It is often said that April showers bring May flowers. 

In the garden of legislative advocacy it could be said that April callers bring May followers. In this case the callers are our Legislative Action Network (LAN) advocates, like you, who have been contacting your State Representatives and State Senators to ask them to sign on as a co-sponsor, or follow our legislative priorities. Like rain that nurtures seeds, nurturing your relationship with your state elected officials can help the issues that you care about grow and move through the legislative process to create a bouquet of new laws that improve the lives of cancer patients, survivors and their families. 

When the new state legislative session sprang forward on Beacon Hill, more than 6,500 new seeds in the forms of bills were planted. The Dana-Farber LAN selected eight bills that represent our top priorities for the 2021-2022 state legislative session, the seeds that we will tend too regularly.  Last month we asked you, our community of over 1,300 advocates, to take action and reach out to your State Representative and State Senator and ask them to co-sponsor one or two of the bills that you are most interested in. 

A profound thanks you to all the LAN advocates who sprang into action and have contacted your State Representative and State Senator. Below, you can see the fruits of your labor thus far, with the list of the LAN priorities, the number of legislative co-sponsors each of the bills has to date, and how many LAN advocates have taken action.

To learn more about each of these bills, and take action, visit our new website at www.dana-farber.org/advocacy. Once on the site, click on any one of the bills listed to get more detailed information. Each bill also has an action alert or guided step-by-step instructions on how to send an email or make a phone call to your Massachusetts State Representative and State Senator to ask them to become a co-sponsor of a bill. There is also an option on the website to share the action alert via social media once you have taken action.
 
In addition, if you missed our new, free, quarterly educational program called Advocacy Rounds: Educate, Legislate + Advocate that were held in March, you can watch a recording of that program here. 

Thank you for being a member of the Dana-Farber Legislative Action Network and for partnering with us to plant the seeds of hope and change that have the potential to improve the lives of our patients and their families.