You are powerful. Your lived expertise can and should help shape the policies created.

Building strong relationships with Members of the U.S. Congress is a critical first step in effectively advocating for policy change. Whether you’re defending a cause or supporting the interests and needs of a particular group, you are advocating for a position that legislators want and need to hear about.

There are several ways you can connect with your policymakers to advocate for our collective policy agenda and ensure effective policies to prevent and end youth homelessness become law.

  1. Build a new or strengthen an existing relationship with your Members of Congress and their staff.
  2. Educate Members of Congress and their staff about the local needs and national solutions regarding youth, young adult, and young parent homelessness.
  3. Ask Members of Congress and their staff to do at least one thing that would strengthen national and local responses to preventing and ending youth, young adult, and young parent homelessness.

Remember, no one else knows what you know or has had the same experiences as you. You can’t guarantee that anyone else is likely to take up these issues and advocate, so you must take the time to build these relationships and advocate for our collective policy agenda. Together, we can prevent and end youth homelessness.

Building a Relationship with a Member of Congress

Engaging with your Members of Congress through meetings, site and program visits, stakeholder roundtables, and e-advocacy can help to educate and shed light on the experiences and needs of youth and young adults facing homelessness in America.

According to the Congressional Management Foundation, engaging the “heart, mind, and political health” of a policymaker is an effective way to establish rapport and develop strong relationships with members of Congress.

  1. Engage the heart by sharing an experience or story that appeals to a legislator’s emotions.
  2. Influence the mind by sharing helpful, factual information to inform and educate them on a key issue, your position and why they should support it, and proposed solutions.
  3. Consider their political health by showing what’s at stake should conditions remain as they are, and encourage them to think about the consequences if they don’t act.

NN4Y partners with youth with lived experience of homelessness, youth homelessness service providers, homeless liaisons, and other experts to meet directly with Members of Congress to share their experiences. If you are interested, please email Trinady Maddock, our Policy Associate, at trinady.maddock@nn4youth.org.

Resources To Advocate

Find everything you need to set up your meetings and prepare for a strong, effective conversation with Congress. Many of these resources were updated for our Hill Day during the National Summit on Youth Homelessness, but they are helpful year round!

Hill Day Prep Webinar | February 18, 2026

Learn More

Youth Homelessness

Every night, 4.2 million youth, young adults, and young parent families experience homelessness in communities across the United States.

LGBTQ+ Youth Homelessness

LGBTQ+ youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than their cisgender and heterosexual peers.

Young Parent Family Homelessness

Nearly half of all youth experiencing homelessness are young parents.