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Advocating for Change

    We change laws. We change lives.

    MCADSV staff and member programs develop relationships with legislators and their staff to advance public policy through the art of conversation and connection. These are conversations that key in on the priorities, world view, personalities and life experiences of public policy makers to make a human and personal connection with those who are in a position to make a difference on issues of domestic and sexual violence.

     

    Missouri Capitol Advocacy Days

    Advocates from MCADSV member programs meet annually in the Capitol with legislators each week in February to put into practice the slogan of MCADSV’s legislative advocacy: “We change laws. We change lives.” During MCADSV’s Capitol Advocacy Days, face-to-face meetings occur between advocates and survivors from every MCADSV membership region with Missouri’s 34 state Senators and 163 state Representatives.

    In a weaving of old-school Capitol office visits and new communications tools, MCADSV members advance their advocacy through social media in live Twitter campaigns during crucial appropriations hearings. With 140 characters, advocates detail for legislators the numbers of victims helped in their districts with life-changing services supported through the funding that flows from a printed line-item in a budget bill. Using the Missouri General Assembly’s legislative hashtag, #moleg, advocates tweet thanks to legislators after in-office visits to give them public credit in the Twitter-sphere for committing to support MCADSV priority legislation.



     

    National Advocacy Day

    MCADSV staff and members travel annually to Capitol Hill to advocate for federal funding and legislative support in the mission to end sexual and domestic violence.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Identify your state and federal legislators

    To find and contact your state legislators
    •    House 
    •    Senate

    To find and contact your federal legislators
    •    House
    •    Senate

    MCADSV is not a 24-hour service provider and does not provide crisis services. For immediate help in Missouri, click here or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-7233 or the National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673.

    About Us

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    This project was supported in part by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Family Violence Prevention and Services Program contract No. 2013G991540 and by Grant No. 2015-MU-AX-0010 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication/program/exhibition are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reject the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.