Advocacy is Never a Solo Effort

Recently, I had the tremendous honor of receiving the 2026 Statewide Advocacy Champion Award from the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness.

The award is presented annually to one individual, agency, legislator, or elected official in Michigan whose advocacy and awareness efforts have had a direct positive impact on homelessness.

I am deeply grateful for the recognition. I am also very aware that my name may be on the award, but the work behind it belongs to a whole lot of people.

A good portion of my advocacy happens in Lansing. I have the privilege of sitting across from legislators, legislative staff, state departments, and other decision makers to talk about homelessness, housing, shelter, eviction prevention, vouchers, manufactured housing, and the systems that affect families throughout West Michigan.

Those conversations matter.

But I also know why I am able to walk into those rooms prepared.

It is because advocates throughout West Michigan are doing the work every single day.

They are sitting with families during some of the hardest moments of their lives. They are operating shelters. They are helping people navigate housing systems that can be incredibly difficult to understand. They are collecting data. They are building affordable housing. They are preventing evictions. They are helping people access benefits. They are answering phones. They are listening to landlords. They are talking with neighbors. They are organizing coalitions. They are studying policy. They are showing up at public meetings. They are telling the truth about what families are experiencing.

And they are sharing all of that with people like me.

By the time I sit down with a legislator in Lansing, countless people have already helped shape the conversation.

They have provided the stories.

They have provided the numbers.

They have identified the barriers.

They have tested solutions.

They have challenged assumptions.

Most importantly, families with lived experience have trusted us with their stories and allowed those experiences to help inform the policies we advocate for.

That is why receiving an Advocacy Champion Award feels a little strange in the best possible way.

Advocacy is almost never the work of one champion.

It is the work of a community.

I am particularly grateful for my colleagues at Family Promise of West Michigan, our community partners, fellow housing and homelessness organizations, local governments, service providers, volunteers, donors, congregations, neighborhood leaders, and advocates throughout our region who continue pushing for better solutions.

You make my job easier.

You also make me look a lot smarter when I get to Lansing.

The Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness describes the Advocacy Champion Award as recognition for advocacy or awareness efforts that have a direct positive impact on homelessness.

That last part is what matters most to me.

The goal is not simply to have better conversations about homelessness.

The goal is fewer families experiencing it.

The goal is fewer children wondering where they are going to sleep.

The goal is more families having a safe, stable place to call home.

There is still an enormous amount of work ahead of us. I am grateful to be one small part of a much larger community across West Michigan and throughout our state that refuses to stop doing that work.

Thank you to the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness for this incredible honor.

And thank you to the advocates who make advocacy possible.

Jim Davis