Building and maintaining strong relationships with Members of Congress is essential to achieving your advocacy goals.

Federal advocacy starts at home, where Senators and Representatives are elected by their constituents. They represent you, and your voice is what is most important to them.

With Congress’ August Recess coming up — where members of the House and Senate will be back in-district to engage with their constituents — we wanted to share the following tools for sucessful in-district meetings with your Member of Congress.

2023 RYC Advocacy Toolkit

This toolkit will give you everything you need to be a successful advocate for the Reconnecting Youth Campaign, covering the different ways you can engage with your Senator or Representative in-district followed by a step-by-step guide for how to meet with a Member of Congress, attend a town hall, plan a site visit, and write an editorial or letter to the editor.

In this toolkit, you will also find The Reconnecting Youth Campaign’s advocacy priorities and briefing sheets to be used as leave-behinds for your Member (reminder: you can also find your State Leave-Behinds here!). There are also helpful tips for effective advocacy throughout the toolkit.

2022 RYC Advocacy Training

This video training gives an overview of how to conduct meetings with Members of Congress and/or their offices, sharing a step-by-step about why these meetings are important and how they work.

August Recess Infograph