Advocacy is a powerful tool to protect our most vulnerable community members. With critical programs like SNAP and Medicaid under attack, as well as the staffing reductions at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which oversees critical funding and programs to end homelessness, the ongoing threat to federal funding for nonprofits, the need for sustainable funding for emergency shelters, and much, much more all bubbling up right now that puts people experiencing hunger, homelessness, and poverty at even more risk, advocacy might be the most important tool right now in anti-poverty work.
Advocacy is compassion in action and a key component of social work. Social workers advocate for clients every day as they help them access healthcare, housing, and social services. As a social work agency, Preble Street advocacy efforts work toward solutions to the social, economic, and political systems that have historically perpetuated the inequities of our society. Our advocacy work includes community organizing, policy advocacy, and systems advocacy.
This is what social workers do; we don't stand by.
“This is what social workers do; we don’t stand by,” shares Mark Swann, Executive Director, Preble Street. “So much of the growth of Preble Street over the years has been directly related to our advocacy work; it’s a big part of our history as an agency.”
Preble Street is deeply committed to fulfilling our powerful mission and the work that we do on behalf of all vulnerable Mainers. We will fight to keep doing this important work. Our social safety net is already frayed, and any disruptions will be extremely harmful to the lives and well-being of tens of thousands of Mainers, in particular the Mainers who need our collective support the most.
You play an incredibly important role in our work. Your care for others in your community. Your advocacy for better policies so that all of us can thrive. Your support, from clothing donations to money, so that people have warm socks and shelter.
Preble Street founder Joe Kreisler believed that the community and local government have an obligation to ensure that people have decent housing, access to education, healthcare, and food for their families. Kreisler recognized that many of the institutions that were designed to provide these services created institutional barriers to the people most in need of them.
People with lived experience, like Homeless Voices for Justice, which celebrates 30 years of advocacy this year, must be part of advocacy efforts. To end the tragedy of long lines at shelters and soup kitchens, racial injustices, children experiencing hunger, and human trafficking, we must listen to the voices of the people directly impacted by those problems. These individuals are the experts of their own experiences, and we must support their participation in creating and implementing solutions.
How can I help?
Join us in creating change! Be an advocate for your neighbors: call your City Councilor, testify in front of the State Legislature on a bill, attend a rally or march, write an op-ed for a local newspaper, vote in all elections, and lift up the voices of people with lived experience.
To start, visit our Take Action page and/or sign up for Advocacy alerts to stay connected to Preble Street calls to action. Together, we can end homelessness, hunger, poverty, and injustice in Maine.
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