Messaging tool for STEM advocacy: Say This, Not That

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Messaging tool for STEM advocacy: Say This, Not That

By Leslie Brooks Posted: Apr 28, 2026

If 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) funding is eliminated in next year’s federal budget, 1.4 million children across the United States are at risk of losing their afterschool programs. Because 90% of 21st CCLC offer STEM learning opportunities, this means nearly 1.3 million youth across the nation will no longer have access to afterschool programs that provide hands-on STEM learning. The president’s FY 2027 budget request also includes cuts to STEM education portfolios that will affect afterschool programs both directly and indirectly by removing partnerships, funding, resources, and access to professional mentors. Given that more than 77% of parents agree that afterschool programs help their children develop an interest in and skills related to STEM, these funding cuts will be a devastating blow to communities across our nation.

Evidence shows that afterschool programs are vital to engaging youth in STEM. When you have meetings with policymakers about protecting afterschool funding, it’s important to have the data and the effective messages to highlight why afterschool STEM is essential for our youth, communities, future workforce, and society.

When the data alone isn't enough, how you say it matters just as much as what you say. The Afterschool STEM Hub’s Say This, Not That guide can help you with effective messaging strategies as you make the case for sustaining investments in afterschool STEM in your communities. The guide serves as a reference sheet, offering alternatives to common but sometimes counterproductive talking points for more effective framing. For instance, the guide recommends that instead of talking about a 'STEM skills crisis,' to focus on the opportunities ahead.

This strategic communication guide was carefully crafted based on tested framing strategies and message research to communicate in ways that resonate with a wide range of audiences, without inadvertently triggering division or undermining the shared values at the heart of the work. You can use this guide to prepare for meetings with your local, state, or federal representatives and to share about your program in emails, blogs, funding proposals, social media posts, and other formats. With specific alternative messaging samples and the reasoning to back up the recommended switch, the guide can help you persuasively and strategically move audiences toward seeing STEM learning as a necessary, collective investment.

How to use the Say This, Not That Guide

Review
1. Review the guide to become familiar with the messaging strategies. Pay attention to the 'Why' column - some of the language swaps may surprise you.
2. Share them with your team and discuss how you might integrate them into the narratives about the impact of your program on your community and the youth you serve.
Tailor
1. Once you've become familiar with the message strategies, tailor them to your unique program, community, and stories.
2. Integrate the messaging into your email communications and outreach letters to your policymakers, in funding proposals, or in crafting an op-ed for your local newspaper. The guide's framing around "access for all kids in urban, suburban, and rural areas" is ready-made for a congressional meeting, while the "shared prosperity" framing works well in an op-ed or funding proposal.
Engage
1. Send your message with the tailored message framing to your elected leaders, letting them know why supporting afterschool means supporting STEM learning.
2. You can even use the messaging to adapt a message to Congress in support of afterschool STEM through the Afterschool Alliance’s Afterschool Works for America Campaign.

With this practical tool at hand, use your stories of impact, data, and reframed messaging to take the next step and engage with your lawmakers to ask them not to allow these cuts to STEM education and afterschool. You already have the stories and the data. This guide gives you the language to make them land.

You can also visit AfterschoolWorksForAmerica.org to find more tools in the larger fight for afterschool and summer learning programs. Sign up to get the latest afterschool and summer learning policy updates in your inbox.