Interfaith Advocacy Day 2021

You showed up for Interfaith Advocacy Day 2021 to rise up for justice in our state’s virtual capitol. Advocates attended from Bellingham to Vancouver, Spokane to Ocean Shores, with Wenatchee, Leavenworth, Yakima, Tri-Cities, and lots of Puget Sound represented, and many beautiful places in between!

More than 170 of you (nearly 200 with two to a screen) from 42 legislative districts turned out for #IFAD2021 to hear legislative updates, meet with members in your district, attend workshops by amazing coalition leaders, and join in 105 meetings with your legislators. Special guests offered words of encouragement for advocacy—thank you Dr. Jasmit Singh (please see his interfaith reflection on our Blog), Sen. Marko Liias, and Rep. Tarra Simmons. You can listen to their remarks and the introductory and closing sessions on our YouTube page.

This year’s IFAD was all remote, all virtual, with some challenges, but full of hearts and minds for justice! We draw energy for this work from each other. Our IFAD voices were raised during a week that included Housing and Hunger Advocacy Days, so our voices of compassion for our neighbors resounded through the Capitol. We also co-hosted the Eastern Washington Legislative Conference and Central Washington Advocacy Day to continue the work across the state. Our Pre-Session Trainings are available on YouTube as a tool to learn more about advocating in a virtual session and FAN’s goals for 2021.

There is much to do to get these bills we support passed into law. We have the power to do it together–stay tuned to our emails, follow our Bill Tracker on the website, and remember leg.wa.gov has almost everything you need to follow bills and show your support by signing in Pro/Con during committee hearings. Continue to TAKE ACTION and keep in touch with your legislators!