Introducing the Afterschool Election Kit

This blog is part of our Advocating For Afterschool series, where we share tools and best practices to help make the case for afterschool to policymakers at the local, state, and national levels. To see more installments of the series, check out the Advocacy tag on The Afterschool Snack.

Election season is here, and if you've ever wanted to make sure afterschool stays on candidates' radar, this is the moment! The Afterschool Alliance has put together an Election Kit packed with resources to help advocates at every level make their voices heard. In this blog, we’ll walk through what’s there and how to use it.

Not sure where to begin? Start with your bandwidth.

One of the most useful features of the toolkit is that it meets you where you are. It's organized around how much time and resources you have to give.

• If you're already stretched thin, there are quick actions that take just minutes—like contacting your members of Congress directly, sending postcards to elected officials, or posting on social media.
   
• If you're new to afterschool advocacy, try writing a letter to the editor of your local paper or hosting a Lights On Afterschool event.
   
• If you're ready to dig in, you can ask candidates to fill out the candidate questionnaire, run a voter registration drive, coordinate a social media campaign, or host a site visit at your program.
   
• And if you're a super advocate, the toolkit has resources for organizing a full candidate forum, setting up an editorial board meeting with your local newspaper, or coordinating a community open house with local afterschool partners.

Three main buckets of resources

Once you know where you're starting from, the toolkit's resources fall into three areas:

1. Engaging candidates and the field

These resources are about getting afterschool into the conversation—and keeping it there. Discover how to interact with candidates so the issue stays visible, how to mobilize afterschool supporters and help get out the vote, and importantly, how to maintain momentum after the election.

2. Communicating your campaign

Your outreach will likely involve three channels: traditional media, social media, and community connections. The toolkit breaks these down into practical how-tos for contacting media and reaching out online.

3. Making the case for afterschool

This section is all about your talking points. Thankfully, the data is on your side, and these three points resonate with voters across party lines:

• More than 3 in 4 children whose parents want afterschool programs don't have access to one.
• The parents of 22.6 million children say they would enroll their child if a program were available.
• More than 80 percent of parents say programs give them peace of mind.

The toolkit also includes specific messaging guides for addressing common misconceptions, making the case for afterschool STEM, and advancing whole-child development arguments.

Whether you have five minutes or five weeks, there's something in this toolkit for you. The most important thing is to start somewhere, whether that’s with a single postcard to your elected officials, one social media post, or a conversation with a neighbor about why afterschool matters.