Working to make change in Olympia -- BABES staff at AIDS Awareness & Action Day 2007!
BABES believes that advocating for funding for all HIV/AIDS services is a critical action for justice. It is imperative that local organizations are able to provide care and support in a time of increasing financial insecurity. These services are more vital now than ever, and our legislators need to hear from us just how much we need them. We must tell our stories in Olympia on February 18th. In this fight, we recognize the importance of community mobilization, working with our allies, and open dialogue about what we need. This advocacy day is about preserving the support that sustains us, and uniting to strengthen one another.
In an effort to highlight the power of events like AIDS Awareness & Action Day, BABES has collected quotations from staff and members about advocacy:
“As a person living with HIV I find it important and empowering to advocate for myself and others living with HIV and to emphasize how crucial it is to keep funding available for much needed services.”
“Every one should go to an advocacy day at least once. I can guarantee you will want to go again!”
“If we don’t speak up, how will anyone know what we want?”
“We need to get loud!”
“Advocacy about things that matter is a way to care for ourselves, and each other.”
BABES hopes everyone reading this will “get loud” and join us at AIDS Awareness & Action Day to ensure that your legislators know the issues important to us, our families, and our communities.
BABES Network, a program of the YWCA Seattle • King County • Snohomish County, is a peer support program for women living with HIV. Founded on the concept that HIV positive women are uniquely qualified to support and encourage one another, BABES has worked to reduce isolation, promote self-empowerment, enhance quality of life, and serve the needs of women facing HIV and their families since 1989. BABES provides peer support, advocacy, education and outreach. To contact BABES Network, please call 206.720.5566, or email the_staff@babesnetwork.org.
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