Although we are wrapping up #CDWeek2017, please know the work is not done! Continued advocacy will be needed in the months to come! Thanks to our friends at the Ohio CDC Associations for the below message. We encourage you to follow the below advocacy steps and reach out to your legislators!
Unfortunately, the President’s proposed budget has called for eliminating both CDBG and HOME. Because of this, it is essential that our Members of Congress hear from all of us why we must not only keep, but expand these programs.
Use these CDBG and HOME flyers
To help tell the story of CDBG and HOME in Ohio, we’ve created flyers for each of the programs. View the CDBG flyer and HOME flyer.
You can use these flyers when talking about these programs. The flyers are editable PDFs that allow you to enter your organization’s contact information on the back.
Please call or email your US House Rep and Senators Portman and Brown.
We realize advocacy is not easy for everyone, so feel free to use our sample script below. It only takes 30 seconds to make this call! To prove how easy it is, check out this video of Nate Coffman, our executive director, calling Senator Portman’s office.
Sample call or email script
Feel free to tweak this script for your own community or use different points from the above flyers.
“Hi, my name is ________ and I’m calling to let you know about the importance of federal community development programs to my local community in zip code, _____.
Specifically, the Community Development Block Grant or CDBG program has created or retained 353,000 permanent jobs. The HOME Investment Partnership or HOME program has generated nearly 5 billion in Ohio local income since 1992 while providing much needed access to affordable housing.
CDBG, HOME, and other federal community development programs work and need to be substantially increased. Thank you!”
Find your Congressperson’s contact information
US House of Representatives – Click here to contact your representative
US Senator Rob Portman – Click here to contact Senator Portman
US Senator Sherrod Brown – Click here to contact Senator Brown
Tip: Add their phone numbers to your contacts, so you always have it handy when you need to make a call.