Why Should You Attend a Workshop on Advocacy?
We all agree that 2020 has been a searing experience. Beyond the health crisis and a polarizing political campaign, we have witnessed too many alarming signs of racism in our society, an environment beset by historic fires and floods, a continuing homeless crisis and abandoned migrant children, just to name a few examples. Plus, the pandemic has trapped many of us at home, isolated from our normal communities, hampering our ability to help.
This is why the Immigration Task Force chose to offer what we are calling an Advocacy 101 Workshop on November 18 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The remote program will be led by Jessica Zimmerle, Program and Outreach Director for Earth Ministry. Many members of Fauntleroy Church know of Earth Ministry, which is directed by our own LeeAnne Beres. As Jessica explains, “Earth Ministry is dedicated into transforming faith into action for community and the environment.”
Just to be clear, the program is not about immigration or environment. It’s about how to help resolve any pending issue about which you are concerned.
Jessica has been leading a range of programs for several years with churches throughout Washington state. They vary from general orientation sessions, such as what will be offered at Fauntleroy, to very specific direct lobbying campaigns on a critical issue with public officials.
Advocacy can be a bedrock for the church, said Jessica, one where “we are called to stand for those on the margins”.” One, she adds, where “we can be protective voices in the system, for humans and non-humans”.
When Earth Ministry fosters advocacy, it focuses on conversations with elected or public officials that are cordial, explained Jessica, emphasizing that last word. “We don’t go into direct action,” she added. That can mean meetings with officials, often in a gathering of church members, which in the past were often in person, in places such as Olympia. Obviously, for the time being, they are likely to be by phone or internet. Or, they can be more individual, and focused through letters, emails, or phone conversations.
“We really encourage people to make the letters as personable as possible,” said Jessica, who does have handouts and examples that she will share. She has been told that it only takes as few as seven contacts from constituents to sway a public official on a specific issue. As an example, she cited a Whidbey Island church group that annually drove to Olympia to discuss key issues with their state legislators. With one legislator, they raised an environmental issue involving toxics that the legislator was not even aware of. That meeting eventually influenced the lawmaker to act on their behalf on the bill.
West Seattle is generally politically progressive with representatives equally progressive. Jessica said residents in such situations often tell her “that ‘my legislators will vote the way I want them to.’ But I have heard from progressive leaders in such cases that ‘we still want to hear from you’.” Plus, issues will vary between local, state, and federal officials.
We’re asking anyone interested in the program to register in advance. Please email Dianne Sprague, Co-chair of the Immigration Task Force, at dispraguew@gmail.com. If you do register, while everyone these days spends far more computer screen time than ever before, please try and overcome any screen fatigue you might face as November 18 draws near.
This orientation program is not tied to any goal or aim to push any specific issue.
It is true that the Immigration Task Force has talked about using it as a springboard for new efforts to protect some of the most vulnerable among us – refugees. Still, that is the point here, to offer people of faith, either individually, cooperatively or in consultation with a church ministry or task force, new options, new ideas, new enthusiasm to build our faith by aiding others in need, no matter what the issue. And to make 2021 a more humane year than 2020.
Bob Wyss, Co-chair, Immigration Task Force
