FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Re: January 18, 2023
“Day for all People” brings more than 400 Virginians together to advocate justice
VICPP’s Annual Advocacy Day includes interfaith prayers, inspiring presentations, informative workshops, and legislative training and visits with Senators and Delegates
Richmond, Va – The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy’s (VICPP) Day for All People annual advocacy day is set to take place tomorrow morning, Wednesday, January 18, 2023. Day for All People (DFAP) brings together people of faith and goodwill from across Virginia. Uniting across diverse belief sets and backgrounds, VICPP members from churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and many congregations and organizations across the Commonwealth will unite over the shared goal of advocating justice in Virginia’s policies and practices.
The day’s scheduled events include inspirational presentations, informative workshops, effective advocacy, and in-person legislative visits. Registrants have the opportunity to participate in two legislative visits: one with their State Senator and one with their State Delegate. Attendees will be trained on how to hold a legislative visit, and will be able to share their thoughts on issues such as limiting solitary confinement, ending prison profiteering, continuing to expand access to paid sick days, increasing funding for affordable housing, requiring implicit (unconscious) bias training for medical professionals in light of Virginia’s alarming maternal mortality rates, supporting Virginia’s workers, and more. For more details on VICPP’s legislative priorities, click here.
VICPP will also be joined by SEIU 32BJ, who is bringing a busload of folks to Richmond from Northern Virginia. VICPP has been working with SEIU 32BJ to support workers in need of paid sick leave, and affordable employer-provided health insurance at Washington Dulles and Reagan National airports. Together, the two organizations are asking the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) to adopt policies that workers want and need to ensure their health and the health of their families. This is an exciting partnership! NOVA folks will be ready to talk about the airport worker’s fight with legislators even though it is not a state policy fight. VICPP has a fact sheet on the issue and a report that details stories shared by airport workers, which can be read here.
Also joining DFAP are midwives who are part of the PUSH Coalition, which was created by VICPP in response to the alarming disparities between rates of maternal death in Black women as compared to their white counterparts, regardless of education and socioeconomic status. VICPP has built a coalition of over 30 health care organizations, written legislation, and organized on this front for several years. Read more about the implicit bias bill, the coalition, and the ongoing work here.
To close out our annual advocacy day, as part of VICPP’s Statewide Day of Action & Prayer, we are organizing actions around Virginia in collaboration with Virginia Organizing on the weekend of January 21 (right after DFAP) to highlight the need for affordable housing in the budget. Vigils are being planned at sites throughout the Commonwealth that have an impact on the housing stock in different communities. Locations and all updates will be posted on our website here and a press release will follow late this week.
Schedule at a Glance (For detailed schedule, click here)
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