{"id":35707,"date":"2025-07-28T15:28:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/?p=35707"},"modified":"2025-09-23T08:23:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:23:24","slug":"advocacy-in-action-23-meetings-31-voices-one-powerful-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/advocacy-in-action-23-meetings-31-voices-one-powerful-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocacy in action: 23 Meetings. 31 Voices. One powerful week."},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Yasmin Campos-Mendez, <\/strong>Public policy manager<\/strong><\/h4>

With deep gratitude and inspiration, I\u2019m proud to share that our Public Policy team recently led a powerful\u00a0Congressional Week of Action, held from July 14\u201318.<\/p>

Throughout the week, we held\u00a023 meetings with congressional staff across the country\u00a0and engaged\u00a031 participants through advocacy webinars. It was incredibly inspiring to see congressional staff eager to listen and build lasting partnerships with advocates, survivors, and\u00a0promotoras\u00a0on critical issues such as domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking.<\/p>

Alongside me,\u00a0Yasmin Campos-Mendez, Public Policy Manager, our dedicated team included\u00a0Alexander Delgado, Public Policy Director;\u00a0Mary Lu Schmid, Public Policy Coordinator;\u00a0Nancy Nava, Senior Manager of Research and Evaluation at Esperanza United; and\u00a0Melissa Patino, our outstanding social work intern from Columbia University School of Social Work, whose tireless coordination was essential to this success.<\/p>

I want to express my deepest gratitude to\u00a0Alexander Delgado, whose brilliant idea and leadership made the Congressional Week of Action possible. We remain hopeful that these connections will continue to advance survivor-centered advocacy and drive meaningful policy change.<\/p>

\u201cAs a survivor and advocate, participating in the Congressional Week of Action was an empowering experience. It reminded me that our voices hold power and that change starts when we speak up, not just for ourselves, but for those in our Latin community whose stories are often overlooked. Thank you to Esperanza United for creating a space where we feel heard and supported.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

On\u00a0July 17, we gathered for a celebratory community call, where we heard directly from participants who shared a renewed sense of confidence and excitement to join us again next year. Many entered the week feeling nervous but left empowered, having used their voices to advocate for vital services and protections for survivors.<\/p>

One survivor\u2019s journey \u2013 from anxious preparation to confident advocacy \u2013 reminded me of the profound impact of support and the powerful good that is possible through this work.<\/p>

Looking ahead, our team is energized to launch a\u00a0Survivors Council\u00a0that will deepen survivor engagement in future advocacy efforts, reflecting our unwavering commitment to trauma-informed, survivor-centered approaches.<\/p>

This experience has filled us with gratitude and\u00a0esperanza\u00a0\u2013 proof that\u00a0when survivors lead, real change follows.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yasmin Campos-Mendez, Public policy manager With deep gratitude and inspiration, I\u2019m proud to share that our Public Policy team recently led a powerful\u00a0Congressional Week of Action, held from July 14\u201318. Throughout the week, we held\u00a023 meetings with congressional staff across the country\u00a0and engaged\u00a031 participants through advocacy webinars. It was incredibly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":35708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[34,38],"class_list":["post-35707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-free","tag-public-policy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35707"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35728,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35707\/revisions\/35728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}