Little Lobbyists is the only national family-led organization advocating for kids with every type of disability.
Elena Hung and Michelle Morrison, parents of Xiomara and Timmy, founded the organization in 2017 in response to attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and attack Medicaid, along with all the protections they provided to millions of Americans. As the news covered stories of Americans across the country, they were desperate for medically complex disabled children to be represented, but their voices were missing.
Our kids are funny, vibrant, joyful, curious, full of life… and we want them to be witnessed, acknowledged, understood, supported, included, and respected as the whole people they are in the communities where they live.
Late one night over the kitchen table, they asked themselves:
How can we get the public to understand families and kids who rely on specialized health care? How can we help put a face on this issue?
The plan we made was simple:
Collect photos and stories of real kids with complex medical needs and disabilities from around the country
Get those stories directly to the people who needed to see them.
In just one week, we collected over a hundred stories from families like ours across the country. We took the train to Capitol Hill and we hand-delivered these stories in person, with our own kids at our side (along with their ventilators, oxygen tanks, wheelchairs, walkers, leg braces, feeding tubes, and more in tow) so everyone would see first-hand the kids and families who needed access to health care and why.
We saw, first hand, the power of our physical presence. It made a difference: Lawmakers reconsidered their positions on the Affordable Care Act and health care in America in direct response to our advocacy. We learned how critical it is for the country to see disabled children out in the community, including in the halls of Congress.
The press quickly dubbed our family group “little lobbyists,” and the name stuck! (Of course, it's a little inaccurate — we're not lobbyists in the D.C. sense, just everyday citizens speaking out for the rights of our disabled kids, and disabled kids everywhere.)
In 2025, we mobilized again as the Republican budget included over eight billion dollars in cuts to Medicaid, a vital lifeline for medically complex children and families. We're bigger than ever, and as one mother says, lawmakers can hear us coming from the other end of the hall!
Xiomara and Timmy, the original Little Lobbyists
We advocate for all kids with disabilities: mobility, sensory, mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and chronic health conditions.
Historically, children with complex medical needs and disabilities have been kept out of sight, hidden at home or in institutions, rendered invisible and forgotten. Health care policy reflected this opinion with a focus on institutional care, not home and community-based services that keep kids in their communities and with their families and peers, where they belong. When disabled children were seen or discussed, it was as passive recipients of societal pity, even ridicule. Regrettably, this outdated view is still common. We're here to change that.
Medically complex children count on Medicaid to stay in their communities. Medicaid funds nursing for home and school; physical, occupational, and speech therapy; medications and supplies; equipment such as wheelchairs and ventilators; and even accessibility improvements to their homes. Without Medicaid, families risk bankruptcy and separation from their children.
But this isn't just about our children's medical needs, because our children aren't their diagnoses. We want everyone to see that disabled kids are just kids: they go to school, love to play, and are funny, kind, mischievous, amazing. They deserve access to everything they need to grow up and live their best lives. We are nationwide because disabled kids live everywhere, in every state, in every town.
We advocate for health care, education, community integration, authentic representation, and joy, so our kids can survive and thrive.
We use the power of real stories to change hearts and minds
We take our families — kids and all — and their stories to Congress, state lawmakers, rallies, and events across the country. Our families speak with the media, from MSNBC to the New York Times, so the American public gets the story from us, rather than from people talking about us — check out Little Lobbyists' latest press coverage!
Encountering our kids firsthand and learning about the importance of Medicaid and other social programs directly from their families confronts lawmakers about the reality of the policies they're proposing and voting on and makes the public reconsider the way they think about these programs.
Our storytelling has a direct, immediate, and profound impact.
Donors support this critical work, providing the backing kids and families need to travel to Little Lobbyists actions and events; without this funding, our families would be unable to afford the costs of showing up to tell their stories in person.
In addition to sharing our stories, we also bring families together. Our community-building programs include retreats, family gatherings, and moderated private groups and chats for families to connect and support each other.
Through state and local chapter leaders, Little Lobbyists creates a rich network for families who often feel isolated: The number-one thing people new to us tell us is "I wish I'd known about this before!"
