List of Advocacy Groups for Washington State Issues

This list started as a site compiled by Nancy Amidei (amidei@u.washington.edu) for the Civic Engagement Project. It has grown quite a bit. Please contact Chad if you would like to add an issue and specific advocacy group to this page.

You can view the original document here. (PDF)

If you wish to stay informed about the progress of issues you care most about, then contact an advocacy group for your issue. There is an advocacy group for almost every issue. They:

• Monitor their issues closely,
• Distribute weekly (or "as needed") Legislative Alerts,
• Recommend positions on bills and budget items, and
• Suggest sample messages.

Here is a list of the 2007 Lobby Days that we are aware of. If you have additional dates to add, please join our mailing list and let us know about them!

The University of Washington School of Social Work puts out a weekly "Policy Watch" bulletin.

To find an advocacy group on your issue: ask people affected by the issue, ask professionals who work in that field, ask friends, or, use our list. Please contact them directly to receive their Legislative Alerts.

Aging/Long-term Care

• WA Association of Area Agencies on Aging: w4a@olywa.net
• Service Employees International Union: rmabr@aol.com
• Alzheimer's Association of WA - Patricia.hunter@alz.org

Note: the Senior Lobby will not be doing regular alerts, but can be contacted for information on relevant bills: seniorlobby@uswest.net

Child Abuse & Neglect -

• Seth Dawson - Lobbyist
• Childrens Home Society: LippoldLau@aol.com;
• Washington State CASA: info@washingtonstatecasa.org.

Child Care and Early Childhood Issues -

• WA Association for the Education of Young Children: agda@waeyc.org ;

Child Nutrition - see Hunger.

Child Welfare/foster care/adoption -

• Childrens Home Society: lippoldlau@aol.com

Children's Issues -

• Children's Alliance: jon@childrensalliance.org
• Children's Alliance Action Center

  This is a new online advocacy system, which includes an "elected official lookup tool" to make sending a message easy.

• Commercial Alert
• Washington State PTA - for Health/Safety/Welfare of children and youth

  To sign up for the "Grassroots Connection" contact: Mkenfield@wastatepta.org

• Treehouse for Kids - Giving Foster Children a childhood and a future

Criminal Justice

• Washington Network for Civil Justice and Accountability
• Justice Works! - lzengage@northwest.net
• Washington State Catholic Conference - wscc@thewscc.org

  You can read their 2005 Legislative Priorities on their website.

Disability

• The ARC of Washington: (Advocates for the Rights of Citizens with Developmental Disabilities) grier@arcwa.org

  To be added to their alert list, visit their website and click on link for email alerts. Each person needs to sign up for the service so that they can receive information that points them to their legislators.

• Washington Protection & Advocacy: philj@wpas-rights.org

Domestic Violence

• WA State Coalition Against Domestic Violence: Action@wscadv.org

Education

• Washington Education Association
• League of Education Voters: info@educationvoters.org
• Washington State PTA: mkenfield@wastatepta.org
• Washington State School Director's Association
• Washington Association of School Administrators
• Washington Association for the Education of Young Children
• Association of Washington School Principals
• American Association of University Professors - UW Chapter

Election Reform

• Washington Fair Elections
• Citizens for Proportional Representation
  PO Box 20534
  Seattle, WA 98102-1534
  Phone: (206) 285-2460

Energy

• NW Energy Coalition
• Northwest SEED (Sustainable Energy for Economic Development
• Bonneville Environmental Foundation
• Renewable Northwest Project
• Institute for Washington's Future

Environment

• American Rivers
• Audubon Washington
• Center for Environmental Law and Policy
• Climate Solutions
• Conservation Northwest
• Earth Share of Washington
• Futurewise
• Heart of America NW
• Institute for Washington's Future
• NW Energy Coalition
• People for Puget Sound
• Priorities for a Healthy Washington
• Sierra Club
• Transportation Choices Coalition
• Thornton Creek Alliance
• Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation
• Washington Conservation Voters
• WashPIRG
• Washington Environmental Council
• Washington Toxics Coalition
• Washington Wilderness Coalition

Faith Communities:

NOTE: some of these groups provide information for their members only. Please check directly with them.

• The Church Council of Greater Seattle
• Friends Committee on WA State Public Policy - fcwpp@quaker.org
• Jewish Federation - governmentaffairs@jewishinseattle.org
• Lutheran Public Policy office - pbenz@lcsnw.org
• Reclaim Faith - Dan Boroff, borroff@comcast.net
• WA Association of Churches - http://www.thewac.org/
• WA State Catholic Conference - wscc@thewscc.org

Family Leave

• Economic Opportunity Institute: marilyn@eoionline.org

Foreign Policy

• Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War

Farming

The 46th District doesn't have that many farms beyond the Pea Patches, but I wanted to put this section on the page to help the farmers that grow our food and bring their produce into our district to sell to us.

• Washington State Farmers Market Association

GLBT issues

• Equal Rights Washington: info@equalrightswashington.org

Gun Violence

• Washington Cease Fire: kristen@washingtonceasefire.org

Health

• Nick Federici: nickf@earthlink.net
• American Lung Association of WA - legnet@alaw.org
• Group Health Sr. Caucus

  All Group Health members age 65 and older are automatically members of the Senior Caucus. There are local chapters throughout the Puget Sound area. For information, call the Group Health Resource Line at 206-326-2800 or 1-800-992-2279 toll-free.

