{"id":1141,"date":"2015-12-18T10:10:37","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T16:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/?p=1141"},"modified":"2015-12-21T10:12:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T16:12:14","slug":"we-are-not-a-voice-for-the-voiceless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/advocacy\/we-are-not-a-voice-for-the-voiceless\/","title":{"rendered":"We are not a voice for the voiceless"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ali Brauner, Building Bridges and Cathedral in the Night Coordinator, Massachusetts<\/div>\n
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\u200bThis past September, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. to take part in the 2015\u00a0ELCA\u00a0Advocacy Convening. After a day of training, I was able to visit several legislators in their D.C offices to talk about the needs of people experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts, including homeless veterans. I am blessed to work with two amazing ministries in Northampton, Massachusetts, which draw their passion for social justice from a vantage point of Christian faith. These ministries are the Building Bridges Veterans Initiative, the veterans ministry program of the Episcopal Diocese of Western MA, and Cathedral in the Night, an ecumenical outdoor church in Northampton in the radical tradition of Jesus. I had no idea that these legislative meetings would have such long-lasting effects.<\/p>\n

\"ELCA<\/p>\n

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Brauner and ELCA World Hunger Director, Mikka McCracken, meeting with Congressman Joseph\u200b\u200b Kennedy III (MA-4)<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u200b\u200bCathedral in the Night and Building Bridges have become involved in legislative advocacy in the short months since the conference in September. The ELCA Advocacy office provided an opportunity in Washington which began relationships with legislators which we have continued to foster and grow, and these budding relationships are enhancing our ministries in incredible ways!<\/p>\n

Too often, people who have experienced poverty of homelessness feel disempowered and voiceless. Our goal is not be a voice for the voiceless, but rather to empower people to speak on their own behalf. <\/strong>Since returning home from the Advocacy Convening, we have begun helping veterans, marginalized people, and those experiencing homelessness to tell their own stories, inviting them to local meetings with legislators to help inform policymakers about the very real way that laws and decision affect people across the country.<\/p>\n

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