Bread for the World Advocacy Summit, Pt. 2: Partnerships and Coalition Building for Effective Change
- Kamatara Johnson
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
In Pt. 1: Your Stories Matter…Even in DC, Executive Director Kamatara Johnson discusses how her recent trip to Washington, DC to support CUSA partner organization Bread for the World recharged her sense of civic responsibility and connectedness with our elected officials. This week, Kamatara reflects on the power of working together to create real change in our communities and our country....with a special invitation to join us in Utah this October.
Supported by the National Big View Team that has been meeting for over two years, I finally had the courage—and the right opportunity—to jump into the Big View myself at Bread for the World’s 2025 Advocacy Summit. Beyond engaging with my legislators, I connected with national advocates and leaders from my state of New Mexico. I was privileged to join folks from Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Cruces.
I actually moved to Las Cruces, NM the week before the Summit, unpacked my bags and boxes, and then flew to DC…only to meet a retired librarian and social activist from Las Cruces. What a delight to encounter Lynette S., who is deeply connected to the local community through health and human services agencies, coalitions and social justice groups, and her progressive church.
Upon my return to NM, we shared a Sunday service—one so very welcoming and deeply rooted in the people and culture of Las Cruces—where she introduced me to many community leaders in my new city. From these connections, I volunteered at the drive-thru food bank on Thursday, loading up car trunks with food for 100 families. Later that same day, Lynette and I connected for lunch at a local establishment where she introduced me to an employee for the City of Las Cruces. Next month, I’ll be her guest at an interagency gathering for health and human services and service oriented nonprofits in Las Cruces. And that’s how social capital and grassroots organizing goes: sharing our lives, our relationships, and our heart-centered purpose. Now I am more than just moved to Las Cruces. I am home and ready to build relationships to end poverty right where I am.
I was also joined in DC by some of our own beloved community, including CUSA Board Member Jennifer Pelling, who also serves on the board for Bread for the World. Circles Central Florida (led by Poverty Solutions Group) was represented by their executive director Lynette Fields and graduated Circle Leader—now Circles Coach!—Bonita Thomas. I learned how to navigate the DC ecosystem from Lynette and Bonita’s experiences on Capitol Hill, where they have engaged frequently and effectively with their state legislature. That is the power of our community of practice to support each other, expanding our reach and our collective impact.
Circles USA originally connected with Bread for the World through Lynette, and also through Florence French Fagan, Bread’s regional organizer for the South. Circles has utilized Bread’s powerful Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation to train almost 400 staff members and CUSA champions; this is because it’s impossible to work equitably in the anti-poverty arena and not talk about key intersections of poverty, especially race. Connecting face-to-face and heart-to-heart with their President/CEO, the Rev. Eugene Cho, was a powerful moment to express our gratitude for the Advocacy Summit and the Racial Wealth Gap Simulation. It also afforded us a chance to imagine how our partnership might expand as mission-aligned organizations uplifting those who would otherwise be left behind.
This is how we move beyond an initiative and into a movement.
Coalition building with key partners has deepened Circles USA’s toolkit, reach, and impact. Now, this October in Ogden, Utah, our Leadership Conference will convene partner organizations like Think Tank, Employer Resource Network USA, The Workers Circle, The Prosperity Agenda, Martha O’Bryan Center, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Leap Fund, and many more. This is how we move beyond an initiative and into a movement. Circles has stepped up our engagement, increased our visibility, and aligned our hard-earned insights with all this powerful collective work in the anti-poverty arena. Together as neighbors and peer organizations, we convene and connect to build social capital and amplify the voices of people closest to the challenge.
How is your chapter building relationships—and social capital—for the mission that calls to your hearts? Register today for the 2025 Leadership Conference and join us in lifting up best practices, stories, and tested models for ending poverty in our lifetime.
Click the Give to Circles button and help us celebrate 25+ years of building community to end poverty!
