Dear Advocacy Network Member,
New Advocacy & Social Justice Website
We've just launched a new website! With the new site comes a new address—http://www.some.org/inv_adv_advocacy_and_social_justice_homepage.html.
The site reflects a lot of work designed to provide you and other engaged citizens with more support for your advocacy on behalf of people struggling with homelessness and poverty. Please take a moment to visit. As you'll see, it looks very different.
We have:
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Updated and expanded coverage of the major issues we are working on. -
Defined our positions so that you can use them in your messages to government officials. -
Added lots more resources to provide you with background and other tools you can use to help shape public policy. -
Clarified the relationships between the major services SOME provides and the systemic changes we seek through advocacy.
We welcome your help in keeping the site updated. We would also appreciate your feedback on how we could make it an even more relevant and useful resource for you, our advocacy partners. Please e-mail suggestions to Matt McKillop at mmckillop@some.org.
Save a Life This Winter
Every winter, homeless people die from hypothermia—a drop in body temperature caused by exposure to freezing temperatures. You can save a life by calling the District's hypothermia shelter hotline if you see a homeless person without shelter in extremely cold weather. The hotline number is 1-800-535-7252. Please keep this number with you and share it with others. For more information, please visit our new hypothermia information page.
Children's Health Care Update
As many of you know, the President has vetoed legislation to expand SCHIP—the federal/state program that provides health insurance for low-income children. Despite strong grassroots support for expansion, the U.S. House of Representatives lacked the votes needed to override the veto.
The House has passed a slightly modified version of the vetoed bill, but with not enough votes to override another veto. Senate Democrats and Republicans are seeking to negotiate a compromise that can gain broader Republican support and still satisfy all the Democrats who have supported the bill thus far. It is unclear whether this effort will succeed.
In the run-up to the override vote, we focused on securing communications targeted to House members who had to be persuaded to change their positions. Thanks again to all of you in Virginia who responded to our action alert.
We will keep you informed of further opportunities to support adequate funding for SCHIP. In the meantime, you can help keep the children's healthcare issue on the front burner by letting your representatives in the Congress know it's an issue you care about.
Give the Gift of Hope
As the holiday season rolls around, we are all wondering what to give that will be unique and meaningful. You'll find great answers on SOME's Holiday Giving and Volunteering page.
Thank you for partnering with us to help end homelessness and poverty in our Nation's Capital. 
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