Celebrating Wins Big and Small: Reflections on a Year of Advocacy and Impact
Not long ago, I asked our team to share some of their highlights from the past year. What was something we accomplished as a team that made them proud? The team shared the big successes I was expecting to hear about, the smaller wins and some of their favorite aha’s from the last year. When looking at just part of the list we developed, I knew we had a lot to be proud of, including:
- Advocating for the passage of a bill to codify the Office of the Child Advocate into law. This office provides critical oversight of the state’s foster care system.
- Working in coalition with state and national partners to enshrine the SOUL Family Legal Permanency Option into law, which ensures that older teens aging out of the system establish a legal relationship with a caring adult to provide support as they transition into adulthood.
- Fighting back against a cruel bill that would have banned our state from participating in Summer EBT, a program that will provide food assistance to children in low-income households over the summer months.
- Strengthening a bill – now a law – will provide a pathway for individuals with suspended driver’s licenses to get their licenses back.
- Reaching a settlement with the City of Wichita over their use of an unconstitutional gang database. This settlement means that over two-thirds of the individuals on the list have already been removed, and the remaining individuals will have an opportunity to challenge their placement on the list.
- Continuing to fight back on voter suppression laws, including seeking a temporary injunction on the state law making it illegal to impersonate an election officer. This injunction paved the way for Kansas Appleseed and advocates throughout the state to resume voter registration drives.
- Seeing our work highlighted on the national stage when Last Week Tonight with John Oliver featured our report, One Year After the End of Universal Free Meals.
- Launching a new website and blog to keep Kansans updated on our work.
However, the story that has stayed with me the most was one shared by our Civic Engagement Manager. Over the summer, Paige attended a drive-through food bank, and as attendees picked up their food, she talked to them about voting. We’re proud of our non-partisan voter engagement work; our mantra is that we want people to vote on the issues that are best for their lives, and Paige was doing just that throughout the afternoon. As Paige talked with this Kansan about voting, he shared that he wouldn’t be voting. He was convinced his vote wouldn’t matter.
Paige started talking to him about those elections that were settled by just one vote and how the power of his vote can actually create better laws and policies for him and his community. He told Paige that he hadn’t thought of his vote in that way before. As he left, he took the material we offered and he told Paige that he would be voting in this year’s election.
Now, we have no way of following up with this individual to see if he did, in fact, vote. But I am not sure that matters. Even if he didn’t vote this time, he will never again be able to think that his vote won’t make a difference, that it won’t change anything. He now knows that he has more power than he realizes. That’s a win in my book.
This is why the work of Kansas Appleseed matters so much. The big wins are amazing – we celebrate when we know that a new law or lawsuit will impact hundreds of thousands of individuals. But the reality is this: to create the state we want, to make sure every Kansan can live in a thriving, inclusive, and just state, we have to meet every Kansan where they are at. We have to help them overcome their perceptions, break down their barriers, and help them imagine the future they want for themselves and for their communities.
My new year’s resolution is that every Kansan knows about the work of Kansas Appleseed and our commitment to improving their lives, whether it’s by helping them access food, having access to a fair justice system, improving the foster care system, or understanding the power of their vote.
We’re doing some special things at Kansas Appleseed, and I can’t wait to see what we – you and us – accomplish. Together.
