The ability to advocate for students, clients, and the counseling profession with legislators is an increasingly important professional activity. There are several issues directly pertaining to mental health, education, and other counseling-related issues before the United States Congress and the Texas Legislature. In this assignment, find the contact information for your Texas Representative or Senator at https://capitol.texas.gov/
(Links to an external site.)
or for your United States Representative or Senator at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/members
(Links to an external site.)
. Compose and draft a letter that you could hypothetically send to your representative sharing your view on the specific counseling-related bill in question.
For these topics, choose a specific issue. Refer to the public policy sections of the American Counseling Association, Texas Counseling Association, American School Association, Mental Health America, or National Alliance on Mental Illness to prime your thinking on current counseling policies.
Use the 2019 Texas Counseling Association Advocacy Manual on the resources page in our Canvas classroom for guidelines in writing your hypothetical letter to your legislator. Write a 2-page paper describing the counseling-related issue and bill you chose, your reasons for choosing that counseling-related issue and bill, and include a copy of the hypothetical letter. Post the draft of your letter/email and explanatory paper in the assignment module in Canvas. DO NOT SEND THE LETTER. The Texas Legislature meets every January in odd-numbered years. Any legislation you are viewing is currently out of date.
