Lori Burns-Bucklew is a Kansas City attorney in private practice. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and began practicing in 1984. An accredited Child Welfare Law Specialist, she has represented children and youth, as well as parents, grandparents, and other caregivers for children whose families are subjected to state intervention. She has served as class counsel in several civil rights class action matters on behalf of children in state care. She has trained hundreds of lawyers in the Kansas City metropolitan region regarding child welfare law and children’s issues.
Legislative Advocacy in Kansas
Promoting Just Laws for All of Us
Our board members and staff members work as a whole, utilizing their specialties for a united plan of impact.
- Data. We research and analyze statistics, target their roots, and craft reports that explain their effects on our state.
- Solutions. Our team identifies attainable answers and reforms that legislators at all levels can understand and support.
- Social. We speak with the affected, matching their truths to statistics so that legislators and the public understand the human impact.
- Political. We appear before legislators to educate and motivate them.
- Litigation. If education doesn’t move policymakers toward positive results, we turn to litigation for those who suffer under systemic failures.
- Organization. Our reports connect dots for like-minded organizations and citizens, giving them the tools to help create change in Kansas.
We do all of this with the firm belief that by working together, we can all build a more thriving, inclusive, and just Kansas.
Resources
COVID-19 and Hunger in Kansas
This report examines how hunger and hardship in Kansas were impacted by COVID-19, and it explores opportunities for policymakers to respond to hunger not just during the pandemic and its recovery period but in the years to come.
SOUL Family Legal Permanency Program
In partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this program was designed by and for young people in foster care to reflect their vision of family and supportive adult networks.
Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope
Kansas Appleseed is a part of the Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope (SFRH) coalition, an independent coalition formed in 2018 advocating for a better foster care system for Kansas kids. The coalition has convened town halls, produced reports on the status of Kansas’s foster care system, and advocated for statewide reforms. SFRH is comprised of youth who have experienced foster care, foster parents, social workers, and other allies.
Litigation Partners
The fight to reform our state’s foster care system isn’t just important to Kansans; it is also important across the country. In our 2018 lawsuit (M.B. v. Howard), we partnered with these individuals and organizations to transform the broken foster care system and end years of victimization and trauma for Kansas children.
The National Center for Youth Law is a non-profit law firm that helps low-income children achieve their potential by transforming the public agencies that serve them. For more information, please visit www.youthlaw.org.
Every day, children are harmed in America’s broken child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and healthcare systems. Through relentless, strategic advocacy and legal action, we hold governments accountable for keeping kids safe and healthy. Children’s Rights, a national non-profit organization, has made a lasting impact for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children. For more information, please visit www.childrensrights.org
DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries to help clients with their legal needs around the world. DLA Piper has a long-standing and deep commitment to giving back to our communities through pro bono legal services, and it is one of the largest providers of pro bono legal services globally. www.dlapiper.com
A Clear Vision of the Future for Kansas
Thriving
All Kansans should have the resources they need to support themselves and raise healthy families.
Inclusive
All Kansans should be able to participate fully in their communities.
Just
All Kansans benefit from a fair and effective system of justice.
Help Us Advocate for a Better Kansas
Advocacy starts at the grassroots, and it succeeds in the halls of power. Working together, we can build a state full of thriving, inclusive, and just communities for all Kansans.
Contact us about advocacy opportunities. We’ll provide the information, strategies, and motivation to create a supportive system for democracy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kansas Appleseed doesn’t offer direct services for legislative advocacy. As a non-profit organization, we focus specifically on anti-hunger work, child welfare, youth and adult justice, and integrated voter engagement. To achieve improvements on these fronts for all Kansans, we provide information and direct our actions to knocking down the legislative hurdles and blockades impeding systemic change. We can also provide connections to other organizations who provide direct services to eligible Kansans.
Yes and no. Though we do fight to negate bad laws regarding our core missions, we don’t just work to strike them down. We want to advance positive laws and policies for Kansans. We accomplish this in 3 different ways:
- Our team researches the details of a problem, finding its root causes and workable solutions.
- We discover and support the public’s voice in policy decisions through grassroots engagement.
- Our representatives shepherd policy solutions through the decision-making process at the state and local level.
You can help us conduct legislative advocacy in Kansas by donating! It’s your funding that fuels our organization to work full time for systemic change. We also welcome your grassroots efforts, and we will gladly supply research information and connections to organizations that align with our goals for a more thriving, inclusive, and just Kansas.