Good Advocacy News and More Work to Do!
With your help every day we are meeting people where they are on their recovery journey. While this work is at the core of Recovery Café’s mission another critical component is to address systemic change to create the conditions our precious Members need to rebuild their lives. Education and Advocacy are the two pillars of our efforts here. We are happy to report that the Washington Recovery Alliance (WRA) recently hired its first Executive Director, Lauren Davis. As you know, Recovery Café in collaboration with WA State convened the initial group that has become the WRA to create a statewide voice for recovery.
Recovery Café’s Executive Director, David Coffey, who Chaired the Search Committee, shared this about the process. “We are thrilled to have Lauren Davis as the first Executive Director of the Washington Recovery Alliance. Lauren brings a passion for the work, the expertise, and initiative to accomplish great things and has a love for all people and efforts recovery related. I encourage everyone to support the WRA, like the Facebook page, and congratulate Lauren and join the WRA list serve at the same time by emailing her at lauren@washingtonrecoveryalliance.org.”
While this is a great step forward for the State of Washington there is more work to be done. Thank you to everyone who joined us (more than 400 people) by signing Recovery Café’s letter to the President and other federally elected officials regarding the health care legislation being considered in DC. The intent of the letter can be summed up in this line:
“To repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act with a plan that does not fully care for the poorest and most vulnerable citizens in our nation would be morally reprehensible. “
We will continue to engage our elected officials and encourage you to do so as well as the U.S. Senate considers this legislation.
Finally, here in King County we have an opportunity that only comes every 7 years to significantly move the needle on funding for the population that Recovery Café serves. The Veterans and Human Services levy is currently being considered by the King County Council. We are endorsing and encourage you to as well the $.12 property tax the Executive Dow Constantine has proposed. The contact information for our Council Members is below and we hope you will reach out to them to support this critical legislation.
Rod Dembowki 206 477 1001 rod.dembowski@kingcounty.gov
Larry Gosset 206 477 1002 larry.gossett@kingcounty.gov
Lathy Lambert 206 477 1003 kathy.lambert@kingcounty.gov
Jeanne Kohl-Welles 206 477 1004 jeanne.kohl-welles@kingcounty.gov
Dave Upthegrove 206 477 1005 dave.upthegrove@kingcounty.gov
Claudia Balducci 206 477 1006 claudia.balducci@kingcounty.gov
Pete Vonreichbauer 206 477 1007 pete.vonreichbauer@kingcounty.gov
Joe McDermott 206 477 1008 joe.mcdermott@kingcounty.gov
Reagan Dunn 206 477 1009 reagan.dunn@kingcounty.gov
Currently about 10% of the people Recovery Café serves are veterans, and we anticipate this number will continue to grow. Passing the Levy at the $.12 level will help not only save lives but also transform those lives so that people can become all they were created to be.