Thank you so much for sharing Xo
Elle – ellegracedeveson.com
I’m so glad 🙂 x
Great post! I think signing petitions is a great thing you can do from the comfort of your own home 🙂
Yes it sure is 🙂
Love this post, I try to do as many of these as possible – especially blog posts!
Thank you 🙂 that fab!
Great post! Aside from regularly donating my time as a volunteer, I like finding ways to automate my donations to my favorite organizations. Both Amazon Smile and my Kroger-brand grocery store allow me to designate what charities I’d like them to support. With every dollar I spend, they give more to my chosen charity; it’s a great set-it-and-forget-it option!
Ah that’s a great idea!
Great post! I definitely believe that we can all make a difference, too. You’ve got some really fabulous ideas here – things like signing petition, reposting correct information and checking in with people don’t cost anything but can make a world of difference. Thanks for sharing x
They sure can and they really do take no time at all!
I’m so glad you touched on the matter of resharing accurate information. It’s become a trend to just repost whatever aesthetically-pleasing infographic or quote is circulating around social media, but it doesn’t always contain accurate information. Doing research FIRST and then sharing valuable info for your audience is super important. Along with that, you’ve given some great options for supporting important causes. This is a fantastic article!
Yes I totally agree! I shared something the other day and quickly unshared it because it wasn’t correct!
I think some causes are easier to support than others and it all depends on what resonates most strongly with you and what you feel comfortable doing (now more than ever). But petitions, charity donations, and checking up on someone costs nothing, they’re really easy ways to show you care, fab post, Jenny, thank you xxx
Yes totally agree, of course some will be closer to your heart than others xx
There are so many different ways to support important causes and causes that are close to your heart, I’m all for signing petitions for things I believe in, a great post Jenny! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Thank you 🙂 xx
This is such a great topic to increase our awareness for important causes! Thank you for the reminder and I recently donate money to help those in need 🙂 We should do it more x
Thank you 🙂 yes me too, I donate every month x
Great tips about helping raise awareness for important causes. Thanks for sharing them with us.
Thank you 🙂 x
What a perfectly written and excellently timed post. I love your tips. I have been doing some research recently into how I can support causes close to my heart more so this is on point for me
Rosie
Thank you 🙂 that’s amazing to hear!
This is a post has so amazing ways to support causes. There are many that I do such as share my story, donate money and more. Thank you for reminder.
Thank you, that’s fab to hear!
We’ve been facing some big challenges, haven’t we? It is so important to help those in need. We should all do it more.
Antonia || Sweet Passions
We sure have. Totally agree x
This is so so important. Sometimes we might not feel like we can make much a difference but we certainly can – the power of social media is incredible. I’ve been trying to raise awareness for Palestine on my Instagram stories, at first I was like is this really going to help? But seeing people research because of what they seen me share and help to raise further awareness definitely shows that no act is a small one 💙
http://www.alittlecupofus.com
Every little helps – it really does. Amazing that you’ve gone and shared that information too x
I liked your idea on supporting the people who are victim of such things and it maybe be grat help to them
Thank you 🙂