Year in Review

Marking the first year of Teen Micro-Lobbyists, we would like to share with you our progress throughout 2020. Starting in April, when our organization was founded, we began to do research on how to decrease plastic waste within our community but hit several roadblocks. After starting a pledge for restaurants to decrease plastic waste by asking customers if they wanted disposable utensils, we tabled this project because of the financial struggle for restaurants, due to the pandemic.

From there, we started setting up our organization; making a logo, setting up our Operation Articles, and creating an online presence that has reached over 400 people.

Since then, we have worked on a number of projects relating to police reform, including having a community brainstorming session on possible solutions and then polling our followers to see which were the most popular. Using this data we constructed a petition to the Waukesha County Board of Supervisors. The petition included the most popular solutions and gained 138 signatures from individuals throughout the county. We also worked with individuals in New Jersey to implement a Citizen Review Board. While the campaign was unsuccessful, it helped spark further discussion about possible solutions.

Furthermore, we informed communities about issues relating to police reform, current legislation in the Wisconsin state legislature and U.S. Congress, safe protesting during a pandemic, the risk of COVID-19 in traditional schooling, and ways for individuals to contact their elected officials.

Finally, earlier this month we launched an email campaign targeting School Boards to get them to consider a 14-Day quarantine post-winter break. We sent numerous emails and have since received responses from the board presidents.

We would like to thank you for your support, wherever you may have joined us along the way, and we look forward to the future of this organization. In the coming months, we will be working to expand and would be grateful if you could reach out to individuals that may be interested in joining.

Happy New Year,

Ty Javier and Karishma Santebennur

Co-Presidents, Teen Micro-Lobbyists of America