The “Just F**kin’ Do it Approach”

Often times in contemporary society the words “social justice” and “social action” are tossed around haphazardly. With the lack of concrete definitions for these terms, it is very difficult to identify an effective approach to actually combating social issues. However, HousingWorks has a clear-cut plan for getting things done: Just F**kin’ do it. This self-sustaining organization is all about action. While a lot of thought and planning goes into every aspect of HousingWorks, they feel that is always necessary to respond no matter how short the notice is. There is not an opportunity that slips through their hard-working and generous fingers. These responses could be to changes in policy, articles that focus on HIV/AIDS in newspapers, or a comment made by an unsuspecting councilwoman.

This was the particular case, when Advocacy in Action (AIA), paid HousingWorks a highly anticipated visit. After being a given short overview of the purpose and practices of HousingWorks and sitting in on a conference call, AIA was given the task to respond to a comment made by a councilwoman that was in a newspaper the day before. To prepare the students for the task at hand, Christine Campbell explained where the issue came from and its future implications on policy if not addressed. The students were then giving key talking points, and from there they drafted a wonderful letter that would be ready to circulate no later than the next two upcoming days.

The other half of the AIA team was recruited to create a framework for a global campaign whose purpose is ending the epidemic of HIV/AIDS by securing the commitment of governments to the goal. Campbell went into a brief but condensed overview of the desired actions that the campaign was to accomplish, and then the second team went to work. Without having much information or previous knowledge, a framework was born.

AIA was not given a great deal of time to complete the tasks that were assigned, but under pressure, the need to perform was greater. I believe that this is the personal philosophy of HousingWorks. Logistics are important, but at the end of the day statistics are numbers that could never effectively represent people. Numbers don’t have faces, or voices, or issues that they themselves can not address. People do. That’s why social activism is not something you try. You Just F**kin’ do it.