We’ve been asked a lot lately – what is Whole Washington up to?
It is admittedly difficult for us to organize without petitions in hand – BUT – it is absolutely necessary. We will win this by connecting with Washingtonians in all corners of the state and sharing with them our vision for an improved healthcare system. Better outcomes at a lower cost, while covering everything and everybody. No more out-of-network, no more surprise bills, no more insurance companies pulling record profits from the system while we spend more and more for less and less healthcare.
Our job is big! Grassroots organizers build community groups from scratch, develop new leadership where none existed, and organize the unorganized. We make the impossible possible. We do this by taking small steps every day. By committing to taking action to push our goals forward. By creating opportunities for others to act.
Whole Washington Week – challenge.
We have declared this week to be Whole Washington Week. For the next 7 days, pick one thing that YOU can do each day that YOU think will further our goal for universal healthcare.
Some ideas to get you started:
- Wear your Whole Washington gear out in public.
- Start a healthcare conversation in a new space.
- Email the pledge to sign to someone on your contact list with a personal note regarding why you volunteer for Whole Washington or why you believe in state-based single-payer healthcare.
- Read the FAQ page.
- Find all your “old” Whole Washington lit and rather than recycling it, post it to local bulletin boards.
- Amplify Whole Washington social media posts – pick a new one or an old one that is still relevant and interact with it, share it, start a conversation in the comments.
- Invite someone to join you for the next Whole Washington meeting you plan to attend.
- Invite someone to watch Andre’s presentation to the UHCC with you and have a conversation.
- What else?!
Happy Whole Washington Week! We hope you will join us in the challenge to take action for Universal Healthcare.
Update from Board Chair – Carey Wallace
The board met for our monthly meeting on 9/21. It was a really great meeting! I’m most excited about the commitment to do a better job of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in all aspects of our work. We’ll be trying to tackle as much as we can to be ready for the next time we launch an initiative campaign with resources and literature that is meaningful in a variety of communities. We plan to build on prior work and will need support from our volunteers to both identify and help fill gaps. Initial commitments include translating the FAQs into Spanish and pulling in all previously translated materials to be posted on our website as resources for our volunteers.
If you have ideas or resources to help Whole Washington be ready for the next round of outreach, please let us know!
Happy Whole Washington Week! Excited to hear about the hundreds of tiny steps forward we took this week!
Coming Soon:
Team Commission Meeting – Wednesday 10/4
Join us as we welcome our NEW co-chairs: Lori & Raleigh!
We will continue to follow the UHCC, strengthen our collaboration with other organizations following the work of the Commission, and create action around the Commission that will result in a strong recommendation from the UHCC to our legislature in favor of a state-based single-payer healthcare system. The UHCC is potentially the quickest route to universal healthcare in WA state and Whole Washington is providing a necessary sense of urgency to this conversation.
Fundraising Meeting – Wednesday 10/11
Do you want to help us raise money for healthcare?! Join us every other Wednesday at 4pm for the absolutely necessary work of raising money for Whole Washington. It’s fun and foundational.
🍎Link to fundraising meeting 🍎
Healing US Fundraiser Event – Monday 10/23
Join us Monday 10/23 @ 5:30 pm PST for a shared fundraising event for Whole Washington and the Healing US network. Tickets are $17. Screening will be online.
Whole Washington is planning a soft-launch of our Healing US house parties during this fundraising event! We are looking for volunteers to screen the movie in their community and use it as a platform for having conversations about healthcare reform.
Do you have a knitting circle, DnD group, or other club that might be willing to watch a movie with you? Raise your hand to host!
Volunteer Meeting 11/6
The next monthly meeting will be on Monday, November 6th. Meeting link on the Events calendar.
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THANK YOU to our Puyallup Fair volunteers!!
Thank you to those who showed up for the Washington State Fair in Puyallup! Special thank you to Kathryn for leading this event and organizing the volunteers. It was such a good time! So many great conversations. Education is a key component to change.
Town Halls
Next spring and summer
Coming to a venue near you. We’re stealing strategy ideas from the Slay the Dragon playbook. That means being out in the real world, talking to real people about fixing our broken healthcare system–that’s the plan. Watch the movie and join our next meeting for brainstorming and action planning!
Speaking of Slay the Dragon – Save the Date! Whole Washington will be hosting an online showing of the documentary film 🍿 Sunday, January 21st, 2024 🍿- more details to come!
We Need You!
Even though we’re not gathering signatures right now, there are many ways to help.
- We still need Team Leads and help with communications, help contacting elected officials, writing letters to the editor, graphics, taking meeting notes– all those types of tasks.
- We’re looking for Healing US House Party Hosts! We have a draft host guide that needs to be tested with a pilot party – let us know if you’re interested and we can send you a DVD copy of the movie and the draft host guide. *FREE*
- We need to start reaching inward and re-activating our volunteers past & present. If you would like to start making phone calls to our supporters to get them back into slack, into our monthly volunteer meetings, and showing up for Whole Washington collecting signature pledges, etc. Please jump in!
If you haven’t already, Sign up to Volunteer Here. Please use the comment box to tell us what you’d be most interested in &/or what skills you have to offer the movement.
Together, we’re a force in this fight for healthcare justice.
Whole Washington
