Real Life Advocacy Examples: Taking Advantage of Congressional October Recess

ANCOR has been encouraging its members to take advantage of their U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators being home to campaign for the election to advocate for issues important to them. We are thrilled to hear back stories of when members do so! Recently, staff from member agency Family Residences and Essential Enterprises (FREE), based in Old Bethspage, New York, reached out to ANCOR to share their own positive experience advocating for a Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) for DSPs!

FREE staff reached out to U.S. Representatives Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY) to schedule meetings in which they engaged family members, frontline staff and senior FREE staff for productive discussions – see photos below. Congressman Souzzi has agreed to sign ANCOR’s Congressional letter to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on this topic, showing how effective these meetings can be. The deadline for signatures for this letter is October 25, 2018 – so there is still time for you to ask your U.S. Representatives to join. We are also looking for leads for a similar letter in the Senate if you wish to engage on this issue past the deadline.

From left to right: Steve Malito (firm of Davidoff Hutcher and Citron), Justine Gregory (Manager at FREE, Springfield Gardens residence), Congressman Gregory Meeks, Skyler Rencher (DSP at FREE, Jamaica residence), Grace Verdarame (Assistant VP of Housing at FREE), Joe Jankowski ( Sr. Director of Government Relations at FREE)

From left to right: Lynda Foley (Sr. VP, FREE), Nancy Cohen (VP, FREE), Rep. Suozzi, Diane Walker (Parent), Brian Calhoun (Manager, FREE Day Services), Steve Malito (firm of Davidoff Hutcher Citron)

Looking for more advocacy opportunities? Visit our Digital Advocacy Page to see suggested issues and actions, and find resources such as staff contact lists and one-pagers. If you have stories and photos from your own advocacy this recess, please share them with Doris Parfaite-Claude, Federal Advocacy and Research Manager, at [email protected] and we will be happy to share them in future ANCOR Capitol Correspondence articles. If you wish to engage in ANCOR’s more long-term grassroots planning efforts, please ask Doris about joining the Grassroots Work Group.