Mission

Partners for Social Change’s mission and purpose is to assist/train/educate individuals, faith communities, and social justice groups & organizations to effectively engage those in ‘the halls of power’ (elected officials) to create the change we want to see.

Paul Benz,  Executive Director

Paul Benz is a statewide social justice leader who helped found Faith Action Network (FAN) an interfaith social justice advocacy organization that started in 2011.

He ended his work at FAN at the end of 2021 and moved into an ‘active retirement’ phase of his life to start Partners for Social Change as a consulting, lobbying, and advocacy organization.

Paul has been a faith based lobbyist in Olympia for over 20 years.  Paul is an ordained clergyperson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Read a recent article from the Fig Tree about Paul’s work at FAN – “FAN leader has changed policies, lives“.

Does your organization or faith community want to have a conversation about how it can better advocate on critical social justice issues in our state/nation?  Paul has a lot of experience facilitating and leading these conversations.

What We Believe

We believe that creating social change via the ‘halls of power’ in Olympia is possible when like-minded people come together, putting their differences and egos aside as much as its humanly possible, and work with transparency, strategic knowledge, using all means of organizing and social media.

“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

Esther 4:14