Behind C-TAC’s 200 organizations are the patients and caregivers that are and have been affected by serious illness. To move our mission and policy priorities forward to ensure that all individuals have a high quality of life, we need to go back to the stories of these individuals – we need to remember the WHY. Why have we been called to do this work? We all must continue to stop, listen, and create a safe space for individuals to share their stories and experiences.
Inspired by Shirley Roberson, Norma Bauerschmidt, and Rev. Diane Smalley, C-TAC has dedicated this section to honor the experiences of those affected by serious illness, from patients, caregivers, to faith leaders and community advocates. These are the stories that inspire and move our work forward.
I invite you to listen to Will Craig’s story about his experience being a caretaker for his father, founding ELDR, and the importance of sharing your WHY with the C-TAC community.
Below are Will’s three written answers to this question:
Why is it important for us all to share our CTAC stories?
1) Practice, practice, practice
You have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. By synthesizing your WHY for us, a safe audience of colleagues rooting you on, you may come to some new clarity about your purpose and how to articulate it. We promise we won’t mind that it’s not perfect, and it’ll get your message in front of some new eyeballs. C’mon, practice on us!
2) We’re more powerful TOGETHER
Think about it for a moment – we’re all working together toward a macro contribution in myriad micro spaces. Your WHY is your reason for being – your reason to exist – individually or organizationally. In the aggregate, the WHY driving each C-TAC member’s endeavors is tremendously powerful. Tell us who you are and the niche in which you’re contributing so we as a coalition can support you and be supported by you! Only in doing so can we leverage the asset of our diversity.
3) Practicing what we preach
As advocates for major change in how society conducts and supports the end of a lifetime, we know that the WHY of each person facing critical illness is definitive and essential. WHY do I want this pathway versus that pathway? WHY would I bother with this effort and not that effort? As change agents, we have to synthesize and shout our WHY if we are going to mobilize each member of society and the institutions supporting them to do so.
As a next step in continuing to share stories and telling us your WHY, Will Craig and the entire C-TAC team look forward to seeing you all at the Summit this year on October 24-25th!
If you’d like to connect with Will, you can reach him at willc@youreldr.com
Have you been affected by serious illness and have a story you’d be willing to share? C-TAC is continuing to collect stories from all walks of life. Contact Sandra, at SArias@thectac.org for more information.
