TRIO’S COORDINATED SUMMER 2025 ADVOCACY BLUEPRINT

Thank you for participating in the coordinated efforts led by the TRIO Community to strike down the President’s proposal to eliminate funding for TRIO programs in the FY26 budget (program year 26-27). Below is a litany of resources and a calendar of advocacy milestones that will amplify our voices as we navigate the current threat to educational opportunity.

As you navigate this work, please remember that Advocacy is information sharing, gratitude giving, celebrating, and other efforts that do not directly ask an elected official for anything. Advocacy can be done with your program outlets. Lobbying is an action that incorporates an ask or request of an elected official. Lobbying must be done on your personal time, using your personal or non-federal grant resources.

Who are you targeting your messaging to?

Find contact information for your Member of Congress and their Education Staffer and Schedulers here. Key information about your Member of Congress related to TRIO is here. We recommend creating a document with your Member’s email, social media handles, district office information, and other key contact points so you can refer to it early and often. Use this link to find their Social Media handles.

Communicate all information to COE

To coordinate the scale of this fight, we must centralize what we are learning from our collective effort. To that end, COE asks you to complete this form with any information regarding TRIO funding, support for TRIO programs, or other relevant information. No nugget is too small to share!

How will all of this come together?

By using the scaffolded Advocacy and Lobbying approach below, you ensure that the TRIO voices are carried weekly, aligned in the same message: #ProtectTRIO & #TRIOworks. COE will email a weekly advocacy message with resources on Monday of each week through July. This allows us to be consistent in our efforts while being flexible. You are free to create your messaging and emphasis as it relates to the TRIO programs in your state and district. What COE provides is supplemental to anything you are motivated to do.

General Advocacy Resources & Materials to Educate & Inform

COE has a volume of resources at your disposal. Please review the materials found here to fuel your efforts. Review data and published articles from the Pell Institute here. Understand TRIO’s connection to current political issues here. Find a brief on each TRIO program here. For inspiration on advocating, check out this list of things you can do. Daily social media posts can be powerful in mass; coordinate your impact with this day-by-day tool.

Important Considerations

Everyone must engage in this fight, as the force we are fighting against is strong. We must remain unified in our bipartisan message that #TRIOworks and that Congress must #ProtectTRIO. If efforts turn into politics aligned with one party or another, we lose one of our greatest strengths: our bipartisan support. We have no permanent friends, only a permanent agenda: #ProtectTRIO.

Your participation in this advocacy may take various forms depending on your role, life, and bandwidth. Whatever path you choose in advocacy, know it is appreciated and essential. Launching large-scale community events and inviting your Member of Congress to visit your program is incredibly impactful and important work. If you can post to social media and tag your Members of Congress, that also has cumulative impacts when done in mass. We all must show up to do this work in the ways that we can and take care of each other along the way.

Summer 2025 Calendar of Advocacy & Lobbying

Please note that action alerts may change depending on pending congressional action.

Week	Focus	Advocacy Update
May 5	GET ORGANIZED: Our efforts will be infinitely stronger if we organize our participants, alumni, stakeholders and supporters. More information & resources can be found here. LEVERAGE WHAT YOU HAVE PLANNED: Work with your staff and institutions to map your advocacy strategy with existing events and plans. Consult the House Calendar and Senate Calendar to align your program events with dates your Member of Congress will be home. DISTRIBUTE THE ALUMNI SIGN-ON LETTER: Share this link with your program alumni so they can sign on and demonstrate their support for TRIO. Our Alumni are proof that #TRIOworks. Alumni are asked to sign on by May 23.
May 12	NETWORK ACTIVATION WEEK: Mobilize your current participants and alumni in action on two messages: #TRIOworks (share personal stories in connection with TRIO programs, services, and benefits) and #ProtectTRIO (ask your Member of Congress to defend TRIO against the threat of being cut and support at least level funding for FY26).
May 19	Use the TRIO Media Relations Handbook to drive news coverage in your local area and amplify TRIO's voice in this critical moment. Help raise awareness and generate media coverage that shows the world--and your members of Congress--how vital TRIO is to your students, families, and communities. Make sure everyone knows what's at stake and what TRIO delivers. Download the Handbook here.	Re. ED House Budget Hearing; May 21
May 26	CONGRESS IN DISTRICT / MEMORIAL DAY: Monday, 5/26: Review your Member’s Event Schedule and attend local events wearing your TRIO gear. One UNIFIED MESSAGE: #ProtectTRIO #TRIOworks. HIGHLIGHT TRIO’S WORK WITH VETERANS.	Re. Upward Bound cancellation letters; May 30
June 2	CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS ADVOCACY WEEK: A list of topics to focus your messaging on this week can be found here. Continue Planning your #TRIOworks Day of Service for June 21st with your team and our toolkit.
June 9	CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS ADVOCACY WEEK: A list of topics to focus your messaging on this week can be found here.
June 16	CONGRESS IN DISTRICT / JUNETEENTH Thursday 6/19: Review your Member’s Event Schedule & attend local events wearing your TRIO Gear. One UNIFIED MESSAGE: #ProtectTRIO #TRIOworks Saturday, 6/21: #TRIOworks Day of Service: Plan a local or regional community service event. Invite your Member of Congress to speak, cut a ribbon, or participate. Invite the press. Amplify our message that #TRIOworks and is vital to the communities we serve. A toolkit for planning can be found here.
June 23	CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS ADVOCACY WEEK: A list of topics to focus your messaging this week can be found here.
June 30	CONGRESS IN DISTRICT / INDEPENDENCE DAY Friday 7/4: Review your Member’s Event Schedule & attend local events wearing your TRIO Gear.
July 7	CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS ADVOCACY WEEK: A list of topics to focus your messaging on this week can be found here.
July 14	CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS ADVOCACY WEEK: A list of topics to focus your messaging on this week can be found here.
July 21	CHOOSE YOUR FOCUS ADVOCACY WEEK: A list of topics to focus your messaging on this week can be found here.
July 28	CONGRESS IN DISTRICT THROUGH AUGUST: WELCOME HOME! TRIO IS WHERE THE HEART IS. Write “Welcome Home” letters to your Member of Congress and deliver them to your local district offices. Review your Member’s Event Schedule & attend their events. Unify the message to #ProtectTRIO & #TRIOworks.
August	CONGRESS IN DISTRICT: Invite them to your events and attend their events. At each of your events (back-to-school celebrations, orientations, school supply drives, food drives, etc.), have materials ready for participants and attendees to write down their thoughts on why #TRIOworks. Compile all the postcards and letters and mail them to COE the last week of August so they can be hand-delivered to their DC Offices when they return from Summer Recess.
September	COE takes your mail to the D.C. offices on the Hill. Saturday, 9/27: Organize a 1K/3 K/5 K OPPORTUNITY WALK to raise awareness of TRIO programs in your community. Since members of Congress will be at home, plan to invite community stakeholders, your Member of Congress, the press, local government, and your alumni to demonstrate the depth of support TRIO programs have. A planning toolkit is forthcoming.