I have been with ISAAC in some capacity for over ten years. My latest assignment is doing data entry work for the office. I have done this on and off for five years. It is easy and fun spending time with Charlae Davis and Sheila Takyi at the office. I change all the addresses and record donations into the database for the year and tax letters, respectively. There are many task force experiences I have had that were great. I remember working on the Education Task Force, taking minutes and helping to lobby in Lansing for more school funding. I was working part time driving people to their doctor and physical therapy appointments. In my spare time I called state legislator secretaries to set up appointments with the legislators for when we would take a group up to Lansing and lobby. We crossed party lines quite a bit with a relative amount of success. I also took notes for the Housing Task Force later.

I enjoyed going to Housing Matters Forums with Tobi Hanna-Davies on behalf of ISAAC. At the same time, she and I put up signs for the Metro County Bus Millage. I lobbied at my church to help pass the bus millage as well. This was five years ago and was especially gratifying in that the bus millage, for expanded evening and weekend buses, passed. The most memorable experience I had with ISAAC was several years ago. I helped lobby for the Nurse/Family Partnership with several city bodies including the City and County Commissions. It has been very successful. We couldn’t get anyone to pass it and our last chance to get funding was with the County Commission. We kept hope. Eight of us showed up anyway and several ISAAC members testified. It passed. It is now being funded for the entire state by the state government with strong bipartisan support. Other than working with ISAAC, I have worked several full time and part time jobs over the last 38 years. I have also been active in the community, through our church and at Ministry with Community.

I enjoy the feeling of making a difference in the community that I get working with ISAAC.

-Chris Roberts