Links Advocacy and Legislative Day at the Capitol
Community members can meet with and hear updates from legislative and state government leaders regarding key issues that impact the lives of people of color during the Advocacy and Legislative Day at the Kansas State Capitol on Thursday, Feb. 20. Topics will include Medicaid Expansion, human trafficking, criminal justice reform, civic and voting rights and economic opportunities.
The Advocacy and Legislative Day is being hosted by four Kansas and Missouri chapters of The Links, Incorporated, a national civic organization of women devoted to strengthening African American communities through education, advocacy and volunteering. The four chapters are located in Topeka and Wichita, Kan., and Greater Kansas City and Jackson County, Mo.
The event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the auditorium and classroom in the Kansas State Capitol building, 300 SW 10th Avenue Topeka, KS 66612. Admission is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided. A Blue-Ribbon Panel of speakers will address the following topics:
WELCOME AND UPDATE:
Secretary DeAngela Burns Wallace
A WORD FROM 2020 CANDIDATES:
Usha Reddi and Michelle de la Isla
HEALTH:
MEDICAID EXPANSION:
Governor Laura Kelly
Michelle De La Isa
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH:
Phelica Glass, Clinical Social Worker
HUMAN TRAFFICKING & CHILDREN SERVICES:
Dr. Susan Sullivan Shanelle Dupree, Esq.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM:
State Senator David Haley District Attorney Mark Dupree
CIVIC & VOTING RIGHTS:
State Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau
Ethel Edwards, Chair, Shawnee County Democrats
Michele Watley, Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet
Dr. Bobbie Love, Kansas African American Affairs Commission
ECONOMIC ELECTIONS COMMITTEE AND SB250:
Secretary of State Scott Schwab
State Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau
STATE LABOR INITIATIVES/ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES:
Secretary of Labor Delia Garcia
John Nave, VP, Kansas AFL-CIO
Rhonda Harris, Director, Office of Minority & Women Business Development
Kansas Department of Commerce
Carla Nolan, General Director of Human Resources, Topeka Public Schools
About the Links, Incorporated
The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946. The membership consists of more than 16,000 professional women of color in 288 chapters located in 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry.
