Strangers No Longer
Drive Safe Advocacy Day was a Success!


(Click here for pictures from Advocacy Day.)
We have been reflecting on the work we have done to enable Drive Safe Advocacy Day to happen. It started last September with Sr. Martha de la Torre holding workshops with the Mujeres Circles to collect and develop what ultimately became known as our “Platform for Human Dignity.”

Then we had over 350 people attend the Assembly for Human Dignity on December 9th including 60 students from six Catholic high schools. At the Assembly we presented our platform and received the endorsement of a wide variety of leaders and allied organizations including Senator Jeff Irwin, Senator Mary Cavanagh, and Representative Regina Weiss, the Michigan Catholic Conference, as well as a long list of county and religious leaders.
All this preparation was the foundation of our Drive Safe Advocacy Day in Lansing last week. It was a wonderful day of energy and relationship building. Here is a summary of what happened that day:

  • Over 160 SNL members and friends made the trip to Lansing. We met with 65 legislators that day. We had a large representation from both our Latino and Anglo members.

  • Amy Ketner arranged for over 30 students and teachers from three high schools to join us—Cristo Rey in Detroit, Shrine in Royal Oak, and Brother Rice to meet with legislators. (Click here for their testimony.) SNL members with Rep. Helena Scott at right
  • Our event was the lead story on WLNS Channel 6 news in Lansing at 12 noon. (Click here for article and video.

  • Sen. Jeff Irwin, whose office arranged for our meeting rooms, introduced Strangers No Longer on the Senate floor in the morning. (Click here for introduction.) Rep. Tyrone Carter introduced our high school students on the House floor in the afternoon.

  • Over 20 Dominican Sisters joined us, expanding our meetings to include legislators from the Adrian area.

  • We welcomed some VIPs to our meeting room: Sen. Stephanie Chang, Sen. Jeff Irwin, Sen. Mary Cavanagh, and Paul Stankiewicz from the Michigan Catholic Conference. 
This event showed the strength of our organization and our commitment to working for the rights of immigrants.

Of course, our work isn't done yet! We need to continue to push legislators to pass the Drive Safe bills, we need to prepare for our annual banquet on April 23rd and secure ads for the banquet program. We also need to become a more financially sustainable organization.

We need your ideas and your help! You will be hearing from us.