Colorado 2022 Advocacy Agenda

For a printable version of our agenda, click here.

In 2022, our areas of advocacy are:

• Ending Hunger

  • Improve access and usage rates for SNAP benefits and encourage greater participation in food and nutrition programs, particularly for children and youth
  • Address the material needs of ag workers who grow, tend, and harvest food in Colorado
  • Collaborate with faith-based entities in the regional network, including ELCA World Hunger, Bread for the World, and the Rocky Mountain Synod Hunger Team

• 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 and support statewide direct assistance programs, including energy assistance, legal defense, and more
  • Support reform of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights to give our democratically-elected legislature fiscal authority in taxation

• Access to Housing

  • Promote measures to expand and protect housing options for low-income individuals and families, particularly renters
  • Ensure that people experiencing homelessness have the right and responsibility to access robust services and support, particularly emergency shelters and health care
  • Engage bills from the legislature's Interim Housing Task Force

• Criminal Justice Reform

  • Work with advocates on sentencing reform, with a focus on sentences for which there is evidence of disproportionate racialized impacts
  • Advocate for reduced and/or safer police interaction and increased intervention by 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, including the need for 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
  • Engage bills from the legislature's Interim Behavioral Health Task Force

• 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 legislation to address the root causes of the climate crisis, particularly fossil fuel extraction and greenhouse gas emissions
  • Support incentive-building programs and grants to local communities to build renewable infrastructure
  • Address economic implications of transitioning communities away from fossil fuel and extraction-based energy economy
  • Support and collaborate with allied Lutheran entities in local and regional work, including the Rocky Mountain Synod Creation Care Team and Lutherans Restoring Creation