Hi Julie, I am sharing COE's response below with you. Diane emphasized that the key strategy is for members of congress to prioritize the voices of their constituents, in our case TRIO. She shared that she thinks outreach to individuals outside their districts often goes unread. She also emphasized the importance of the messages from alumni living in other congressional districts. Diane also stated that since Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro serves as the Ranking member of the House of Appropriations Committee, it is worth asking your representative if they'd be willing to speak with her or their colleagues about boosting support for TRIO. I also had a phone call with Kim Jones. Senator Susan Collins (from Maine) stood up for TRIO when the budget proposal was released. She also suggested for some of us to simply send Senator Collins a nice e-mail thanking her for her support. Hope this helps provide further guidance and I am sure we will learn more during COE's town hall meeting tomorrow. Please let us know if you have further questions. Thank you, Yara Zoccarato ________________________________ From: Diane Shust <Diane.Shust@coenet.org> Sent: Saturday, May 3, 2025 10:26 PM To: Yara Zoccarato <zoccaratoy@wcsu.edu>; Owen Toomey <Owen.Toomey@coenet.org> Subject: RE: Advocacy Request for Guidance Please be cautious This email was sent from outside of your organization ________________________________ Hi! Yara- It is always good to hear from you. You can call me on my personal cell anytime-202-255-0917. Thank you so much for such a thoughtful email. I appreciate you wanting to do more to help advocate for TRIO. These are my thoughts about contacting Members of Congress not in CT. They are based on my work on the Hill. Members of Congress don’t care about people who are not their constituents. They don’t—because they can’t vote for them. That’s why offices ask for your address—to make sure you live in the congressional district. They’ll delete any emails from non-constituents, And won’t respond to any contacts non-constituents may make. It would be a waste of time to reach out to non-CT members. However, it would be excellent if you and our members can reach out to your alumni. Even if they’ve moved out of CT and live in another state, they can contact their senators and Member of Congress to tell them their personal TRIO story. Although the program they were in may be in another state, they live in the congressional district, and they vote! Last year, the GA TRIO folks hosted their first breakfast for Hill staff. There were at least 3 alumni there who told their “stories.” I followed up with the congressional staff later and I was really surprised at how many of them said they were most impressed with the alumni stories. I feel that our alumni are an untapped resource. Since Rosa De Lauro is the Ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, it would be an appropriate “ask” of other House Members to ask if they will talk to Rosa directly and ask her what else can be done to build support for TRIO. For example, you could ask Congresswoman Hayes if she’d be willing to talk to other House Members about TRIO to increase support for TRIO. Just a thought. Does this help you? If not, give me a call. Happy to talk more about this. Have a good weekend. Best, Diane Diane Shust Vice President Public Policy Council for Opportunity in Education Washington, DC diane.shust@coenet.org<mailto:diane.shust@coenet.org> 202.347.7430 (office) 202.421.0105 (mobile) www.coenet.org<http://www.coenet.org/> [signature_4058298645]<https://coenet.org/annual-conference/> Follow the Council on X<https://twitter.com/COETalk> and Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/coeworks/?hl=en> and like us on Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/councilforopportunityineducation>. From: Yara Zoccarato <zoccaratoy@wcsu.edu> Sent: Saturday, May 3, 2025 7:15 PM To: Diane Shust <Diane.Shust@coenet.org>; Owen Toomey <Owen.Toomey@coenet.org> Subject: Advocacy Request for Guidance Hi Diane and Owen, I'm reaching out to seek your insights on an important matter regarding advocacy for TRIO programs with our congressional members. In our New England region, we've been fortunate to experience strong support for TRIO. However, we believe that maintaining and reinforcing this support is crucial. I've been advising our teams to keep the communication lines open by regularly sharing our students' success stories and challenges with their offices. I would greatly appreciate any additional strategies or insights you might have on how to enhance these efforts and make our advocacy even more impactful. Specifically, how can we best frame our communications to ensure TRIO remains a priority for our congressional partners? Should we send communication to other congress members not in our states that need more persuasion or reach out to specific committee chairs? Your expertise and guidance in this area would be invaluable, and I'd be happy to share your insights with our broader membership once received. Thank you for your continued support and leadership. Looking forward to your thoughts! Best regards, Yara Z