Every year, our Government Affairs Office (GAO) makes an in-person outreach to our service offices, traveling throughout the country to connect with staff about advocacy at BAYADA. This past month, GAO visited approximately 20 offices in North Carolina, from the mountains to the low country, to provide a legislative update, share advocacy information, and hear directly from staff on issues that matter most to them and our clients.

In conversations with staff, we had the opportunity to share our operating model, which utilizes a three-pronged approach in achieving our legislative goals: direct lobbying, supporting our champions, and grassroots advocacy. While GAO works to lobby our elected officials to educate them about issues impacting the home care industry, we rely on the efforts of our employee advocates to support our legislative champions through PAC contributions and to participate in grassroots efforts, such as hosting a home visit or responding to a legislative action alert.

As an Ambassador, I’m proud of the work that we do to be a voice for those who may not always have the chance to advocate for themselves. Advocacy has taught me that there are so many things we can do, big and small, to make an impact on the people we serve.

—Michele Hoke, Hearts for Home Care Ambassador and HHI Client Services Manager

These efforts truly add up, whether you attend a lobby day, host a home visit, respond to an action alert, or simply register as an advocate on the Hearts for Home Care website. With the help of our client and employee advocates in NC, together this past session we:

• Secured a much-needed rate increase for aide services
• Ensured an increase from Partners Behavioral Health
• Protected certificate of need (CON) for our Medicare offices

The impactful grassroots efforts from our Ambassadors and advocates through home visits, legislative roundtables, and our annual Legislative Day make a difference!

Beyond sharing the power of advocacy, this trip gave GAO the opportunity to reconnect with staff and listen to learn more about the issues that matter most to clients and employees. As we traveled from office to office, we heard of all the wonderful things our offices are doing, the special relationships you have with each other and with our clients, and the persisting challenges our offices face in providing compassionate, excellent, and reliable care at the current reimbursement rates. We look forward to working together to ensure our legislators understand and address these challenges.

Collaborating like this to make sure we are being the best advocates we can be is so important to the work that we do. The more we work to get our clients and field staff engaged in advocacy, the more we can ensure their voices are being heard and represented.

—Bryan Borchard, RAN Director