Thank you to all who attended our Virtual Advocacy Days and to our sponsor Takeda for making it possible! Keep an eye out for thank you materials and other toolkits coming soon.
While we are still facing restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic our elected officials are moving forward in Springfield with important decisions - affecting our lives - while they may not understand how they impact bleeding disorders. It is up to us as the bleeding disorders community to meet with them and educate them so that when they vote – they do it wisely – representing us, the way we wanted when we elected them into office. Since we can’t physically go to Springfield right now – we will use the power of the internet – and host a Virtual Advocacy Day – to make our VOICES HEARD! BDAI’s annual Legislative Advocacy Days empower us to impact the legislative process. In other words, in this new adapted world of the pandemic it will give us the opportunity to:
Meet face-to-face with lawmakers and their staff who shape statewide healthcare policy over a Zoom meeting and tell them what it means to live with a bleeding a disorder and how it truly affects our daily lives;
Inform your Senator and Representative on critical issues that impact your everyday life and the life of other people in our community; and finally,
Learn how to be a better advocate for yourself and your family – no matter where you are on that road, we can all gain skills!
May 17th Agenda:
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome
9:15 – 9:45 Overview & Priorities
9:45 – 10:00 Structure & Breakout into Teams
10:00 – 12:30 Meet with Legislators
12:30 – 1:00 Report Outs & Wrap Up
To better prepare you, we will be offering two - 1 hour trainings on May 13th at 12:00 PM and 6:30 PM. Please plan on attending one of these sessions.
At our training sessions we will be discussing what it means to advocate with a legislator. We will educate you and provide you with materials about key issues; then we will practice a meeting.
We will have about 15 - 20 minutes per legislator and all of our meetings will be in groups. We will let know which group and who your group leader is prior to May 17th.
Even though we are on Zoom, please plan on wearing business attire - although a suit is not required. Please refrain from wearing clothing with company or pharmaceutical logos. Have with you anything you'd like to help explain bleeding disorders in less than 5 minutes to legislators, i.e. personal stories, photos, factor and supplies, a copy of an insurance EOB etc. Children are also great way to personalize your story and are more than welcome at this event.
If you have any questions please reach out to Bob at brobinson@bdai.org or Noelle at Nsimpson@bdai.org
Since we can’t all get together for dinner as we usually do, BDAI will send you a $50 Grubhub gift card per household!
