Combating Substance Abuse in Indiana: How to Get Involved
Identify Your Issues
- Invite your Program Manager to assist your coalition in identifying its priority legislative goals and developing a plan for achieving them.
Use your Comprehensive Community Plan as a Reference
- Utilize the problem statements, the supportive data, and the recommended actions in demonstrating a measure's relevance to your county's efforts to reduce substance abuse and impaired driving. Your Plan describes the problem and some solutions - all useful information for decision making whether at the local level, the state level, or the federal level.
Network with Other LCCs
- Network with other Local Coordinating Councils (LCCs)
- Identify issues your groups share positions on and on which your groups can work together.
- Invite your Program Manager to meet with your groups to help facilitate a strategic planning session.
Conduct a Community Forum
- Arrange and prepare for a community forum with your local legislators in the Fall.
- During the summer months, your coalition can develop a list of legislative recommendations.
- Prepare your position on each recommendation by outlining it and documenting the facts and data to support it.
- Your Comprehensive Community Plan provides you with material on which to build your position and the facts to back it up.
Contact Your Legislators
- Call your local election board to identify your state legislators.
- Send a thank you note to the legislators who fought for your issues the past Session, whether or not the legislation succeeded.
- Ask for your legislator's support of your coalition's issue(s).
- Cite how the issue impacts your county.
- Cite how the legislation will improve or hurt your county.
- Enclose a fact sheet on the issue.
- Be sure to follow through with anything that you promise to do.
Resources for Taking Action
- Contact your Program Manager
- Check out the linkages to various web sites with information and how-to tips.
- Check out the Indiana General Assembly's web site, where you can learn all about your state legislators and the legislative branch of state government. Email addresses for state legislators are provided at this site.
Salutations, Addresses and Phone Numbers for the State Legislature
The Honorable
_________________
Indiana State Senate
State House
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(800) 382-9467
Dear Senator:
The Honorable
_________________
Indiana House of Representatives
State House
200 W. Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(800) 382-9842
Dear Representative:
INDIANA CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
Congressional and State legislative contacts: http://www.in.gov/legislative/index.htm
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