Staying the Course

February 10, 2017 – An old friend of mine died this week, her funeral was today. Louise Sause lived to be 104 years old, (wow, right), and I was blessed with several decades of both professional and personal relationships with her. For those of us who work in the Lansing area, and throughout the state honestly, on building better public policy for kids, we knew Louise. When I first met her, she had long since retired from a long career at Michigan State University as a professor, and was spending most of her time at that point working to get more people involved in the policy decision making process through the League of Women Voters. I was inspired by her expansive knowledge and her generosity in time and talent with those of us who worked hard to learn as much from her as we could.

While I could go on and on about Louise, what made me think to write about her was her commitment to this work over the long haul. As a person less than half her age, with so many fewer decades of work under my belt, I’ve been thinking about how important it is to stay the course. Despite challenging times to come at the federal, state and local policy levels, I know, so cliché, but true: this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we have to approach it as such.

As we begin a new legislative session, I tend to think about what didn’t get done in the last session. While this can be frustrating, particularly to people who are newer to advocacy and policy making, it is the wrong tact to take. One example is the Quality Assurance of Foster Care Act – a legislative package that had broad bi-partisan/bi-cameral support and still didn’t make it to the finish line before time ran out last year. While frustrating, that package of bills is in the process of being reintroduced by some of the original legislators and a few new ones. The package got a little better last session, after having been introduced the session before that. This session, it will be even better. We will be again proud to work on its passage.

One thing that we know is going to happen every single February: new state budget proposals, from the Governor and then the Legislature, to decide how we spend the money that we’ve gotten from taxpayers to benefit the children, youth and families who face the most challenges in our state. While an annual fight, and a quick one – the whole state budget process begins now and will likely be finished by early June – it is also a conversation for the long haul. The years that Michigan’s Children has been entering into that conversation and working to persuade policymakers that evidenced investments are the way to go, has mattered and will continue to matter. Even in the years where we feel like all we’ve accomplished was to stave off something more dire. I’m sure Louise had many of those years, as have I.

So, we move forward in 2017 with a purpose. For some, that represents decades of work. For others, just the beginning of their commitment. For all of us, who work to build better public policy in the best interest of children, youth and families in our state, it is our marathon to run. I only hope that I can run it as long as Louise did. Thank you for the inspiration!

– Michele Corey