It’s that time of year again, when we close our clinic doors for a day and trek with clients, partners and each other to Annapolis to champion the issues that affect our work and clients most.

But for Lobby Day 2017 (Thursday, February 23), we’re mixing things up a little bit and trying something new.

(Hint: Make sure you have your care team t-shirt clean and ready to go.)

That’s right. We’ll be organizing ourselves as care teams for a range of morning activities, culminating with a noontime rally on Lawyers’ Mall. Then we’ll fan out across the House and Senate buildings for an afternoon of hearings, testimony and lots of learning about different bills and the lawmakers who are for and against them.

The day offers an up-close glimpse into the legislative process and emphasizes our essential role in it as frontline advocates. And there’ll be a range of activities—something for everybody—to ensure a meaningful and engaging experience for all 300+ of our Health Care for the Homeless Lobby Day participants! By sporting our care team colors, we’ll drive home the message that we’re committed to providing our clients with integrated, whole-person health care. And we may just spark a little friendly staff competition in the process—say, when it comes to numbers of information packets delivered to lawmakers and fabulousness of signs on display at Lawyers’ Mall.

The beef: Our lobbying efforts

At the core of our day, of course, will be our lobbying efforts: strategically educating lawmakers about—and persuading them to support—those bills that matter most to our community and our work. We’re working now to zero in on the key bills we’ll be pushing on Lobby Day, and in coming days and weeks we’ll be building legislative agendas and strategies for our various teams.

Please stay tuned right here to the staff portal for updates, and expect to hear from members of the larger communications team (Anthony, Sydnee, Kate, Vanessa, Beza and Molly) in the days ahead as we recruit folks to help us plan and lead the day.

Day at a glance…

• 7:30 a.m.: Meet at 421 Fallsway 
• 8 a.m.: Travel to Annapolis
• 9 a.m.: Arrive at Stanton Center for Lobby Day kick-off and light breakfast
• 10 a.m.-12 p.m.: Care team activities: lobbying, packet delivering, sign-making
• 11 a.m.-2 p.m.: Lunch boxes are available at Stanton Center
• 12-1 p.m.: Rally on Lawyers’ Mall with the Behavioral Health Coalition
• 1-3 p.m.: Hearings
• 3-4 p.m.: Travel back to Baltimore

RSVP now!

Take a minute now to let us know you’re joining the fun by submitting your RSVP here—by end of day on Friday, February 10.

Stay tuned

Over the next few weeks, we’ll dig into more details and schedule info sessions and trainings to get our Health Care for the Homeless teams ready to go! Together, we’ll make our mark on Annapolis.