Section 3: Advocacy
Be Our Voice is a program of the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality (NICHQ), in cooperation with:
Sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Objectives
1. Define Advocacy, particularly focusing on Community
Advocacy.
2. Describe steps to build partnership and collaboration.
3. Identify techniques to develop relationships with elected
officials.
4. Articulate the key components of an Advocacy Work Plan.
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Advocacy Defined
 Advocacy: Speaking out on your patients’ and
clients’ behalf.
 Advocacy allows you to move from working with one
child or family to joining a broader network of
advocates who work on behalf of many children.
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Different Levels of Advocacy
There are different levels of advocacy:
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Individual
Community
State
Federal
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Definitions of Advocacy
1) Individual Advocacy: Work you do everyday to improve the
health and well-being of specific patients and clients.
2) Community Advocacy: Builds on and reaches beyond individual
advocacy by shifting focus from people in your professional
setting to people and organizations within your local
community.
3) State Advocacy: Includes health and wellbeing issues, such as
healthcare professionals (HCPs) working together to pass a state
law to increase physical activity and access to healthy food in
schools.
4) Federal Advocacy: Involves using your voice to advocate on
behalf of national laws and legislation that affect the health of
children and their families.
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Why Advocacy Matters Generally
 Provides opportunity to move beyond individual
solutions to create broader systemic change.
 Healthcare professionals can help change
community norms and public policy to protect
children’s health and wellbeing.
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Why Move Beyond Individual Advocacy
Community and state/federal advocacy:
 Works systemically to raise awareness, educate,
and/or provide treatment solutions that can help
keep children safe and healthy.
 Collectively gain attention of decision makers, the
media, and the general public to create change on
behalf of children’s health and wellbeing.
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Getting Comfortable
by Learning the Process
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Getting Started
 Don’t need to be expert on process.
 Many HCPs find it helpful to have a basic
understanding of how the community, state and
federal advocacy process works as they engage in
advocacy efforts.
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Essentials of Community Advocacy
 Borne out of belief that children’s health is influenced
by social, economic, environmental, and political
factors within a community.
 Focuses on changing local policies, laws, and
programs that affect children’s health.
 May relate to local community-based initiatives,
school board representation, or legislative processes
such as city or county government.
 The different venues for community advocacy allow
you to get involved in ways that best fit your
interests.
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State and Federal Government
 State and federal advocacy is about changing public
policies and laws that affect children’s health.
 Policies, legislation, regulations, or judicial actions can
happen at the state or federal level.
 State and federal government has three independent
components:
 Legislative branch makes the
laws
 Executive branch carries out the laws
 Judicial branch interprets the laws
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State Advocacy Essentials
 State legislatures are increasingly active players in the day-today governing of the country and are critical to the formation of
public health policy.
 Each state operates under a different law-making process, but
many commonalities exist among states.
 Legislative sessions vary from state to state and year to year.
 The governor is the chief executive of a state and is responsible
for the administration of the government.
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Federal Advocacy Essentials
 The United States Congress has two chambers – the
Senate and the House of Representatives. Each
chamber has its own leadership, its own committee
structure, and its own set of rules.
 Each state has two senators representing the entire
state. The number of representatives for each state
depends upon the state’s population.
 The executive branch consists of the president and
the various departments of the federal government.
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We’re Not Alone:
Broadening Participation
Connecting with Others in the Community
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Building Strength in Numbers
 As a healthcare professional, you are both a credible
and natural advocate for children and your
profession.
 However, even with compelling issues, a powerful
story and ongoing advocacy, there is a greater chance
of winning when we build strength in numbers.
 There are two ways to build strength in numbers:
 Getting more people involved.
 Getting more organizations involved.
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Connect with Others in Your Community
Working on Obesity
 This generates hope and excitement for your issue.
 The more others see they are not alone, the more they will be
willing to advocate and believe that a broader solution is
possible.
 More people means increased pressure on decision makers to
act.
 Opposition to your issues frequently emerges. Strength in
numbers is one of the best ways to counter it.
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How to Get More People
in Your Community Involved
 Begin with a recognition that some people may be unfamiliar
with advocacy work and therefore, hesitant to get involved.
 Start with people you already know and who care about
children’s health.
 Ask people (– a natural and acceptable thing to do.)
 Connect your issue to others’ self-interests.
 Convey why your issue is important and why their help is
needed.
 Have a concrete request and be clear about the time
commitment.
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Why Get More Organizations
in Your Community Involved?
 Creates perception that the issue has visible and
wide-ranging support.
 Further captures attention of decision makers.
 Demonstrates collective power.
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How to Get Others in
Your Community Involved
 Choose organizations in the community with common
interests.
 Understand each organization’s processes.
 Balance resources against the challenges.
 Don’t forget about non-traditional allies.
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Customizable Slide
 If your advocacy project team leads have already
formed partnerships or already represent significant
organizations working obesity now is the time to
highlight these.
 Also a good opportunity to indicate what existing
“movements” you know about in your area or
groups you want to partner with – could make it a
dynamic exchange with trainees where you think
aloud about to whom you should reach out.
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EXERCISE A
Recruitment Worksheet
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ADVOCACY WORK PLAN
An Advocacy Work Plan helps you clarify
goals and identify strategies and tactics
that you will use to achieve your goals and
increase your chances for success.
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Developing an Advocacy Work Plan
The key components of an Advocacy Work Plan include:
 Goals—long-term,
intermediate, and shortterm
 Resources, assets, and plans
for building on them
 Extent of community
support (and opposition):
Who are your allies? Who
are your opponents?
 Targets (and agents) of
change
 Strategies
 Tactics (specific action plan)
 Measures to evaluate the
plan
*The entire plan should be
formally written down.
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Customizable Slide
 Insert your site-specific advocacy goals and elements
of your Advocacy Work Plan and/or Logic Model that
you want to engage the HCPs in working toward
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EXERCISE B
Advocacy Work Plan
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EXERCISE C
Negotiation Exercise
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References
 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). AAP Advocacy Guide:
Pointing you in the right direction to become an effective
advocate. 2009. Available at:
www.aap.org/moc/advocacyguide
 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). AAP Advocacy Guide:
Pointing you in the right direction to become an effective
advocate Power Point Slides. 2009. Available at:
www.aap.org/moc/advocacyguide
 Mobilizing Healthcare Professionals In The Fight Against
Childhood Obesity Advocacy Resource Guide. 2010.
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