Amachi Texas Gets $5 Million in State Budget for MCP

“It’s more work than probably anybody can imagine,” says Olivia Eudaly, state executive director of Amachi Texas, when asked about securing the $5 million line item in the state budget for September 1, 2007 through August 31, 2009. “It was quite an adventure.”

Although the intense part of the journey took place in the spring, Amachi Texas, which is comprised of eleven Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies statewide, began telling the Amachi story and petitioning state legislators prior to January. For instance, they put up billboards in strategic places around the state capital “so when you’d go in and talk to [state legislators] they’d say, ‘ah yes, I’ve seen information about you,’” says Eudaly, who spent two to three days each week all spring in Austin.

In addition to the billboards, Amachi Texas distributed other high quality marketing pieces throughout the state capital. These materials, which were generated with part of the $3.7 million funds received from the governor to run the 20-month Amachi Texas pilot that ended on August 31, 2007, were key to success with the state legislature, according to Eudaly.

Despite being labeled as one of the governor’s “trusted programs,” which are items the governor wants to see funded, Amachi Texas still faced challenges. The first hurdle was deciding where in the budget the program would reside. It turned out that although Amachi Texas is partnered with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, it was not the best sponsoring agency. Finally the decision was made for Amachi Texas to reside under the Texas Education Agency (TEA), which is the state’s Department of Education.

“There were points at which—had we thought we were done and then walked away—we might very well have not accomplished our goal,” says Eudaly. “It’s very much a consistent effort until it’s all signed, sealed and delivered.”

Eudaly spent countless hours compiling a list of all the zip codes for the state senators and representatives who served on the strategic committees and drafting sample emails and letters that were distributed to the BBBS agencies statewide. These agencies then disseminated the information to their staff and board members, who in turn reached out to family, friends and volunteers. The goal was to ensure that each state legislator on the list received multiple communications from various people in their district in support of Amachi Texas becoming a line item in the state budget.

“It’s a very, very complicated process,” says Eudaly. “Up until that very last moment, you just don’t know. Anything can happen.”

For instance, during its final stages the budget goes to a conference committee of 10 people who are appointed by the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house. “These are people that you’ve never seen before,” says Eudaly. “Now you have to start over because they have the authority to remove anything from the budget once they get it into conference committee.”

This meant once again identifying the zip codes and enlisting the support of BBBS staff, board members, family, friends and volunteers statewide. “You don’t know until that conference committee’s over and reports the budget out, and it gets voted on the floor whether you’re actually there or not,” says Eudaly.

Even with all the effort put forth by the BBBS agencies and their supporters, she insists, “had we not had a lobbyist on the ground, this would never have happened. It’s hard to communicate how important that is.”

Eudaly welcomes inquiries from agencies interested in identifying other key factors that would prove helpful when attempting to get a line item in their state’s budget. “What I really wish is if [agencies] would let me talk them through it because there’s so much going on out there that people are stabbing around, at and there’s things that will work and there’s so many things that won’t work,” she says. “I would love every opportunity to be able to just walk people through this process.”

Fall 2007