Please help. My activism isn’t working.
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I’ve been delivering flyers about hedgehogs that I got from hedgehogsrus.com through people’s letterboxes, and in the blank space I included my phone number with an invite to join a Whatsapp group about hedgehogs. I was hoping to be able to send loads of people resources and links to petitions and stuff, share local hedgehog sightings and organise a cake sale for hedgehog conservation. But nobody’s contacted me. Idk what to do. My number was next to the contact information for local animal rescue organisations, and the wording was “If you’d like to join a Whatsapp group for more information about how to help hedgehogs, contact me,” and then my phone number. I suppose some people probably read the flyers and took the advice, but then thought that was enough, but I want to see the results of my work so I know I’m making a difference, and I want to be able to organise fundraising events and stuff, starting with a cake sale. I’m not much of a social media person, but maybe I should get Facebook and start a group on there. Idk. Could I change the wording on the flyers to make it more effective? What should I do?
It looks like commenting on a post moves it to the top, so I’m commenting here to move it back to the top so you can see it. Happy Hedgehog Awareness Week everyone! 🦔🦔🦔
Somebody called me after seeing the thing I delivered and we’re almost ready to start a group chat. She loves hedgehogs. Maybe if we do a cake sale soon, we can persuade people there to join the group chat, so I can raise more awareness that way. Also the Hedgehog Street resources are way better than the Hedgehogs R Us flyers and I should deliver them too, as well as putting them on notice boards. That’s what you do here isn’t it? I’m new. Also I should probably join Hugh Warwick’s Hedgehog Highways Facebook group. If anyone has any advice or wants to join my Whatsapp group, please message me on here about it. Thanks. 🦔
I don’t think this is a very active forum is it? I’ll wait a bit to see if anyone replies. I’m gonna try and get more people to sign up to be hedgehog champions soon too.
I delivered more of the hedgehog flyer things, put hedgehog awareness stickers from the BHPS online shop on lampposts and in bus stops all over town, got loads of the printed out resources from this website put on various notice boards, talked to loads of people about hedgehogs and got a possible location for the cake sale I’m planning for Hedgehog Street. I was out 7 hours. I’ve had a very busy day of hedgehog activism. And I’ve got an equally hedgehoggy day planned for tomorrow, but I won’t be able to go out for as long unfortunately.
Hi Echinoserious
Maybe that’s because you seem to be pretty good at answering your own questions!?
Glad to hear that you got some response to your earlier information delivery. It’s always nice to have another hedgehog lover locally to chat with. A cake sale sounds a great idea. Good luck with it – let us know how it goes.
Sounds as if you are enjoying your hedgehog related activity – hope you get some more responses after all that work! Glad you are finding the Hedgehog Street Resources useful.
Do you have hedgehog visitors in your own garden?
I’m not enjoying it anymore. I’ve delivered hundreds more and nobody else has got back to me, and the previously mentioned one person who has isn’t even answering messages. I’m really struggling to stay motivated when I can’t see if my effort is even having any impact and I feel like I’ve been rejected by thousands of people all at once. It’s really getting me down and ruining my confidence. I couldn’t do anything today, partly because I’ve had a productive and overstimulating few days and I ended up having a shutdown, but also partly because I once again don’t feel like anything I’m doing is working. I feel overwhelmed. I feel sad. I feel like I’m wasting my time. I probably have rejection sensitivity dysphoria as well, so that’s not helping. I just want to help hedgehogs, but it seems like most people don’t. What can I do that will actually have an impact that I can see? Maybe it’d be easier to reach people on Facebook or something, but I’m not much of a social media person. I think people are less likely to respond to something that comes through their door than something they see online, but I’m still worried I’m gonna be ignored there too, or that people who don’t care are already judging me. I’m not really comfortable using social media. It’s too anxiety inducing for me. Like I don’t want to be ignored when I’m trying to raise awareness of something important, but I also don’t like being perceived in general, and I was nervous enough about the leaflets, but more people will see it online. I know it’s a good thing for awareness if it reaches a wider audience, but any confidence I had to let that happen has been destroyed. I want to help hedgehogs in any way I can, but I’m really struggling mentally to continue doing that. What should I do? I feel worse if I’m not doing something to help.
Hi Echinoserious
If I were you, I would give delivering leaflets a miss for a while and concentrate on enjoying the hedgehog visitors – as well as making your own garden as hog friendly as you can – and give it a bit of time.
Just bear in mind that people tend to get loads of leaflets through their doors and they often get put aside (without being looked at) to potentially look at later. People can get ‘leaflet fatigue’ – especially when there have recently been elections and lots of leaflets around. So you could get responses a long time after the leaflets are delivered if someone suddenly finds the hedgehog one. But also bear in mind that some people are wary of contacting others that they don’t know.
So it is in no way a rejection of you or even that they don’t like hogs but that maybe they are overwhelmed with other things. We never know what is going on in other people’s lives.
The way I see it, delivering all those leaflets has to be worthwhile even if only one person is converted to helping hedgehogs. Remember they might decide to help the hogs without you ever knowing about it, but if you hadn’t delivered the leaflets they may not have done.
Give yourself a break for a while and try to enjoy nature.
Good luck.
Thanks for the kind words. I know my emotional response to the disappointing outcome wasn’t completely logical, but rejection sensitivity dysphoria is a trait I have, so I couldn’t really help it. I was disappointed from the first day that nobody was contacting me, because I had what turned out to be unrealistic expectations. I managed to delay my emotional response to this disappointment and hyperfocus on delivering more for a few days, but then I had a shutdown and the rejection sensitivity dysphoria hit me. Because I’d delayed it, it was worse than it would normally be, so it took me a few days to process and rationalise it, but after that I was fine. I don’t feel so bad about it now. I’ve learned that delivering stuff through people’s letterboxes isn’t the most effective way to connect with people and see the outcome of my work, and I need to try social media. I’m glad I delivered a lot because that means some people almost certainly have done something to help, just without contacting me. I now have plans to continue making a difference, but in a way that I’ll be able to see more of the outcome of my work. I’m going to use Facebook. I’ll start a group on there and try and organise a cake sale for the Hedgehog Street Campaign. I would’ve done already, but I’ve had a lot of stuff to sort out this week, and I have a driving test on Monday that I need to be ready for, so I’ve planned to make an account on Facebook on Tuesday. Oh, and in case you don’t have a lot of knowledge about some of the things I mentioned and you’re confused, I should explain that delayed emotional responses, hyperfocus, shutdowns, rejection sensitivity dysphoria and rationalising emotions are all traits of autism and/or ADHD, and I have both. I was just using accurate language to explain what happened and why. Idk how much you understood. There are both upsides and downsides to having this type of brain.
In the future I’ll try not to delay RSD for too long, so it doesn’t get as bad and end up stopping me from doing something for too long. In terms of social media, I’ve been building up the confidence, my anxiety’s been improving and I’m just going to chase the dopamine of my special interest in hedgehogs to motivate me to do it. Hopefully it’ll work out well. I love a cake sale. It’s a shame I missed out on the end of hedgehog awareness week, but there’s never a bad time to be helping hedgehogs.
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