Advocacy and Organizing for Social Justice:

Government Relations at Catholic Charities

Camille Smith

The Office of Government Relations furthers the mission

This year I completed over 250 hours of the agency by working collaboratively with stakeholders
1.) Identify how Because I got to both schedule, manage,
serving as a Social Justice Intern with the to improve the lives of those we serve through advocacy
organizations can and attend meetings, I got to be
Government Relations Department at and program sustainability. My primary tasks with the
influence the thoroughly involved in the advocacy
Catholic Charities. In addition to the Office of Government Relations are:
government process and see how organizations and
internship itself, I had to opportunity to be a ²  Grant preparation and writing
officials can have mututally beneficial
part of our nine-person cohort, meeting ²  Advocacy and policy writing relationships and goals
every few weeks to reflect on not only our ²  Elected official interaction
²  Research 2.) Analyze solutions Having the opportunity to research and
experiences in the office, but as leaders for to social problems evaluate actual social services CC
social justice. Though at the beginning of ²  Meeting and Site Visits
provides gave me powerful insight on
the year we all were acquaintances at best, tangible solutions to issues I care about
we grew together through our community My primary areas of focus are:
building, reflection, and discussions. We ²  Immigration 3.) Understand the One of the most powerful lessons I
challenged each other’s perspectives and ²  Rehabilition needs of underserved learned about serving communities in
assumptions about critical social issues, ²  Homelessness communities need is the value of asset-based
and collectively processed our roles as ²  Child Care community development: using a
determined agents for positive social
Two Feet of communities strengths to further
change. Love in Action identify and bolster their goals

1.) Ignatian I viewed my role as an opportunity to both

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead
Missions
As a student who chose Loyola for its social
justice mission, the deicsion to work at
Catholic Charities was natural to me. The
missions of both institutions go hand-in-
hand:
“Catholic Charities fulfills the Church’s role in
the mission of charity to anyone in need by
providing compassionate, competent and
professional services that strengthen and
support individuals, families and communities
based on the value and dignity of human life. In
order to remain faithful to our mission, Catholic
Charities is guided by these core values:
Respect, Compassion, Competence and
Stewardship.”
“Loyola University Chicago is the school of
choice for those who wish to seek new
knowledge in the service of humanity in a world-
renowned urban center as members of a diverse
learning community that values freedom of
inquiry, the pursuit of truth and care for others.”
Char
itable
Meet
Works
Basic
Aid In Need
divid s
uals
I served as the Government Relations Department’s very
first intern, so part of my role was determining with my
supervisors what gaps needed to be filled. The
department is often very busy working eith the schedules
of elected officials and trying to meet grant deadlines,
thus, much of my work focused on easing this pressure
for the rest of the department.The first half of the year, I
spent a lot of time logging our interactions with elected
officials, as well as scheduling, and attending new ones.
The second half of the year I helped the department
prepare for our annual Advocacy Days visit to elected
officials in Springfield by doing research and a summary
on everyone representing the communities we work in. I
also got to spend much more time working on federal
grant applications for two programs: Adult Opioid
Prevention and Individual Develpoment Accounts for
Refugees. By working on these grant applications, I had
the opportunity to conduct research on the social issues
they concerned and meet with various members and
partners of the agency that support these projects. While
my work with officials and policy aimed to remove root
causes and improve structures for social justice, my cwork
writing grants sought to meet basic needs and aid
individuals in our communities
Approach: Social learn from and offer new perspectives to
Engagement the way work is done in Government
Relations by focusing on our common goal
of improving human dignity of life
2.) Interpersonal Throughout the year, I put myself in the
Skills: Dialogue position to attend site visits and learn from
in Community community members what they need from
service providers and funders
3.) Application: By engaging with coworkers about their
Self-efficacy personal journeys in policy and advocacy, I
became better able to discern how to
merge my mission with creativity, analysis,
and knowledge to be an agent for change
4.) Learning How Being a part of the SJI cohort helped me
to Learn: Critical make meaning of my internship in
Reflection connection with academic knowledge and
personal perspetives. I now feel I can
better birdge the gap between theory and
practicality when it comes to service and
justice
Conclusion & Acknowledgements
Being a part of the Social Justice Internship program with
Catholic Charities not only exposed me to more knowledge
concerning issues of organizing, leadership, and social justice,
but also strengthened my capacity to effectively make change in
these areas. Though coming into this program I anticipated these
results, I did not know how they would feel tangible to me. As I
now prepare to graduate and pursue a career in policy, I feel more
equipped and ready than ever to do work guided by the mission of
social justice. This is all thanks to the skills I have gained in policy
work itself and my personal and introspective development as
someone who wants to effect change.
I want to give a special thank you to our SJI coordinator, Andrew
Miller, my supervisors, Stephanie Johnson, Claire Pluard, Ann
Grelecki, and everyone else in the SJI program and Catholic
Charities who have supported and motivated me throughout this
program all year!