Welcoming attendees to the second day of this year’s Leadership Summit in DC, LeadingAge board chair Christie Hinrichs reflected on the purpose of the work ahead: “Every time LeadingAge leaders come to Washington, I’m struck by the same thing: We are not here because it’s easy. We are here because it matters.”

Noting that Summit attendees lead organizations that show up for people at their most vulnerable moments—when aging intersects with uncertainty, loss, hope, and dignity, Hinrichs, president and CEO of Frasier, a life plan community in Boulder, CO, observed how members’ work “is being shaped—sometimes supported, sometimes strained—by decisions made in buildings just blocks from where we’re gathered.” 

Taking time away from communities, from full calendars and the complex realities of running organizations to visit the Hill and “lend your voice to something larger than any one organization,” she said to the hundreds of attendees, is not easy. “It is a call to leadership. And not just any leadership—but leadership grounded in experience, humility, and courage.”

Courage, she observed, is a quality that shows up in many ways among LeadingAge members. It “doesn’t always look like big speeches or bold headlines. Most days, it looks like a nurse who stays a little longer to make sure someone is comfortable. It looks like a dining server who notices a resident isn’t eating and quietly alerts the care team. It looks like a housekeeper who learns someone’s preferences and restores dignity in the smallest ways. It looks like leaders who keep their promises to their teams—even when budgets tighten and expectations rise,” she said. “That’s the kind of courage that holds communities together. And that’s the kind of courage our country needs to understand.” 

Which is the point and purpose of Lobby Day, when hundreds of LeadingAge members head to the Hill. “You don’t need to be a lobbyist to be an advocate,” she counseled. “You don’t need perfect words to tell a true story. Your credibility comes from the communities you serve.
From the workforce you fight for and from the older adults whose lives are shaped by the policies we’re discussing this week. When you walk into a congressional office, you are not there as an abstract “provider.” You are there as a witness. And that matters more than ever.”

Members’ collective voice, raised when leaders come together with a shared purpose, Hinrichs said, “can shape outcomes that no single organization, and no one state could achieve alone. This collective effort—is what helps move our work forward.”