Lobbying refers to the activity of individuals, as well as groups of citizens, aimed at establishing partnerships with officials and deputies of legislative bodies to change a community. Activists and legislators work together on the implementation of political and administrative decisions that contribute to the well-being of people living in a particular place. Lobbying has a positive impact on social life and living conditions because it allows officials to see laymen’s viewpoint and better understand their needs. The purpose of this paper is to discuss what lobbying activities would be most effective for Miami and how to introduce them.
Currently, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a necessity to help people cope with depression, strengthen family bonds, and support children with disabilities. In my opinion, the most effective methods of achieving these goals are creating The Relationship Café and supporting The Parent to Parent Program Miami. Speaking about the first project, it might be called a unique collaboration because it includes meeting the needs of both parents and couples under a relationship umbrella.
What The Relationship Cafe intends to do is take an eclectic research-based approach to positively connecting people together. When it comes to children both at home and at school, it is important for them to perceive their input as meaningful to cut down on misbehavior. Having a positive discipline approach at home makes them feel a real sense of connection to their community. However, if their parents do not have a strong bond, it is difficult to maintain a parent-child connection. Therefore, the Relationship Cafe takes a child to discipline a step further. That is, strengthening the bond between couples, whether married, not married, children, or no children.
In private practice, this learner has clients who strive to feel empowered in their relationship between them and their significant other. They also struggle with the bond to the child or children whether parents of step-parent. This reasoning justifies the rationale behind this organization’s mission and vision of meeting the varying relational needs of this community.
As for The Parent to Parent Program Miami, it is a Community Parent Resource Center that serves families and children with various disabilities – mental, emotional, and cognitive – in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. The reason for choosing Parent to Parent is that collaboration would support the Relationship cafe in their endeavors. The Parent to Parent cafe can be effective in pushing the Relationship Cafe in the direction it wants to go by continuing to create a healthy working relationship with parents. More specifically, it can help to increase and improve parents’ knowledge and resources that are available to them to assist in learning about their child’s disability.
Collaborating with Parent to Parent would increase parents’ network of other parents who are going through a similar journey with their child or children (Garcia, 2010). Parents at the Relationship Cafe would become more involved with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A). They would learn specific ways it can assist them with having better working relationships with their child’s school. This would include the development of an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and regular meetings regarding specific academic areas the child needs assistance with that could impact their social-emotional well-being overall.
To maintain the organizational presence, I would appoint a supervisor who would conduct regular inspections in the café and collect parents’ and children’s feedback on the activities. These actions should also be controlled by the state’s legislators. Florida officials include Ben Albritton, Dennis Baxley, Aaron Bean, and others (Rivard et al., 2016). As for the schedule of the legislative body, in my viewpoint, the meeting should take place once in two or three months. In fact, such procedures are effective tools of collaboration and will allow legislation to be introduced and voted on time. In conclusion, the above projects are of great importance for they help to improve the lives of Florida inhabitants and address their current needs.
Reference
Rivard, A. L., Kline, A. D., Scherer, K., Bancroft, L., Deitte, L. A., & Cook, P. S. (2016). The Florida Legislative Fellowship Experience: 7 Years in the Political Kitchen. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 13(9), 1126-1131.