This year, legislators anticipated working in their home districts for a two-week break from April 14th and April 25th. As such, we were asking DV advocates from around the state to schedule meetings with their local Assembly Members and Senators in their home districts during that time. Now, without final passage of the state budget, it is possible legislators are called back to Albany at some point. Please reach out to your legislative offices as soon as possible to schedule an in-district meeting, if you haven’t already, understanding that meetings might be rescheduled if legislators are asked to return to Albany. 

For those of you who are interested in joining us in Albany for NYSCADV’s Legislative Day of Action, we will be convening on Tuesday, April 29th. The day will begin at 10:00am with a morning program to get everyone energized and thinking ADVOCACY, followed by meetings with your state legislators. Register here if you intend to join us in Albany on April 29th. No registration is needed if you will be meeting with your legislators in your local community, office or virtually.

As in year’s past, if you will be in Albany, we are asking you to schedule your own legislative meetings so you can decide how many meetings to schedule and whom to meet with. The enclosed document also includes sample emails and telephone scripts for you to request meetings with your legislator while in Albany on April 29th.

To help you prepare for your in-district and/or Albany meetings, we offerd a one-hour prep webinar which was held on April 10th at 3:00pm.  In this session you will learn about our legislative priorities, how to prepare for your legislative meetings, and logistics about the Albany event. Click here to access the recording.  *Please Note: You must use your Coalition Manager login information to access the resources. All staff of primary-purpose domestic violence programs in New York State are eligible for a Coalition Manager account.

We welcome everyone’s participation – from those who have joined us in years past to new advocates who have never participated in advocacy events before! We will be creating a toolkit with sample emails, social media messaging and graphics, phone scripts, and talking points to make it easy for you to participate. And we highly encourage survivors, DV program staff, sexual assault program staff, crime victim program staff, legal services staff, agency board members, coalition and community partners, and community members to join in.  

If you have any questions, please reach out to Shannon Wong (swong@nyscadv.org).  

Templates

Materials