FCNL was buzzing with action this summer with 37 young adults working and learning with staff. They came either as summer interns, Advocacy Corps organizers, or Young Fellows.
FCNL’s young adult programs started amid the turmoil of the Vietnam War, more than 45 years ago.
The Advocacy Corps organizers start their work after an intensive, 10-day training in Washington, D.C. Then they will spend 10 months organizing their communities to oppose the militarization of their police forces with the Pentagon’s distribution of weapons for war.
“The training ensured that I have the confidence, the tools, and the support I need to come back to my community and incite change,” said Sierra Cottle, Advocacy Corps organizer in Flagstaff, AZ.
Witness Wednesday at the Quaker Welcome Center is a time when we train lobbyists visiting Washington, DC. A recent group was composed of 13 students from Moses Brown School in Rhode Island. The fifth graders came for training although they had previous lobbying experience — lobbying their parents for a puppy or to stay up late.
To translate their experiences into school politics, they role-played using FCNL’s Lobby Visit Roadmap. They created two groups, with their teachers acting as decision-makers. The teachers warned them that they could not lobby for more recess, which was met with great disappointment.
The boys decided to ask for less homework. Each of them talked about how “loads of daily homework” affected them. With less homework, they argued that they could spend more time with their families and study more diligently.
Surprisingly, the girls asked to restructure the silent reflection time. They acknowledged its benefits but argued that the timing was not beneficial to their early-morning energetic minds. The girls said that perhaps more time was needed to center themselves, or that it be rescheduled, or conducted differently.
Their teacher, Jeff, said that this school policy had not changed in decades. He promised the children he would bring it up in the next school board meeting.
At the end of the training, another teacher, Ron, stressed that they should never be afraid to ask members of Congress for the changes that they want since the people elect them.