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ECE Advocacy: Tips for Contacting your Legislator

When Arizona’s childcare works, Arizona works.

We have the opportunity to make a difference as a country in the lives of young learners, families, and educators. Your voice matters in early childhood advocacy! Your elected officials need to hear from early childhood champions about the importance of supporting and investing in early learning.

Calling their office is one of the most effective ways to contact your legislator.

Call your Legislator

Take a few minutes to pick up the phone and call your state and federal elected representatives. Be prepared to leave a voicemail. But, if you get a live staffer, all the better to tell your story!

1. Introduce yourself and give a contact number or email.

2. Say, “I’m an Arizona voting constituent” (if you’d prefer).

3. Tell your story and share your experience. Why is early learning important to you and your community? What supports or funding are needed to make a difference in the lives of children, families, and early childhood educators?

4. Say that you will follow up. You might invite your legislator to visit your early learning program or send an email with links to research on early childhood (great information can be found at First Things First and America for Early Ed).

5. Thank the legislator for their public service and that you look forward to seeing their investments in childcare.

Email your Legislator

No time to call? Take two minutes to send an email to your representatives. You can use the auto-form from Child Care Aware of America and speak up for childcare through early childhood advocacy.

Make your Voice Heard on Social Media

Like AzAEYC on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Feel free to share our posts and tag Arizona’s state and federal elected officials. Use hashtags like #ThinkBabiesAndAct, #SaveChildCare, and #FundChildCare.

How to Find Contact Information for your Elected Officials

Simply enter your zip code or full address at this America for Early Ed link to locate your legislative representatives’ names, contact numbers, and social media handles.

We’ve put together Arizona’s federal representative Twitter handles for you.

Resources

Child Care Crisis: Stories from the Field – A new storybook created by the National Women’s Law Center, NAEYC and other advocacy organizations shares the ever changing and evolving reality of families, providers and educators during the pandemic.

Voters Want Child Care Relief – A new bipartisan poll commissioned by the First Five Years Fund (FFYF) and Center for American Progress (CAP) shows overwhelming demand among voters across the country for Congress to prioritize emergency relief funding up to $50B for child care providers in the COVID-19 recovery package.

Meeting School Age Child Care Needs – The Urban Institute provides an overview of the key challenges for K-12 schooling and lists policy strategies that could support working families and caregivers.