LIVE UNITED Awards: Advocacy is not one size fits all

By Lisa Sieren

Yesterday United Way held its inaugural LIVE UNITED Recognition Event. This event highlighted the great work individuals and organizations are doing in our community in the areas of Give, Advocate and Volunteer. While I looked forward to the whole event, I especially was excited to celebrate the great advocacy work being done in our community. It is not often that we publicly highlight advocacy work and thank advocates who advance the common good in Central Iowa.

I could easily write one blog or ten about each of the Advocate award recipients. Instead, I will highlight each recipient and encourage you to learn more on your own about the great work each of the recipients is doing in our community. The individual Advocate award recipient was Cheryl Long, a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA). As a CASA volunteer, Cheryl works tirelessly on behalf of abused and neglected children involved with the courts to ensure they are in a safe home and are having their needs met.

The Advocate award for organizations with 100 employees or less went to The Joan and Lyle Middleton Center for Children’s Rights at Drake University Law School. The Middleton Center works with foster care youth to identify needs and develop or improve public policy that impact the lives of these youth, such as passing legislation that allows siblings in the foster care system to have visitation rights with each other. I have witnessed the impact the Middleton Center has had at the Capitol in advocating for the rights of foster care youth and I can tell you it is truly amazing.

The Advocate award for organizations with 101-999 employees went to Blank Children’s Hospital. Blank’s Center for Advocacy and Outreach has been a leader in advocating for the health and safety of Iowa’s children. Their work includes facilitating the passage of seatbelt legislation and coordinating with homeless shelters to assess the health risks of homeless children.

The Advocate award for organizations with 1000 or more employees went to Meredith Corporation. Meredith Corporation has made an organizational commitment to advocating on a variety of issues, including women’s health and early literacy. I always find it very notable when a large corporation makes a commitment to improve lives in the community by encouraging advocacy work within their organization.

As previously stated, I could easily write much more about the tremendous work of the recipients, as well as that of all the nominees. Instead I will wrap up with one final thought. The above recipients illustrate very clearly that ANYONE and ANY ORGANIZATION can advocate. I encourage you to look within your own organization or company -- or at your own life -- and find one way that you can advocate in your community.