Resources for Global Youth Service Day
Posted by Youth Service America on March 26, 2019
GYSD is a great time to connect youth directly with policymakers. This can be done by encouraging individual communication with their elected officials, facilitating in-person meetings, participating in public meetings/events, or connecting with (or creating) youth councils/boards in your area.
Meet with your elected officials. YSA’s Engaging Public Officials Toolkit has tips and templates for you to contact your officials.
- Attend (or organize) a day at your state capitol or city hall. You can also request a meeting with any elected official any time. Remember, they’re there to serve you! Just make sure to request meetings at least a few weeks in advance.
- There are many local government meetings (like city council or school board meetings) that are open to the public and include time for public comments. You can find this information via their website, local newspaper, or public access channel.
- Host a Service Stop site visit.
Connect youth with their peers who hold formal leadership positions like on youth boards or youth councils. If your city, county, school district, state legislators, or governor don’t have a youth leadership group like this, encourage them to start one.
- National League of Cities’ Authentic Youth Civic Engagement: A Guide for Municipal Leaders
- Forum for Youth Investment’s Building Effective Youth Councils: A Practical Guide to Engaging Youth in Policy Making
Promotional Tools: How to Contact Your Elected Officials
Call, e-mail, or write to your elected officials:
- Find all your elected officials’ contact information via the League of Women Voters or Common Cause.
- Find all your elected officials social media accounts here.
- Send official messages to your representatives directly from Facebook, Twitter, and news sites as a verified constituent using the ePluribus plug-in for Chrome.
- Use ResistBot to deliver messages to your elected officials by texting a keyword (see full list on their website) to 50409.
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