Advocacy Day offers you a chance to join with like minds to advocate for legislation you feel is important. The face to face meetings with legislators, or sometimes with a Chief of Staff, offers legislators a real time connection to the citizens of their state - even better if the citizens are constituents. It is empowering for advocates to have the direct contact with government representatives. At the state level, you can join with other voices to make yourselves heard and legislators do listen. Where there is disagreement, both advocates and legislators can share their perspectives. Advocacy Day appointments are generally pretty short - 15 - 20  minutes.  Here are our two bills:

HB 740: to ban direct release from solitary to the public (with some exceptions, especially for the health of the inmate).

HB 742 to prohibit placing incarcerated people diagnosed with serious mental illness in restrictive housing. Both bills sponsored by Delegate Jazz Lewis and many other Delegates.

Sometimes advocates are concerned that they may not know every nuance of the legislation. While IAHR will offer a briefing on the bills and talking points for advocates in advance of the meetings, IT IS OK NOT TO KNOW EVERYTHING! Advocates can take questions back to IAHR staff to follow up later with legislators who have questions where advocates do not have the answer. In fact, that can be most useful - to learn of questions that we have not anticipated. 

Agenda:

9 am: Advocacy Day Volunteers arrive for registration.  Continental breakfast will be served.

10 am: Briefing on legislation and advocacy training; assignments to small groups for visits.

11 am - 1 pm: Advocacy visits to House Judiciary and Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee members. 

1 pm: Debriefing - Volunteers share their impressions, information and insight from visits

2 pm: Conclusion of the day (with many thanks!)

Register to volunteer for Advocacy Day by clicking here.

(Important: In the "Comments" box, please indicate your your district's senator and delegate.)

Parking: Gotts Court Garage (best entrance is 25 Calvert Street, next door to a cash only garage) is the closest. There are also other options that we will send closer to the date. 

Please do join us! If you cannot be free on the designated day but can make phone calls of support to legislators, please contact [email protected], CC Kimberly Haven at [email protected] and we will be back in touch as the hearings are scheduled.

Welcome to IAHR Citizen Advocacy! Your voice is valuable.