On February 4th, 2020, SHAREing & CAREing was honored and excited to visit the state capitol in Albany to meet with our Queens Senators and Assemblymembers. Our purpose was threefold:

• to educate recently elected Queens legislators about the work of SHAREing & CAREing and let them know that we are a resource for their constituents;
• to visit with old friends and supporters and update them on our work in their districts; and
• to ask for funding consideration in the upcoming NYS Budget.

Founder & President Anna Kril, Vice President Eartha Washington, Bilingual Navigator Rosa Sarmiento, and Advisory Board Chair Laura Jean Hawkins all attended. We were well received by all that we met with and we are cautiously optimistic about our funding requests.

The offices we met with were:

• Senator Michael Gianaris
• Senator Joseph Addabbo
• Senator Toby Ann Stavisky
• Senator James Sanders
• Senator Jessica Ramos
• Assemblymember Catherine Nolan
• Assemblymember Catalina Cruz
• Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi

In addition we met with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s office. This was arranged by our Assemblymember Aravella Simotas who we met with prior to going to Albany.

While walking the halls of the Legislative Office Building and the Capitol we ran into the following legislators who are former NYC Council Members and who used to support our funding under the Council’s Cancer Initiative:

• Senator Leroy G. Comrie – Queens
• Assemblymember Inez Dickens – Manhattan
• Assemblymember Erik Dilan – Brooklyn

We want to thank all of these senators and assemblymembers for the time, respect, and support they showed us while we were Albany. We are proud to be so well supported by our state and local governments and we are endlessly grateful for all the opportunities SHAREing & CAREing has enjoyed reaching out to the public through our elected leaders. We are so happy to be a part of an amazing group of lawmakers who believe so strongly in transforming the health of our communities.