How Find Your City, State, Federal Legislators
To find a list of your legislators, visit https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative.
Steps to Contact Your Federal Legislators
The steps below will help you contact your federal legislators quickly and efficiently via an external platform located at https://democracy.io.
- Navigate to https://democracy.io: From here you will be prompted to enter your home address. This will identify your state legislators.
- Navigate to Messaging Page: To send a message directly to your legislators, click the “Write to them!” button beneath the names of your legislators on the democracy.io page.
- Type Out Your Message: Fill out all fillable fields on the democracy.io message page. To make things simple, we have included messaging below. Please feel free to personalize each message as you see fit.
- Click Submit! The “Submit!” button will appear upon completion of all required fields. This is your last step! You’re all done!
July COVID-19 Action Alert
Thank you to Children’s Alliance Kentucky for summarizing the message below for distribution. Copy/paste to send to your legislators. Please personalize as you see fit.
Congress can actively safeguard against the most harmful impacts of COVID-19 and put our children and families in a better position to rebuild. We want every child and family to have the right tools to thrive and recover from COVID-19, so we are asking Congress to…
1. Support the needs of children and families involved in child welfare by allocating an additional $9.6 Billion in Social Services Block Grants (SSBG). Flexible funding is needed to address the current and emerging needs of children and families who were made vulnerable through the COVID-19 pandemic. States can use this funding to cover the costs associated with the impact of COVID-19 and stabilize children and families as we rebuild.
2. Effectively assist young people in the transition from foster care to adulthood by increasing Title IV-E Chafee funds by $500 million. Most young people rely on their families for support, however youth in foster care must rely on the child welfare system to ensure their safety, health, and well-being as they launch into adulthood. Without targeted support, youth aging out of the foster care system are at higher risk for homelessness, lack of income, instability, and illness. The pandemic has increased their vulnerability to these challenging circumstances, and we must provide extra support during this time.
3. Prevent child maltreatment and entries into foster care by expanding Title IV-B of the Social Security Act by $2 Billion. Lost income, isolation from support networks, anxiety, and depression due to the pandemic are stressors that are expected to increase child maltreatment. It is critical that we invest in up-front interventions to help families weather the storm and prevent a major influx of children into the foster care system because of the pandemic.
4. Stabilize the essential community-based workforce that offer a lifeline for children and families who need them by supporting “emergency COVID-19 response pay” for frontline workers. The COVID-19 pandemic requires essential human services workers to put their lives on the line to continue to provide direct services for our vulnerable children and families. The pandemic added layers of challenges on an already strained workforce. Any legislation that provides support for first responders must include essential human services workers and community providers.