YMCA Advocacy Day

I love politics. I don’t think that comes as a surprise to anyone who knows me. My interest in politics has always been on a national level. My first truly distinctive memory of politics came when I was in seventh grade and stayed up late into the night glued to the television during Election Day in 2000 as Dan Rather covered the election for CBS News. I believe that was the first time that I was really cognizant of national politics and the impact that a day like that has on the nation. It was the first time I really was aware and thought that real changes would occur because of the way people voted, and how and why people in each state vote the way that they do. This interest only expanded while living and studying in Washington, DC as I spent more time studying international politics. Even though I am not there now, I continue to be fascinated with national politics, and take time each day reading online to up to date with the latest political news. It was easy for me to embrace an interest in national and international politics. However, during this same time I have mostly neglected state and local politics. This year is changing that, and I am beginning to pay more attention to local and state politics.

A few weeks ago my boss asked me if I wanted to attend YMCA State Advocacy Day at the state capitol in Springfield, IL this past Wednesday. I did not hesitate; of course I wanted to go. So, this past Wednesday became one of my favorite days I have worked at the Y this year. I wasn’t quite sure exactly what we were going to be doing while in Springfield, but I figured it would be a good opportunity for me to learn about the political and policy side of the YMCA and how it advocates for those things in its recently rebranded tagline “for youth development, for healthy living, and social responsibility”. This day was a day in which staff (mostly CEOs, CFOs, and Branch Executives) from YMCAs all over the state of Illinois came to Springfield to meet with their local legislators, update them on what the YMCA s are doing, and seek their support with new initiatives.

The day began with the Illinois State Alliance of YMCAs recognizing a few State Representatives or Senators with “legislative champion” awards for the work towards youth development and other areas where the Y works. The state Senator who represents much of the area serviced by the YMCA of Southwest Illinois, including Cahokia, was presented with one of these awards. (Of the four legislators who won awards, he was the only one to show up to personally accept the award during the presentation. Later on, a few of us from the YMCA of Southwest Illinois met with him.

When we made our way to his office, I was stunned to see his nameplate on the door with a plate saying “Senate Majority Leader” under his name. I had no idea that the state Senator that represents the area where I work held such a position. We waited in his office for a long time, as the meeting he was in before ours ran late, and then he had to step out for a brief committee meeting (none of this came as a surprise to anyone as it is Congress) but our meeting was well worth the wait.

The Senator has a particular passion for the youth of the area and for college mentorship and readiness programs. He runs a program in which each year he takes two trips of between 40-50 high school students from six or seven high schools in this area on about a week long college tour visit through multiple states to visit around 10 colleges on each trip. One of these trips is geared towards underclassman and one towards seniors to see many of the schools for which they have already applied. Representative of many of the students in the area, the majority of these schools are HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). The Senator shares the belief with my boss that each student possesses the ability to be motivated to succeed academically; that there is something that will propel that person forward towards accomplishing something that is greater than them. They both believe that setting attainable expectations, seeing these schools and being told that these places are within reach, will motivate high school students to aspire towards these goals, succeed, and attend these colleges.

I felt that our meeting with the Senator was especially beneficial to me, since one of the larger projects that I have been working on while at the Y has been writing grants for our College Readiness programs, and specifically to obtain funding for college tours of the same nature. (See Ordinary Time Part II) I left this meeting feeling particularly re-encouraged about the work that I am doing after hearing about a similar program to ours that operates successfully. The Senator said that the program’s success rate is at or above fifty percent, which means that half if not more than half of the students who participate in his tour program attend schools that they visit. Compared to the stats in the area and that I mentioned in Ordinary Time II, this is a very good success rate for this area. Many of these schools are not easy to be accepted into either such as Howard University and Hampton University (which President Obama gave the commencement address at this past year). The meeting with the Senator gave me something I could use in these grants--while it sounds like common sense that seeing colleges is a way to motivate students to do well to attend, it is not easy finding data or proof of this success in a way that could be used when writing a grant. His program provides me with the example that I was looking for.

The meeting with the State Senator provides a stark contrast with the only other time I have met with an elected legislator at their office. A few years ago, I met with the US Congressman from my home area in Washington, DC. That meeting felt more like an exercise in civility and a brief meeting with no real purpose other than a meet and greet with a photo, and I came away from one feeling an emptiness that does not typically occur when I think of politics. To be fair, that was a US Congressman and I didn’t have a true purpose or objective, unlike Wednesday when we did have a purpose. That may account for something. But, this year I am starting to feel my boss’s passion for local politics and really buy into his beliefs that local politics is where everything takes place and where all the true people are. As a local, state politician, the issues represent more distinctive faces of real people, and you must be truly accessible to the people you represent. Our State Senator proved this again at the dinner reception for the Senators and Representatives of all the areas in the state that closed Advocacy Day. The Senator, who is the Majority leader, was again the only one to attend. We talked more about his college readiness program, and I talked to him a little about and the much reported on struggles with the state budget and the steps that Illinois is taking to remedy it. During this time I could not believe I was talking to the majority leader, but it also seemed like any normal conversation that I could be having with my boss or a boss at another job or with my parents and their friends or anyone else.

This was my first real taste of state politics, the first time I have ever given it a real chance. From this time I know I will take much more of a keen interest on this subject.