Colorado 2021 Advocacy Agenda

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-Colorado has adopted its 2021 Policy Agenda. Check out our areas of focus:

• Ending Hunger
  
  • Improve access and usage rates for SNAP benefits for already-qualified individuals and support protection of the program on a federal level
  • Encourage greater participation in food and nutrition programs, particularly for children age 0-18
  • Support and collaborate with allied faith-based entities in local and regional work, including ELCA World Hunger, the Rocky Mountain Synod World Hunger Team and Bread for the World

• Poverty Reduction
  
  • Support follow-up legislative work to implement voter-approved Proposition 118, establishing a paid family and medical leave insurance program
  • Protect access to federal programs for people living in poverty
  • Support reform of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights to give elected representatives fiscal authority in taxation

• Access to Housing
  
  • Promote measures to expand and protect housing options for low-income individuals and families, particularly renters, and to extend eviction protections during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Ensure that people experiencing homelessness have the right and responsibility to access robust services and support

• Criminal Justice Reform
  
  • Work with reform advocates on automatic record sealing and sentence commutation, with a focus on sentences with disproportionate racialized impacts
  • Advocate for reduced police interaction and increased response from trained mental health professionals for those experiencing mental health crises

• Public Health
  
  • Protect health care access as a public good and human right that should be available to everyone regardless of ability to pay, particularly follow-up care for those suffering long-term effects from COVID-19
  • Support awareness of public safety in relation to firearms, and understanding firearm-involved deaths (homicides and suicides) as a major public health concern and support home safe storage measures
  • Promote access to care and treatment for those suffering from opioid addiction
  • Address the impacts of anxiety, depression, stress, suicidal ideation and other mental health conditions exacerbated by the pandemic, particularly among front-line health care workers and young people

• Migrants and Refugees
  
  • Interpret and promote the sanctuary denomination decision of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly
  • Support ELCA Washington Office advocacy around asylum/refugee and immigration policies and collaborate where possible with Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services and Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains

• Caring for Our Environment
  
  • Engage proactively with Colorado legislators (state and federal) to encourage legislation to address the root causes of the climate crisis, including greenhouse gas emissions
  • Support incentive-building programs to reduce global warming and grants to local communities to build renewable infrastructure, in the model of Lutherans Restoring Creation
  • Address economic implications of transitioning communities away from fossil fuel and extraction-based energy economy