Jefferson City – Advocacy Day

On Wednesday I went to the State Capitol in Jefferson City to advocate for Emmaus. I spent the day meeting one on one with senators, representatives, and legislators. It was really interesting but also very stressful. I have never been in such a politically charged environment before. It was very new and eye-opening to the world of politics.
We were advocating to get the Emmaus budget from 20million to 40million. This is the money that the state grants Emmaus to keep it in business. For our organization to run perfectly we would need at least 76million dollars but the state refused to pass that. So, we advocated for the senators to reevaluate the bill and increase our funding. I got to sit in the room as the bills were being moved on from the Senate to the house, and luckily Senator Eigel objected to the original bill and asked the chairman to keep the bill open to increase the finding to 30million. So, our campaigning and advocating worked!