Advocacy in Legislative Hearings- Week 4

After the first few weeks of training and working mainly with the Engagement & Outreach team, I started working closely with the Communications team and Advocacy team. 

Working with this team is very different from the Engagement & Outreach team. Communications and Advocacy focus heavily on the bills being passed in the state that will affect older citizens. They are constantly finding new and innovative ways to advocate for the people who cannot do so themselves or who are overlooked.

Much of the work is independent, which is different from the Engagement & Outreach team, where many issues are tackled together. While working with Communications and Advocacy, I had individual meetings with my supervisors and coworkers where they explained to me the importance of a utility bill and how it affects a large portion of the state. Compared to meetings with the E&O team, we normally meet in large groups to loop everyone in on what’s going on or give the opportunity to teach people at the same time rather than individually. Within the C&A team, everyone is assigned their task to work on independently, then we will reconvene at the end and bring our work together. 

We are currently working on a case concerning Florida Power and Light (FPL)  and their ask to increase their base rates up by 2% for all consumers. Because this a tremendous case, it has becomes all hands on deck to try to prevent the increase to pass. In these cases, AARP is known as an intervener- which means they will push and fight against bills that can harm people, personally or financially. I have been working on personal vignettes from letters written by AARP members or by citizens that will be affected by this increase. This will be used during the legislative hearings and on advertisements to spread the word on how it will affect citizens. I will be meeting with my supervisor from the C&A team to review my work and pick which vignettes we will use to stop FPL from getting their ridiculous increase. It will be amazing to see how the final product of all of our work comes together.