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February 2022 Newsletter
Issue #60
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Legislative advocacy is one of the most important aspects to bring about changes in public policy. It’s not difficult and it doesn’t take a lot of time, but it does take the will to act particularly on behalf of those who may not be able to speak
for themselves.
The usual number of bills introduced in a Congressional session is around 13,000 a year. Of these approximately 15% are voted on, passed or enacted.
Despite this potential, of the more than 800,000 public charities registered with the IRS, only about 1% report any lobbying expenditures. Many think it is illegal.
Most elected officials in Washington only hear from about 4-5% of their constituents each year. This represents about 28,000 -35,000 people and that every one contact has the effect of speaking for around 20 other constituents.
Legislative staffs report that if a legislator had not reached a firm decision on an issue, individualized letters would have “a lot” of influence and that the following activities are the most effective forms
of advocacy:
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Visiting in-person regarding an issue: 94%
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Sending an individualized e-mail message: 92%
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Writing an individualized letter: 88%
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Making a phone call: 84%
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Sending a form email message: 56% (the most common)
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Sending a form letter: 50%
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Signing a petition: 49%
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Sending a postcard: 42%
Examples of Successful Legislative Advocacy
(from the 116th Congress)
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The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) which funds nearly 900 legal aid offices in every congressional district to provide legal services to low-income Americans.
- The Fair Chance Act, which requires federal employers to postpone criminal background checks until after they make a conditional offer to an applicant, thereby ensuring that a criminal record is not an undue barrier to getting a job.
- The Fairness for Breastfeeding Mothers Act which requires public buildings, to contain a lactation room available to the public.
- The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which responds to the needs of victims, provides tools for holding offenders accountable, and sets up measures for data collection to learn more about these crimes.
- The Legal Orientation Program in Department of Justice to provide legal rights presentations, self-help workshops, and other services to thousands of immigrant detainees.
- Supplemental appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services to fund legal and other services for unaccompanied children at the border.
- Democracy Programs that include human rights and rule of law programs around the world.
- Research into the causes of gun violence.
- Adoption of a significant change to the Child Welfare Policy Manual to allow states to use federal funding to pay for legal services for parents and children for the first time.
- The granting of stays of execution for two death row inmates in different states.
For more Legislative Advocacy resources,
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Tips on Legislative Advocacy
A resource from the American Bar Association Office of Governmental Affairs. Addresses issues such as establishing a goal; developing a statement of the problem and recommended solution; considering the fiscal impact; the importance of timing; identifying supporters and allies; identifying opponents; developing responses to opposition arguments & activities; considering the relevance of the Judiciary; learning about academic and think-tank positions; mapping the political landscape; state oriented advocacy; direct lobbying, grassroots activities & the media; as well as communication tips when telephoning, writing or sending an email to lawmakers. Learn more.
For more Legislative Advocacy resources,
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Network Advocate Teams
The Network Lobby has or is building Advocates Teams in 12 states: Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri. These teams gather monthly to build community, and do the work of advocacy, including preparing for lobby visits, writing letters to the editor, planning public events, and more.
For more Legislative Advocacy resources,
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The Whole Language:
The Power of Extravagant Tenderness
By Greg Boyle SJ. In a community struggling to overcome systemic poverty and violence, shows how those at Homeboy Industries fight despair and remain generous, hopeful, and tender. Through stories that challenge ideas about God and about people, provides a window into a world filled with fellowship, compassion, and fewer barriers. Invites readers to treat others—and themselves—with acceptance and tenderness. Read more.
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Zinn Education Project
Introduces students to a more accurate, complex, and engaging understanding of U.S. history than is found in traditional textbooks and curricula. People’s history materials and pedagogy emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history. Students learn that history is made not by a few heroic individuals, but instead by people’s choices and actions, thereby also learning that their own choices and actions matter. Believes that by taking a more engaging and more honest look at the past, we can help equip students with the analytical tools to make sense of — and improve — the world today. Topics include the Black Freedom Struggle, Climate Justice, Reconstruction, the 15th Amendment and Solidarity with Indigenous People. Learn more.
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Meatpacking America: How Migration, Work, and Faith Unite and Divide the Heartland
By Kristy Nabhan-Warren. Based on years of interviewing Iowans who work in the meatpacking industry, both native-born residents and recent migrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Goes the beyond the stereotypes and reveals the grit and grace of the heartland that is a major global hub of migration and food production—as well as religion.
On the floors of meatpacking plants, in places of worship, and in family homes, longtime and newly arrived Iowans -- Protestants, Catholics, and Muslims -- speak about their faith and desire to work hard for their families. Their stories expose how faith-based aspirations for mutual understanding blend uneasily with rampant economic exploitation and racial biases. Still, these new and old Midwesterners say that a mutual language of faith and morals brings them together more than any of them would have ever expected. Read more.
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Immigration Nation
A documentary series from Netflix that looks inside the world of immigration enforcement by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
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The Dark History of "Gasoline Baths"
at the Border
A documentary from the Vox Missing Chapter series, that looks at the history of using toxic chemicals at the U.S. Mexico border. The campaign continued for decades well into the 1960s and even inspired Nazi scientists. These dangerous practices included forced kerosene baths, the use of the poisonous gas Zyklon B as well as fumigations of migrant workers in the “Bracero program” using the pesticide DDT.
