Compassionate, Cooperative, Connective
Kelly Thompson
Running like a mother
for
Indiana
State Representative
District 22
Don't you think it's time for a government
of the people,
by the people, for the people.
All the people.
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Hi there!
My name is Kelly.
I also go by Kel, Mom, Mimi, Honey, Sis, and my dad calls me his "BBG."
I have been married to Mike, my high school sweetheart, for 36 years, and together we have raised our six kids, who have now given us 6 wonderful grandkids! All of them still live in Indiana. All but our eldest, Sarah, live in District 22.
Mike and I are small business owners, non-profit founders, and community supporters.
While that is some of what we have done, it doesn't really answer the question of who I am. This story might help...
When I was a little girl, my dad would often find me sitting on the family room floor in front of the TV with tears silently streaming down my face as I watched yet another episode of Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons. "Kelly, honey, why do you keep watching this? It always makes you sad."
Somehow, I could not look away. I would not. There before me I saw people hurting, struggling, working hard in the face of great challenge & suffering, TOGETHER. I saw people being their best in the face of the worst.
Courage. Compassion. Community.
Choosing to see the hard things, letting my heart enter that space,
and learning how to become a part of the solution has always been where HOME is for me.
This is me
" Without deviation
from
the norm,
progress is impossible. "
Frank Zappa
... This is Why I'm Running...
About 10 years ago I made a decision to follow my heart and figure out a way to help our local youth who were struggling with understanding that they are loved, that they are not alone, and that tomorrow is worth sticking around for.
I felt like God was asking me to deliver a simple message, "Tell them I love them exactly as they are."
After 4 years of feeding them pizza and delivering precisely that message, I was given a bigger vision. I understood the power of place and community and so I founded Whitewater Community Services, and The River Coffeehouse. A safe place to be a friend, make a friend, and bring a friend.
The River became a community family room, and in this space I got to really know our local families, and the very real struggles that faced them every day. I realized helping local kids, meant helping their whole families. We found ourselves helping them with: clothing, tutoring, housing, groceries, healthcare, addiction, weddings, funerals, parenting classes, communication skills, grief counseling, marriage counseling, transportation, foster parent support. The list was endless.
The hard truth is that the need is greater than one coffeeshop could handle.
My faith wouldn't let me turn away...the least of these, right?
Then I started to dream bigger.
We handed the coffeeshop off to a local family and made space for whatever was to be next.
I started asking questions...
What if I could reach out to our representative and ask him or her to fight for our families?
What if I could communicate what I've learned, and pass on my passion, and share my experiences?
What if I could introduce our representative to the families I had come to love? What if everything I had gained by working shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors could be handed off to someone who had a voice in Indianapolis?
Then, it hit me.
What if I am to be that voice?
Not everything that is faced can be changed,
but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
james Baldwin
... And This is Why I'm Running Now
Why run now?
I have been frustrated by the focus of our state legislators.
I keep looking for them to pay attention to the actual needs of families, children, the working class in a very real way.
Words are nice, but words don't feed us, protect us, assist us.
Action does that.
We have an affordable housing crisis.
45% of the state lives in a childcare desert.
Hard working people are showing up at their jobs and still not able to meet the most basic needs of their families.
Misdemeanor infractions are further penalizing the poor and sentencing them to lives of even more desperation.
Families are not getting the physical and mental healthcare they so desperately need.
We are bailing out businesses but asking schools to cut budgets.
And what did our legislature choose to do with the part of our budget surplus last year that they wanted to spend? $291,000,000?
New buildings on college campuses.
Our government says they see us, they care, they want to help.
But then will not fund the priorities we need and they declare.
THIS is why NOW.
The momma in me will not let big business run the show at the expense of our families, not any longer.
Every day mothers (and fathers) find the food, muster the strength, dig deep for the courage necessary to meet the needs of our families.
We can't hide from that need. .
We look into the eyes of our kids and we find a way.
Do YOU think Indianapolis knows how hard that is?
Do YOU think they really care?
That $291,000,000 is yours, is ours.
Electing me will be a step in the right direction toward putting YOUR tax dollars to work for YOU.
Fear never
moved mountains.
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familymatters
What do I hope for my family?
The very same things you hope for yours:
To be safe, healthy, and have opportunity.
We can all agree on that.
As your representative, I will work to make those hopes a reality.
All of our families, mine and yours, are counting on it.
Kelly cares about:
Infant Mortality
Did you know...
Every 14 hours a baby under 1yr dies in indiana?
Indiana Infant Mortality Rate is 20% higher than the national average?
Indiana has the 7th highest infant mortality rate in the nation?
32% of pregnant women in Indiana receive no prenatal care?
32 Hoosier counties lack obstetric services?
Affordable Childcare
Did you know...
45% of Hoosier children live in what is called a "Childcare Desert?"
Indiana has 160,000 children 0-2yrs and only 16,000 are in high quality childcare?
Hoosier childcare costs for children under 3 is $10-11,000 per year?
There comes a point in time where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Maternal Mortality
Did you know...
Indiana's Maternal Mortality Rate is the 2nd highest in the nation?
Hoosier women have a better chance of surviving childbirth in Iraq or the Gaza Strip?
We are failing to connect urban mothers to available services, and rural mothers simply have no place to go?
Livable Wage
Did you know...
Indiana's minimum wage is $7.25 per hour?
If an employee is lucky enough to get 40 hours, they
would take home about $290 per week?
33 states have a higher minimum wage?
Criminal Justice Reform
Did you know...
Indiana's jail incarceration rate has risen 32% in the last two years, #1 in the U.S.?
Black Hoosiers were imprisoned at more than five times the rate of whites?
77 percent of Indiana’s jails are at capacity or overcrowded?
More than half of the estimated 27,187 people in Indiana county jails have not been convicted of a crime and are awaiting trial?
Affordable Housing
Did you know...
In Indiana a minimum wage worker must work 88 hours a week to afford a modest 2 bedroom apartment?
The data shows that the typical renter income is insufficient to afford rental housing in 82 of Indiana's 92 counties?
Indiana's lack of affordable housing is a substantial contributing factor to our "Brain Drain" problem?
Indiana has had a 6% INCREASE in homeless veterans in 2019 - even while the national rate went down?
Healthcare
Did you know...
An Indiana resident paid $819 more than the national average in 2017?
9,000 fewer Hoosiers had health insurance in 2018 than in 2017.
Indiana's medical bill costs are increasing, while Michigan's are decreasing.
Education
Did you know...
Indiana is one of only 8 states that still charges text book fees?
Indiana is ranked LOWEST in teacher salary increases since 2002?
Indiana legislators gave $175,000,000 to religious and other private schools?
92% of Indiana school districts are reporting a teacher shortage?
Indiana has 1 licensed school counselor for every 619 public school students - 1 for every 250 is the national recommendation?
Equal Rights
Did you know...
The Human Rights Campaign scored Indiana in the lowest category?
Hoosier LGBTQ people remain at risk of being fired, evicted, or denied services because of who they are?
Indiana does not offer statewide non-discrimination protection in employment, housing, places of public accommodation, jury selection, education, credit, and insurance?
Indiana does not have a hate crime law because our legislature doesn't want the LGBTQ in the bill?
Q
uestions
or
oncerns?
c
When we vote we are not choosing a party,
we're choosing a person!
-Kelly
