ACIDD thinks nationally and internationally. It is a concept, and acts locally. We are always thinking of change. The country needs change as to how to deal with mental health issues, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. We look at mostly average Americans. Average Americans should spearhead that change across racial and generational lines.
That inclination to look toward average Americans or special population strikes a central chord: a consistent orientation toward change led from below. That attitude expresses itself in everything from support for voluntarism, to the conviction that smaller, human-scale institutions are making a more positive impact on the country than are the behemoths of big business and the federal government, to the belief that the daily choices people make can accumulate into broader social change.
Americans have more power than they recognize to improve their well-being just by making changes in the way they live on a daily basis. This is the time it is needed most. There’s plenty of things we can do to improve the larger picture. You’re just one person, but if everyone was taking the same action, we could improve so many different things. The confidence about the capacity of individuals to drive positive change, particularly through actions close to home, echoes through many minds and places.
If one asks what is most likely to “make a meaningful and lasting impact on issues you care about,” more respondents would state “a social movement started by average Americans” . Americans again display a tilt toward direct action when asked to assess the effectiveness of options for “promoting change on issues you care about”. Most people will say, “taking direct action like volunteering” as a “very effective” way to drive change; “using your buying power” to influence existing practices, another form of direct action.