• Health Care for All - Washington
• Health Care is a Right Coalition

  Meets every other Saturday. Contact Brian King at 206-526-8169

• Northwest Regional Primary Care Association
• Washington Citizen Action - brett@wacitizenaction.org.
• Washington For Health Care - christy@imahealthcarevoter.org
• Washington State Nurses Association - Apiazza@wsna.org

Head Start/ECEAP

• Washington State Association of Head Start/ECEAP: robbindunnwsa@comcast.net

Higher Education/Higher Education/Faculty

• American Association of University Women: publicpolicystate@aauw-wa.org
• Washington Federation of Teachers: ldodso@sccd.ctc.edu; 206-242-4777

HIV/AIDS

• Lifelong Aids Alliance - action@llaa.org , and, www.CANNetwork.net

  You can sign up for their email alerts.

Homelessness

• WA State Coalition for the Homeless - sethdawson@att.net

Housing

• WA Low Income Housing Alliance - mail@wliha.org
• sethdawson@att.net
• nickf@earthlink.net
• Tenants Union of Washington State

Hunger/Food Assistance

• Anti-Hunger and Nutrition Coalition: Shelley@childrensalliance.org

  Information on Food Stamps, WIC, Child Nutrition, EFAP

• Children's Alliance: http://www.childrenshub.org/calliance/join.html

  Can select alerts by "issue cluster," e.g., hunger, school nutrition, etc.

• Food Lifeline/Second Harvest Food Bank of the Inland NW. - moran_consulting@msn.com

Labor

• United Steel Workers of America
• America in Solidarity
• Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
• King County Labor Council
• Washington Labor Links - Huge list!
• US Labor Against the War
• Washington State Jobs with Justice
• SEIU
  • SEIU Local 6 - represents janitors, security officers, and other working families in Western Washington.
  • SEIU Local 519 - represents employees from a wide spectrum of public safety fields in King County, WA.
  • SEIU 775 - Washington State's Long Term Care Union
  • SEIU 925 - Public Service Workers in Action
  • SEIU 1199NW - Members work in health care facilities across Washington State.
  • Public School Employees of Washington (now SEIU Local 1948)
• UFCW 21 (grocery & retail)
• CWA 7800 (qwest)
• AFSCME C.2 (county & city employees)
  • Includes Seattle Library workers
• American Postal Workers Union- Greater Seattle Area
• National Postal Mail Handlers Union - Local 316
• Amalgamated Transit Union - Local 587 (Metro & Sound Transit)
• Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild - Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO TNG/CWA Local 37082 (Seattle Times & PI)
• Teamsters - Local 174 (UPS, others)
• Seattle Education Association (K-12 teachers & staff)
• Seattle Community Colleges Federation of Teachers : Local 1789
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 46
• American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO Local 3197
• American Association of University Professors - UW Chapter
• United Faculty of Washington State
• International Alliance of Fire Fighters, Local 2876 (Olympia)

  Online Calendar

• Labor News Sources:
  • Union Librarian Blog

Juvenile Justice

• jon@childrensalliance.org

Mental Health

• Washington Protection & Advocacy: PhilJ@wpas-rights.org ;
• Washington Community Mental Health Council: cgaylord@wcmhcnet.org;
• sethdawson@att.net
• National Alliance for the Mentally Ill - WA: director@nami-greaterseattle.org, or, FridayFacts@mail.namiwa.info

Parks and Recreation

• Friends of Magnuson Park

Poverty and Welfare Issues

• Statewide Poverty Action Network;

  Email contact: span@povertyaction.org , or call (206) 694-6794 - toll free: 1-866-789-SPAN.

• bob@bobcooper.org

Rural Health

• Rural Health Washington: hardt@wsu.edu
• Washington Rural Health Association

Sexual Assault and Crime Victims Issues

• Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs: toby@wcsap.org

Social Services

• King County: United Way - sgagey@uwkc.org

Substance Abuse/Treatment

• sethdawson@att.net
• Association of Alcohol and Addiction Programs: aapwa@qwest.net

Tax Policy

• Economic Opportunity Institute - marilyn@eoionline.org
• Washington Citizen Action - brett@wacitizenaction.org
• United for a Fair Economy
• Washington Tax Fairness Coalition

Tobacco Prevention

• NickF@earthlink.net
• melanie.newman@cancer.org
• http://www.wabreathe.org
• American Lung Assoc. of WA: alaw@alaw.org

Transportation

• Sound Transit Updates
• Sound Transit North Link information page
• Transportation Choices

Welfare

• Statewide Poverty Action: juliew@fremontpublic.org
• Childrens Home Society: LippoldLau@aol.com

Women's Issues

• Northwest Women's Law Center: nsapiro@nwwlc.org
• National Organization of Women - Seattle Chapter

Youth

• Children's Alliance: jon@childrensalliance.org

Other Advocacy Groups

Washington State is populated with many different organizations that track legislation and its affects in and around our state. Here are a few, with links and resources from each.

• League of Women Voters
  • Website: http://lwvwa.org/
  • 2006 Priorities