The main goal of the Together Women Rise Advocacy Group with RESULTS is to guide us in building deep relationships with our members of Congress (MoCs) and their staff. These relationships then become the way we influence policies and funding affecting women and girls around the world. As we approach election day, there is no better time to begin this relationship-building than by joining campaign events, town halls, and the many other forms of voter engagement that are now occurring pre-election. During these events we connect with candidates and educate the public about the issues we work on. It’s the interview process before, we the people, hire representatives to work for us in government.

Together Women Rise’s advocacy is entirely non-partisan. What we ask is that our MoCs support issues that enable women and girls world over to thrive — to be free of hunger, to have ready access to quality education at all levels, to be able to secure gender appropriate healthcare, and to have legal protections from abuse. Our role is to bring these issues to the forefront for our legislators and our communities and educate them accordingly. Once you have an established relationship, you will have earned their respect and find that they appreciate your interaction and guidance. Our goal with all of our advocacy is to promote legislation that will move the needle toward global gender equality.

We encourage you to ask your legislators and candidates for office where they stand on these issues. We then ask you to vote with these answers in mind. Voting is one of our rights and privileges, and we must aspire to use it wisely and encourage others to vote.

When we meet for our next advocacy group webinar on November 15th at 8:30 PM ET, we can reflect on the outcomes of the election and how to engage our MoCs again. The election is just a transition—the work of advocating for women and girls does not end with the election, but just resets. We will continue to advocate together to make the 118th Congress, starting in January, act in the best interests of women and girls worldwide.