Reminder: Write Your Iowa Legislators and Tell Them About the Importance of Iowa’s AEAs!

If everyone at Heartland AEA were to send at least one letter to their state representative and another to their state senator, we would generate over 1,000 letters to the Iowa legislature! (Many thanks to those staff members who have already written letter to your legislators!) 

We need your help to help our legislators understand what we do. Our greatest enemy, when it comes to gaining legislative support for the AEAs, is not political parties and their positions. It’s legislators’ lack of knowledge about what we do and how important our work is in the lives of children, families and educators. We all make a difference! Please consider making a difference in helping to change how our legislators perceive the importance of our work! 

Click here for a letter template that you can personalize with “your story.” (Everything in red font in the letter is to be personalized.) We know you have stories to tell. Take a few minutes to share with your legislator what you do and/or to tell them a story or two about how your work has made a difference for a child, family and/or educator. If you have a story—great—if not, just share your thoughts about the wonderful people you work with at Heartland AEA. 

If you want to send a message to your legislator via email, please do not send an email between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. - our normal work hours. That will raise red flags, and we don’t need a legislator remarking that staff members are taking their valuable work time to write letters to them. Also, please use a personal email account instead of your work email account. This makes your message more personal and unique, and it avoids any legislators’ complaints about using agency resources to lobby them (which is a definite no-no)! 

If you don’t know your legislators and/or need to look up their email address or mailing address (hard copy letters are also GREAT), you can use the Iowa Legislature’s website to find them at https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find. 

If you send an email, please blind copy the Communications Dept. at comms@heartlandaea.org on your letters, and if you send a hard copy, also send a copy to the Communications Dept., so the Agency has a sense of how many letters staff is generating. Please send your letters within the month of March. We look forward to seeing how many of you accept this important challenge!