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The room was packed with a group of local leaders: food pantry volunteers and staff, personnel from the county human services and child welfare agency, staff from the local homeless shelter, and other well-known community partners. Every person there was on the front lines in some way, dealing with that community’s lowest-income residents. After hearing a brief presentation about the Vision 2020 Campaign to end child poverty in Wisconsin, the group seized on the idea that they could be more effective advocates if they came together and coordinated their efforts. “The Vision 2020 idea is really exciting! What could we accomplish if we came together to fight poverty locally and statewide?” one woman asked excitedly. “Yes!” said another woman, “Can we talk about how to coordinate turkey distribution this Thanksgiving?” And before you could say cranberries, the entire conversation shifted to an animated discussion of who in the community had turkeys for poor families, who had grocery store coupons instead, who had chickens to distribute instead of turkeys, and how to ensure that every local family that needed Thanksgiving dinner got a turkey and the fixings. Sound familiar? This conversation – or one very similar to it – could have occurred anywhere in Wisconsin. Given the tremendous need facing so many in our communities, it makes perfect sense that we all sometimes focus on the individual families who need a meal, or a bus ticket, or an apartment. We occasionally forget to step back and wonder why is it that those families needed a turkey in the first place, and to ask what we could do to alleviate the underlying causes of that hardship. Make no mistake: Those who work hard locally to ensure that every family’s basic needs are met are tireless and dedicated advocates. But what would happen if all of those tremendously hard-working, thoughtful, dynamic community leaders sitting around that table last fall (and their counterparts at tables all around the state) turned even a little bit of their energy in a different kind of advocacy direction? What would happen if all of those “turkey people” took just one step forward in their advocacy? Mark Winne, former director of Connecticut’s Hartford Food System and the author of the forthcoming book, Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty, asks “What would happen if the collective energy that went into soliciting and distributing food were put into ending hunger and poverty instead?" Remarks Winne, “Surely it would have a sizable impact if 3,000 Hartford-area volunteers...showed up one day at the state legislature, demanding enough resources to end hunger and poverty. Multiply those volunteers by three or four -- the number of volunteers in the state's other food banks and hundreds of emergency food sites -- and you would have enough people to dismantle the Connecticut state capitol brick by brick. Put all the emergency food volunteers and staff and board members from across the country on buses to Washington, to tell Congress to mandate a living wage, health care for all and adequate employment and child-care programs, and you would have a convoy that might stretch from New York City to our nation's capital.” Winne’s vision is an inspiring one. WCCF asks you to make 2008 the year you start to think about advocacy differently, and we challenge you to take just one step forward in your advocacy efforts. The word “advocacy” sometimes scares people. The connotation is, all too frequently, “lobbying.” Somehow an “advocate” has come to mean someone who meets with state legislators in Madison. WCCF believes, however, that advocacy simply means speaking up, so that our vision of what “should be” can become reality. And advocacy takes lots of forms. Advocates donate their time and money to organizations that provide services, like food pantries and shelters. Advocates also write letters to local newspapers about policy issues. Advocates speak at local meetings and hearings. They invite policymakers to hear from affected families and service providers at regularly occurring community meetings, and they encourage friends and neighbors and colleagues to speak up as well. Advocacy can be seen as a spectrum, and all activities along that spectrum are valuable. But this year, WCCF challenges you to take just one step along that spectrum and imagine what might happen if, across Wisconsin, thousands of “turkey people” took just one step forward, together. What if all of those hardworking community volunteers who work so diligently to ensure that low-income families have the fixings for a fabulous holiday meal also wrote a letter to the editor of their hometown paper describing what hunger or homelessness looks like locally? What if those volunteers took the time to send a brief, personal email to their elected officials describing what they see at local food pantries and encouraging those officials to support policy solutions that would benefit Wisconsin’s low-income families? Or what if all of those volunteers also took just an hour or two to show up to a local or state elected official’s public hearing or listening session and speak publicly about the challenges facing our state’s lowest-income families and urged systemic policy solutions and investments to address these families’ needs?? All of these would represent steps forward in one’s advocacy, and would represent significant progress in our collective efforts to shine a spotlight on issues facing struggling families. It would put these issues at the top of policymakers’ agenda. Think about what would happen if the thousands of Wisconsin residents who care about kids and families all took just one step forward this year in their advocacy. Join us this year in taking that step forward. If you are interested in learning how to become a more effective advocate for children and families, spots are still available for WCCF’s annual advocacy training, scheduled for February 20-21 in Wisconsin Rapids. For more information and to register, visit http://www.wccf.org/event_advocacycamp_2008FEB.php. If you do take a step forward, we’d like to hear your story and share it with others. Send your advocacy steps to Vicky Selkowe at vselkowe@wccf.org. And finally, if you haven’t done so already, we’d like to suggest a first baby step forward you can take in your advocacy. Please visit our Vision 2020 campaign website [www.2020wi.org] and consider signing the Vision 2020 Pledge, signaling your commitment to helping end child poverty in our state.
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