Stand Up for Kids in August
Legislators from Lansing and D.C. are home for the month. Our August Advocacy Primer can help you consider the following as you turn your knowledge and experience into real influence:
- How to ensure a productive legislator meeting
- Issue frames that speak to your elected official’s values and priorities
- How to bring other allies into the fold
Capitol Corner
In his most recent Capitol Corner, President & CEO Matt Gillard summarizes a recent CRC memo on the state’s looming revenue crisis, which, in light of the potential federal budget cuts for education, health care, and other social services, makes the need for investment in children all the clearer.
Read Matt’s blog post, then send the CRC memo to your representative!
Foster Care KidSpeak Highlights
On Monday, August 7, we joined TIP Wayne State and the Wayne State School of Social Work for a KidSpeak. Youth who have experienced foster care outlined Michigan’s systemic foster care issues through their own stories. Representatives from local, state, and federal government, including three state legislators and a Congresswoman, were all on hand to hear from the youth.
Youth spoke of the need to expand funding eligibility for youth leaving care, to reduce caseworker loads and provide more training, and to support youth leaving care who are not going to college. Now, we’ll follow up with the listening panel and act on the insights from this KidSpeak.
CommunitySpeak Preview
We’ve been planning our own August advocacy – we’re hosting our first ever CommunitySpeak tour, bringing local, state, and federal policymakers to the Judson Center in Royal Oak and the Children’s Center in Detroit to learn from youth, families, and care providers about how children can thrive in the areas of mental health care and foster care on August 23.
If you are hosting your own legislator for an event, let us know with the hashtag #MIKids so we can spotlight citizen champions for children.
