Hello From Our New Affordable Housing Policy Manager, Erica Robbins

Advocate (n.) a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy (rhymes with kit) 

Advocate (v.) publicly recommend or support (rhymes with ate) 

The term advocate (both pronunciations! 🙂) piqued my interest and became an integral piece of my vocabulary one random day during a Nutrition for Health class inside the Scully Building on Cape Girardeau’s Southeast Missouri State University campus over two decades ago. While aging myself a bit here, what hasn’t changed over those twenty years is the meaning of this term as an essential element that shapes the world we live in today. I realized then that I was destined to be an advocate and live a life of purpose, helping mold the tomorrow of our futures and every day we share ahead.

I began my career as an educator and spent time teaching within both the private and public school sectors statewide, across the pond in the Dominican Republic, and further abroad in Europe. I smile when remembering many of my interactions with my students and their families and how we were able to communicate with one another even though we didn’t speak the same languages. I observed what it means to be human and help each other through difficult times, what it looks like to feel safe and accepted, and what it feels like to show and receive love. I’ve seen faces light up over shared meals and hearts humbled when welcomed in with open arms. 

After thirteen years, a shift of perspective led me to leave the classroom, and I’ve spent the past five within the fields of case-management, social work, and the non-profit sphere. At the Missouri Balance of State Continuum of Care, I was blessed to spend time with individuals experiencing homelessness and hear their stories, listen to their legacies and see the struggles they overcame each day. We helped youth find new places to call home after getting kicked out of their houses for simply being who they are and assisted older adults transition from the street into safe and healthy assisted living. One day I helped a man call his mom to confirm their meeting spot and the joy I heard in her voice once she knew he was safe gave me goosebumps I still feel to this day.  

Supporting families going through food-insecurity also shone a very bright light onto what it truly means to develop a connection with someone and move with them through their stages of growth. It showed me the positive outcomes that are created when you’re part of someone’s network and possibly even the person they look forward to seeing and speaking with each day. My job became more than just a step in a distribution system; it became an open door that led to the realization that we must implement sustainable solutions if we want to see sustainable change. 

Their resilience taught me lessons I could have never learned in school; life lessons that one must learn for themselves or when walking along beside someone who is. When we learn how to share, how to listen and how to grow with one another, that’s when we are our most powerful selves and are truly able to realize our greatest potential. Oftentimes, that learning curve can look like the sea as it ebbs and flows upon the shore. It can look like knowing when to step up and when to step back, how to be an upstander, share common ground, and provide a hand up to a better place. It looks like advocacy. It’s time for us to take those steps, take a look into the lens of history, and use that knowledge to stop poverty in its tracks.

With collective action comes collective good, and let me tell you, we are in this together. We are at a point where we can examine, analyse and evaluate the relationships between ourselves and the systems we live within and decide which ones to support and which ones we’ll strive to dismantle. These systems create our communities, our lifestyles, and ultimately our overall sense of well-being, and the good news is we can do something!  Policy change doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen when passionate people see a vision for a better future and strive to create that world. 

We have the power to change these systems and look at what we can do right now to address Missourians’ most pressing needs. We can develop pathways forward full of growth, health and wellness that support all dimensions of our well-being. At Empower Missouri, we know that holistically beneficial public policy decisions and substantive policy change are the only solutions to ending poverty. That’s why we’ve been advocating for justice for over 100 years, and we’re not stopping now! 

Being an advocate means being an upstander. It means choosing the path less traveled and gearing yourself up for long-term plans that support long-term change. It was in the basement of the Scully Building that day when I knew that I was headed down this path of lifelong learning and advocacy and a road ahead full of head work, heart work, and hard work. That path has now led me here to Empower Missouri and I am elated to continue elevating the voices of Missourians and trailblazing our paths forward toward progress across this Show Me State.

As the newest Affordable Housing Policy Manager, I’m eager to continue strengthening our great networks, weaving together the rich tapestry of advocates we have created and advancing the legislation necessary to establish equitable access to shelter throughout our state. Let’s keep on putting our heads, hearts and hard work in tandem to collectively build an environment that’s the best it can be for our future generations, their future generations, and the present population we are living in today.