At UWSCMI, we are dedicated to supporting you as advocates for our communities and people who live below the ALICE threshold. As the Director for Community Impact & Policy, I am here to assist you on your advocacy quest.
One of the things we get asked often is how to communicate with elected officials. First off, you need to know who to communicate with at the federal, state and local levels. There are many different search engines out there, but a good place to start is at the USA.gov link posted above.
If you want to send a message to your member of Congress or US Senator, you need to go through their official website, enter some demographic information, and complete the contact form.
If you want to send a message to your member of the Michigan House of Representatives or State Senator, you can send them a direct email. Another good source for Michigan policy information is the Michigan legislature website https://www.legislature.mi.gov/. You can find the calendar for legislative session, drafts of bills, analysis of bills, link to signed laws/acts, and of course links to how to communicate with your state representatives and senators. At the local level, I recommend you just search your county, city, or township webpage and find the list of how to contact your local officials. Most often they will have a page with their photos and links to their emails.
As for how to communicate, you can call, email, or write a good old-fashioned letter.
Keep it simple.
Provide your name, and that you are a constituent in their district or work in their district so they know you legitimately care about what is happening.
State your concern. State why it is a concern. Give a short story or a piece of data.
Then tell them what you want to do about the concern. If you want them to learn more, suggest a website, research, or who else they need to talk to. This is an advocacy or education message.
If you want them to vote a particular way on a bill or the budget, this is considered lobbying. Just be sure if you are asking them to vote as an employee of an organization rather than as an individual voter, that you have the blessing of your employer to lobby. It might be better to send the communication as an individual not using your employee email.
Be sure to be kind and say thank you!
Provide your address or email if you would like a reply.
Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] if you have any questions or are interested in how UWSCMI feels about an issue.
