Guests are at the center of everything we do, including our advocacy work. Rotating every six months, the Miriam’s Kitchen Advocacy Fellowship allows former MK guests the opportunity to learn and practice advocacy skills while advocating for housing justice. Rachelle Ellison, this year’s Advocacy Fellow, talked with us to share more about her experience.
Rachelle Ellison (Photo Credit: John Kelly, The Washington Post)
What does being an Advocacy Fellow mean to you?
Being an Advocacy Fellow has been an amazing experience for me because I’m a former guest of Miriam’s Kitchen, someone who came in and ate breakfast and received services. And someone was a voice for me back then, so being able to come on as the Advocacy Fellow and be the voice for those coming in behind me has been an amazing experience. I’m truly grateful to have done this work; it’s a full circle for me, coming from being a guest who was homeless with co-occurring disorders to working at Miriam’s Kitchen.
What is something you learned during your time as Advocacy Fellow?
One thing I’ve learned is more about the budget process. I learned more about the budget asks and how it must be balanced through the coalitions that we collaborate with so that we’re all on the same page. Because one voice speaks louder and we’re hundreds and thousands of people speaking to one thing. So, I’ve learned that it’s very important to focus on being aligned in the budget asks. And that was a very important thing for me to learn because I was naïve in those areas of advocacy. I know how to use my voice, I know how to show my presence, I know how to be persistent and I know how to be assertive, but learning the details of what goes on behind the scenes of being an advocate is what I learned from the fellowship at Miriam’s Kitchen.
Why is it important to work together on things like this, and why is this community aspect so important?
I learned that each coalition brings something different to the table, so that you have everything covered. The Way Home Campaign Steering Committee has 110 different coalitions and organizational partners, and we raise our voices together. Jesse and Lara [on the MK Advocacy Team] are amazing advocates and I’m an amazing advocate, and I got that way by following in the footsteps of people like Jesse and other community leaders. I’ve made these amazing connections, and one voice that’s very loud makes more of a difference if we’re all aligned, which is what I learned from working in advocacy and being on The Way Home Steering Committee.
Why are leadership roles like this important?
It’s important to get people with lived experience who’ve been able to navigate the system and jump over the hurdles, who know what’s needed to become a successful member of society, to give us a voice and a platform for those voices. Being given that platform is so important; I was homeless for 17 years with co-occurring disorders — there’s nothing I haven’t survived or jumped over or gotten through with the resources available to me. I know what’s needed for our unhoused neighbors and the next generation of unhoused neighbors coming in behind me, I know exactly what they need because I know exactly what I needed, so my voice amplifies. It amplifies because I lived through the street life, because I lived through mental health disorders and substance abuse disorders, and I’m in long-term recovery. There is hope, there is a door, there is a way out, there is an opening. So, it’s really important to give people with lived experience a platform, because we bring so much to the table by sharing our experiences, our resources that we use, and now where we’re at today.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I just want to say that I am so grateful to everyone at Miriam’s Kitchen for welcoming me, for making me feel at home and for making me feel like family as staff. It’s been amazing being a part of The Way Home Steering Committee and doing strategic planning on the Guest Advisory; I’m excited to continue those quests. But I want to say thank you to everyone who chose me to be the Advocacy Fellow from Miriam’s Kitchen these past six months. It’s been an amazing journey and process, and I look forward to seeing who the next fellow will be and learning about their experience more, because every experience is different. That’s one thing that’s amazing about the Advocacy Fellow position, it’s tailored to fit the individual, not to fit the position; and that’s the difference about that position that I really love.
Rachelle is a long-time speaker and advocate with the National Coalition for the Homeless and shares that she recently wrote curriculum for their Lived Experience Training Academy (LETA). Rachelle is also a Peer Recovery Specialist, an active member of the People for Fairness Coalition, and a member of the Miriam’s Kitchen Speaker’s Bureau.