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The Rage of Innocence:
How America Criminalizes Black Youth
By Kristin Henning. An analysis of the foundations of racist policing in America: the day-to-day brutalities, largely hidden from public view, endured by Black youth growing up under constant police surveillance and the persistent threat of physical and psychological abuse. Confronts America’s irrational, manufactured fears of these young people and makes the case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its relationship to Black children. Explains how discriminatory and aggressive policing has socialized a generation of Black teenagers to fear, resent, and resist the police, and details the long-term consequences of racism that they experience at the hands of the police and their vigilante surrogates. Unlike White youth, who are afforded the freedom to test boundaries, and figure out who they are and who they want to be, Black youth are seen as a threat to White America and are denied healthy adolescent development.
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Just Pursuit:
A Black Prosecutor's Fight for Fairness
By Laura Coates. Based on the author's experiences as a former federal prosecutor, argues that Black communities are policed differently; Black cases are prosecuted differently & Black defendants are judged differently. Shows how the court system seems to be the one place where minorities are overrepresented, an unrelenting parade of Black and Brown defendants in numbers that belie their percentage in the population and overfill American prisons. Explores the tension between the idealism of the law and the reality of working within the parameters of the flawed legal system, exposing the chasm between what is right and what is lawful. Read more.
For more on the Criminal Justice System,
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Laudato Si’ Study & Action Guide
for Individuals & Small Groups
A resource from the Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach to complement the encyclical letter from Pope Francis on the environment. Consists of 6 chapters: Our Common Home, Gospel of Creation, Ecological Crisis, Integral Ecology, Approach & Action, Education & Spirituality & Closing Prayers with reflection questions and action ideas after each one. Learn more.
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Terrapass
A mission-driven business with the social goal of fighting climate change. Works to reduce as many carbon emissions as possible through its products, education, online tools, carbon offsets, and renewable energy for both individuals and corporations. All of their carbon offsets are verified against broadly accepted standards by independent third party verifiers such as the Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard, American Carbon Registry and the Climate Action Reserve. Learn more.
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The Center for Nonviolent Communication
A global organization that supports the learning and sharing of Nonviolent Communication (NVC). Their mission is to contribute to more sustainable, compassionate, and “life-serving” human relations in the realms of personal change, interpersonal relationships and in social systems and structures, such as business/economics, education, justice, healthcare, and peace-keeping. Helps people peacefully and effectively resolve conflicts in personal, organizational, and political settings by providing resources, training, conflict resolution techniques and organizational consulting services. Learn more.
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Social Justice Books
A project of Teaching for Change, this non-profit organizations mission is to provide teachers and parents with the tools to create schools where students learn to read, write and change the world. In response to the wide diversity gap in children’s books and the publishing industry, Social Justice Books identifies, vets and promotes the best multicultural and social justice children’s books, as well as articles and books for educators. It builds on the tradition of the Council on Interracial Books for Children which provides a social justice lens to reviews of children’s literature. Learn more.
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Professional Troublemaker:
The Fear-Fighter Manual
By Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Suggests that in order to do the things that will truly, meaningfully change our lives, we have to become professional troublemakers: people who are committed to not letting fear talk them out of the things they need to do or say to live free. With humor and honesty, walks us through what we must get right within ourselves before we can do the things that scare us; how to use our voice for a greater good; and how to put movement to the voice we've been silencing. This book is about how to live boldly in spite of all the reasons we have to cower. Read more.
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ACLU Know Your Rights
A resource from the American Civil Liberties Union that provides information on our rights, how to exercise them, and what to do when they are violated. Sections include:
- Stopped By Police
- Protesters’ Rights
- Immigrants’ Rights
- Racial Discrimination
- Sex Discrimination
- LGBTQ Discrimination
- Voting Rights
- Disability Rights
- Students’ Rights
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Prayer of Transformation
Lord, I was a pile of ash
And you made me a light for the world.
I was a stone
And you made me salt for the earth.
I was as lifeless as clay
And you made me part of the Body of Christ.
I was sinful
And you made me holy.
I was nothing
And you made me part of everything.
Lord, in you I am transformed
And transformed still again.
When the discouraged cry for hope, make me hope.
When the hungry cry for bread, make me bread.
When the thirsty cry for water, make me water.
When the suffering cry for help, make me help.
When the sick cry for healing, make me healing.
When the bound cry for freedom, make me freedom.
When the outcasts cry for love, make me love.
Lord who is hope,
who is bread and water,
who is help and healing,
who is freedom,
and who is love,
Transform me anew,
and so keep me close to you,
as you transform the world.
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Important Dates This Month
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Individuals Honored This Month |
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February Birth Date Unknown
I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
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For any human being, freedom is essential, crucial to our dignity and our ability to be fully human.
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February 4th
As far back as I can remember, I knew there was something wrong with our way of life when people could be mistreated because of the color of their skin.
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February 4th
If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. No, I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.
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February 7th
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. But when I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
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February 11th
It is so easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace and build.
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February 12th
The death of the forest is the end of our life.
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February 23rd
What a world this will be when human possibilities are freed, when we discover each other, when the stranger is no longer the potential criminal and the certain inferior!
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February 27th
There are many people ready to do what is right because in their hearts they know it is right. But they hesitate, waiting for the other person to make the make the first move - and the other person, in turn, waits for you.
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Since 2017, more than 240,000 people have visited the Social Justice Resource Center website. We provide a wide variety of facts and figures on specific social issues as well as thousands of free resources including films, publications, links to other organizations, prayers, quotes, principles of social justice, key dates throughout the year, action ideas, Diocesan office contact information and biographies of famous people who have worked for social justice.
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Every month we email our newsletter to over 4,000 people around the country. Each issue focuses on a social justice topic and has resources that have been recently added to our website. If you know of anyone who might be interested in receiving our newsletter, please forward this email on to them or let us know and we'll add them to our mailing list. For our previous Newsletters,
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