Meet Bobby, our Newest Staff Member: Ready to Serve

June 23, 2017 – Whenever possible at lunch, I like to enjoy my sandwich along Lansing’s Grand River river trail, a couple blocks from our office but, beneath shady trees on our stuffy summer days, a world enough away. The breaks help me re-focus and re-center myself for the afternoon grind. These first couple of weeks at Michigan’s Children have been busy, but they’ve hardly felt like work. It’s just so darn exciting to be here! It’s a real privilege to begin my career at an organization with such experience and authority on children’s issues, and even more of a privilege to learn the ropes from Matt, Michele, and Kali, incredibly kind colleagues who have fostered a focused and supportive environment.

I’ve always wanted to work to help future generations achieve their fullest potential. I first gravitated towards education policy, and for the last few years have had a unique seat to some of our most poisonous education debates – school finance, charter schools, standards, testing, and others. The more I worked with people at the grass roots of the system, the more I learned how little we in Michigan invest to meet the holistic developmental and social needs of children, how ideas like parent and community “engagement” are weaker in practice than they are in rhetoric, and how this leads to the savage inequalities many children face. Systems that ostensibly promote opportunity and security for children instead perpetuate inequity and strife. From education to health to family services, there is work to do on many fronts. It’s the solutions to these problems to which I hope to contribute.

Because of the need for child advocates across our state, it’s an honor to join Michigan’s Children, which has fought for children longer than I’ve been alive. Here, we focus on more than just passing laws, we are invested in building channels where anyone who wants to raise their voice for kids is empowered to do so. Achieving our mission requires more than just policy, it requires reframing and re-sparking debates around children’s issues in the public sphere and forging a deep and lasting network of champions for children who can carry the flame on those debates.

So far, my objective from day one has been learning – studying up on home visiting laws, the Lansing political scene, website analytics, the cheapest parking lots downtown, you name it. I’m excited to get to work – to grow stronger, we must reimagine how we engage with our diverse partners, how we tell the stories of the challenges Michigan’s children face, and how we highlight the most innovative and effective ideas across our issue areas so that we are always driving the conversation forward.

I’ve always called this pleasant peninsula home, and have always felt a duty to be a respectful guest, to leave this place more magnificent for future generations. For those of us privileged to call ourselves children of this great place, we have no greater obligation than to leave this land and its many opportunities open, intact, and accessible for our children. I’m up for the job, and I really hope you will join us!

Bobby Dorigo Jones is the new Policy and Outreach Coordinator at Michigan’s Children. When he isn’t working, he’s either following Detroit sports, trying out drink recipes, or playing Gordon Lightfoot on his six string.