What is an advocate? Can I be an advocate? Would I be a good advocate? These may all be questions that you would have when going into an advocacy day. I know I did. With Advocacy in Advent falling on my first week as the new Hunger Advocacy Fellow, I was both excited and nervous about the event. I had never been to an advocacy event before and did not know what to expect, but ended up learning so much and having so much fun learning and doing advocacy work at the State House.
So what is an advocate?
In simple terms, advocacy is talking to public officials about our priorities and solutions to problems in our community. On this day in particular, over 26 advocates met with 21 Senators and Representatives to advocate for three key issues.
What issues did we cover?
There are so many key issues and priorities that need to be addressed, but there is also only so little time and space to do so when talking with public officials. For this advocacy day, our three issues were as follows: Protect Vulnerable Youth in Our Community, Meaningful Criminal Justice Reform, and Guarantee All Receive Their Daily Bread. As a group, participants would then read about these issues and take them to their meetings to then address their concerns and solutions with their public officials. Groups would identify personal stories and ask officials tough questions so that they would see how passionate we are about these issues and the need for them all to be addressed.
Did it end there?
Once we met with our public officials, we then gathered as a group to address how the meeting went. We would talk about our key takeaways from the meeting, if we thought they were supportive, and even what questions we still had for our representatives. Later, this information was used to create a follow-up communication with these legislators to ensure that they understood and remembered why we were there. Thank you notes were also written with acknowledgement of our appreciation for their time.
Was this a one-time thing?
Not at all! Other than advocating on a daily basis, there will be another Advocacy Day in the spring covering issues surrounding the State Budget! We would love to have you and others join us for our next event and to really bring a lot of people together for a common purpose. Keep an eye out on our social media and emails for more information about this event!
Jillian Russell is the newest member of the Hunger Network in Ohio team. She will serve with us for the next year as a Hunger Advocacy Fellow. This position is made possible by ELCA World Hunger.
As I now reflect on my first Advocacy Day, I am energized for the work that is to come. It was moving to see all the great work that we accomplished in just one short day and how much we can continue to do once we went home. I learned that advocacy is not something to be scared about, but is something that can empower you to make a difference in the world and in your community. I invite you to not sit on the sidelines, but to engage in advocacy in your community. We can’t make a difference by ourselves, but have to work together to make that difference.