Millennials are constantly being criticized for not knowing what's going on in our government. Part of this is lack of transparency but more than that its lack of resources to know how to get involved and informed with what is going on. While simply going out to polls and voting in national primaries and general elections, state elections and local elections in important. You should really be informed on who you're actually voting for and not just voting for the person with incumbency. Here are some amazing resources for staying informed and up to date with what’s going on.

1. Knowing your representatives:

The most important thing is knowing who your local representative even is. You can find that here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

If you’re like me and go to college in a different area you can also look at who your representative is when you’re on campus. This is also a great resource to find your representative’s official website and a place to write your representative. You can even request a response!

2. Once you know your local representative find out your senators:

Two great resources are: http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/ and http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Both are user-friendly where you select where you are located and it tells you who is a part of your state government. From there you can see their official websites, and where they stand on certain issues.

3. What does my representative even do?

One of my favorite resources is: https://www.govtrack.us/ Here you can learn where your representative stands in relation to the rest of Congress, what committees they are a part of, bills they sponsor, and their voting record (including if they missed votes).

4. Money runs politics, so who sponsors my representative?

find out here: http://www.opensecrets.org/ You learn not only what PACs donate to representatives campaigns but also a breakdown by industries.

5. What about interest groups and Lobbyists?

This is a great resource: http://www.opensecrets.org/influence/ You can search by specific issues and learn if they fund liberal or conservative officials, and who their top recipients are.

6. Social Media

Many representatives have official pages on Social Media. Once you know who your representatives and senators are go find out what they are up to on Facebook, Twitter or your preferred social media site.