August is a Congressional recess, a time when our elected officials head home to meet with constituents. This is a great time to personally reach out to your members of Congress and advocate on issues that matter to you. This month, you can #WorkWithUs to end subminimum wage by talking to your members of Congress about the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act! Your visits can have a big impact, and we’re here to help.
Here are two ways to contact your Congresspeople:
- Attend a public event. Your members of Congress might be holding town hall meetings or other public events. These are excellent opportunities to directly ask questions and hold them accountable for their answers. To find out if there’s a town hall or other public event coming up near you, visit TownHallProject.com and type inyour ZIP code. We have a new guide on what to expect at a town hall availablehere.
- Set up a meeting. Face-to-face meetings leave the strongest impression on members of Congress and their staff. To find your members of Congress’ local offices and make an appointment, visit contactingcongress.org and type in your ZIP code. Under the contact information for each Representative or Senator, there is a list of their local offices.You can go by yourself, or go with a group.
You can use this script to set up your meeting:
“My name is [Your Name] and I am a constituent of [Representative/Senator][Name]. I would like to meet with the [Representative/Senator] or their staff during Congressional recess, to talk about the Transformation to Competitive Employment Act. Can we set up a time?”
- Once you’ve gotten the meeting set up, check out our toolkit on interacting with elected officials! It has information about what to expect.
After your meeting or town hall, tweet us @autselfadvocacy to let us know how you’re making a difference during this August recess!
Face-to-face interactions with your elected officials have a huge impact on them. Hearing directly from you about why integrated employment is so important makes the issue more personal, and harder to ignore. Our members of Congress need to understand that their disabled constituents are paying attention—and when policies that affect our lives are on the table, there must be Nothing About Us, Without Us!