Are you dissatisfied with current events and want to know how to respond to the injustice we are facing? Do you want to know what actions are most needed right now by organizations responding to poverty, environmental justice, gun violence, racism, and the issues you care about? Chris West, Senior Trainer for Catholic Relief Services, one of the many program partners of JustFaith, outlines how to raise our voices most effectively to our legislators and government officials.
Chris West has worked at Catholic Relief Services for two decades. As the Senior Trainer for Chapter Building, he works with dioceses and parishes to educated and engage Catholics in the work of CRS. Chris has over 25 years of experience in leadership development, training, and helping people of faith engage successfully in Social Mission. This includes skills and formation for building effective teams for social mission, and to advocate effectively for more just policies that impact the poor overseas, e.g. reforming trade, foreign assistance, food aid, migration, the extractive industries and others. He holds a BA in Human Services from Virginia Wesleyan College and a Master’s Degree in Political Communication, from the Johns Hopkins University.
Congressional Switchboard: 202.224.3121
Sample Phone Script re USAID Funding:
Hi, my name is xxxx and I’m a constituent living in xxxx. I’m calling today to ask the congressman to Please urge the administration to halt and reverse all terminations of active foreign assistance programs and immediately resume the disbursement of Congressionally appropriated foreign assistance funds. And please reach out to Congressman xxxx to let your leadership know how important this is to you and your constituents.
xxxx Share your personal reason why xxxx
This is a devastating decision and a broken promise. The overall humanitarian aid budget is a minuscule amount of our federal budget. Please fight to restore it!
I can be reached at … thank you very much.
Invitation to Advocacy and Global Solidarity
Thanks to the many people who made donations when registering for this event. In support of Catholic Relief Services as theirs and the work of many NGOs are under attack, we will be reinvesting the funds given to support advocacy for humanitarian aid and global solidarity. We will be offering scholarships to churches and groups that would like to offer Faith & Poverty: A Global Response in their community. Please contact info@justfaith.org for more information about scholarships. If you would like to support this scholarship, use our donation form below and add “Global Response” to the comment section.