Ben Miksch, State and Federal Policy Associate

A totally neat thing happened to Rachael Myers and me at the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago, but we've been so wrapped up analyzing and advocating around the House and Senate budget releases that we haven't had a chance to share it with you.

So let me take a minute to fix that!

This was on the second day of the conference. Rachael and I were attending a lunch plenary in a ballroom filled with many people who work at organizations similar to the Housing Alliance in other states across the country. Right as we sat down, two advocates from New Jersey looked at Rachael's nametag and then gasped. One of the women looked at Rachael and said, "You're the group from Washington right? You're the group that does the Board Advocacy Project?"

I won't lie, my jaw dropped. And Rachael was pretty amazed as well. It turned out these two women had realized the power of board advocacy all the way on the other side of the country. They had been looking for resources for how to get their own board engaged and had stumbled upon our Board Advocacy Project video. They'd been inspired and had taken the video back to their board. And now we've got one more nonprofit board getting involved in advocacy.

The project is spreading throughout Washington as well. It often starts with just one board member taking action on email alerts. Then they start forwarding those email alerts to other board members, who start taking action as well. Before you know, it the board has formed an advocacy committee and has included advocacy requirements in the board member job description. Soon they are setting aside time during board meetings to strategize and plan for their upcoming advocacy efforts. Meanwhile, one of those board members joins a second board and brings that advocacy fire with them. And the whole process starts again.

I talked to a woman recently who was very interested in getting her board involved in advocacy. She had a friend who was in the same position. They told me about an ingenious plan they'd devised where each would join the other's board. That way they'd both each have an advocacy partner on the two boards. This is all it takes to kindle the advocacy fire for the whole board. I think it's brilliant.

As part of this effort, the Housing Alliance is working on a two-pronged approach. For boards or board members that are just getting started on this process, we have been offering tailored trainings about what advocacy is, why you should be doing it, and how to start advocating today.

For boards and organizations that are already involved in advocacy, we've been providing legislative updates to tie folks back into opportunities to take action.

If you're interested in either, feel free to reach out to me at benm@wliha.org or really anyone else here at the Housing Alliance and we'll get you set up with what you need.

Ensuring that everyone in Washington has the opportunity to live in a safe, healthy, affordable home is going to take all of us working together. That means board members, but it also means nonprofit staff, community members, volunteers, people who have or are currently experiencing homelessness, and legislators too.

Let's build the movement!

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