ROOTED IN LEGACY, RISING IN ACTION: REVIVING NANCY AMIDEI’S VISION IN 2025
In fall 2025, Children’s Alliance relaunched the Nancy Amidei Advocacy Camp with trainings across the state to inspire, educate, and empower communities to advocate for Washington’s children. Over the course of these events, more than 50 advocates developed and reinforced their policy advocacy skills through interactive learning sessions focused on policy advocacy through a racial equity lens, Washington government, lobbying, messaging, early learning, and mobilization.
This year’s events marked the return of a program Children’s Alliance first introduced in 1996 alongside Nancy Amidei, a visionary of political activism in our state. We are deeply grateful that our organization had the opportunity to work with Nancy to develop and facilitate these trainings for over 20 years. We look forward to building on that foundation and continuing her legacy as we develop future iterations of Advocacy Camp.
Moments from Camp
The first Nancy Amidei Advocacy Camp of 2025 took place in Tacoma in partnership with Families of Color Seattle. We were grateful to be joined by Senator T’wina Nobles, who shared her perspective as a working legislator and empowered advocates to raise their voices.
“It was SO helpful and inspired and helped me feel more confident and grounded in my advocacy work.”
Left: Tacoma Advocacy Camp participants. Right: Senator T’wina Nobles.
A few weeks later, our team headed to the east side of the state, where we worked alongside the Washington Association for the Education of Young Children to bring an early learning-focused Advocacy Camp to Spokane. Representative Natasha Hill joined us to connect with advocates and share her perspective on what’s to come in 2026.
“It was really beneficial to me to connect with like-minded people.”
Representative Natasha Hill presenting at Advocacy Camp in Spokane.
For our final events of 2025, we partnered with the United Way of the Blue Mountains to host trainings in Walla Walla and Prescott. Walla Walla County Commissioner Bertha Clayton and Kate Smith, a senior reporter at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, joined us to share their expertise with advocates.
“All the information I received was very useful since I was informed about these topics and now I feel more secure and confident in expressing my opinion and my concerns.”
One advocate shared that the most impactful part of the training was “the power they gave us to feel that our messages have an impact, that we have to raise our voices for our culture and ideology, so that the government gives us equity and not equality.”
Left: Walla Walla Advocacy Camp attendees. Right: Children’s Alliance Senior Policy Director Anni-Michele Jean-Pierre presenting.
Looking ahead
Our hope for advocates who attend the Nancy Amidei Advocacy Camp is that they leave with the tools, resources, and confidence to advocate for what they know their kids, families, and communities need to thrive.
We are excited to continue this program and build power in community in the years to come!
If you are interested in connecting with our team about the Nancy Amidei Advocacy Camp, contact our Mobilization Manager, Becca Schrack, at becca@childrensalliance.org.
Join us at Have a Heart for Kids Day in Olympia on January 20 to put your advocacy into action! Register now