The Importance of Storytelling in Raising Awareness of the Impact of COVID-19
Our mentoring and youth-serving programs have had to adapt their delivery of services, expanding into new roles such as tutors, mental health advocates, and friends. Some have even distributed meals and other necessities to youth and their families in our hardest-hit communities. We are encouraging programs to share stories of how COVID-19 has affected their organizations with members of the legislature while they grapple with tough financial decisions around the state budget. Most importantly, we want to lift up the experiences of mentees during this time. Sharing these narratives with members of the legislature is one strategy to preserve our line-item funding and ensure programs can continue to provide supportive, mentoring relationships.
MMP has created a helpful toolkit full of press materials, social media posts, and how-to guides to help you in your storytelling. We also strongly encourage you to participate in our online advocacy campaigns to reach out to your state reps and senators about the importance of this funding directly.
Chelsea Aquino is MMP’s Senior Manager of Government Relations and Public Policy.