Many fail to realize that creating change can be easier and faster when you look a little closer to home. Boston Women’s March, 2017. (Carly Hagins / Flickr) Like most Americans, my upbringing did not prepare me for advocacy work. As a child in Fall River, Massachusetts—a working class, post-Industrial mill city—the term “lobbying” had no use in my vocabulary and simply sounded lofty and inaccessible. I pictured members of Congress, miles away from Massachusetts, making decisions on behalf of my community. There were no paths clear to me as to how I could be a part of the changemaking.