Name some of the ways you

1

• Name some of the ways you
• can participate in government (local, state, and
  national levels)?

2
Various Ways

• Reading different sources of newspapers/
  magazines
• Voting in school elections
• Running for/Holding a public office Holding a
  group discussion about a political issue
• Trying to convince someone to vote a certain way
• Drafting a petition or signing a petition for a
  cause
• Wearing a button or putting a sticker that has a
  political message
• Giving money to a party or candidate
• Writing a letter to your local representative
  about an issue that concerns you
• Campaigning for a candidate
• Writing a letter to the editor of your school
  paper or local paper
• Attend a school board or local county board
  meeting
• Making a public comment at a board meeting
• Organizing an after-school group to discuss
  issues
• Volunteering
• Keeping yourself informed of the goings-on by
  reading/watching the news
• Serving the country through military or civil
  service
• Disobeying laws and accepting the consequences to
  show that a law or policy is unjust
• Serving as a juror
• Participating in a protest march or boycott

3
Advocacy
4
Advocacy Avenues
5
Advocacy ties program elements together
6
National Health Education Standard 8

• Students will demonstrate the ability to
  advocate for personal, family and community
  health.
• Rationale
• Advocacy skills help students promote healthy
  norms and healthy behaviors.
• This standard helps students develop important
  skills to target their health enhancing messages
  and to encourage others to adopt healthy
  behaviors.

7
Performance Indicators

• 8.12.1. utilize accurate peer and societal norms
  to formulate a health enhancing message.
• 8.12.2. demonstrate how to influence and support
  others to make positive health choices.
• 8.12.3. work cooperatively as an advocate for
  improving personal, family and community health.
• 8.12.4. adapt health messages and communication
  techniques to a specific target audience.

8
RESPONSIBILITY IIPLANNING EFFECTIVE HEALTH
EDUCATION PROGRAMS

• Competency A
• Recruit community organizations, resource people
  and
• potential participants for support and assistance
  in program
• planning.
• Sub-competencies
• Communicate need for the program to those who
  will be involved
• Obtain commitments form personnel and decision
  makers who will be involved in the program
• Seek ideas and opinions of those who will affect,
  or be affected by the program
• Incorporate feasible ideas and recommendations
  into the planning process

9
The Basic Process
10
Identify the problem

• What is the real cause of the situation? Why do
  you and others want to try to change things?
  Could the situation be changed through advocacy
  work?

11
Gather information

• Find out all the information possible about the
  situation. This may involve making visits,
  talking with all sides involved and carrying out
  research to find details of
• the problem and its implications
• possible solutions that could be proposed
• targets these are organizations or people who
  are responsible for the situation, such as local
  government or businesses
• opportunities for influencing the targets such as
  public meetings, newsletters, sympathetic
  individuals or personal contacts
• supporters and opponents Who would join you with
  their support and who might oppose you? Churches,
  the media, organizations, officials, individuals?
  
• risks and advantages What risks are involved if
  action is taken or not taken? What advantages
  might there be in taking action, or in not taking
  action?

12
Make a decision

• After gathering all the information, a decision
  needs to be made about whether or not to take
  action. Can you really help to change the
  situation? Do you really understand all that is
  involved? Are you clear about who should be
  targeted to make changes? How can you work
  together with other supporters and are they
  interested? Is your information accurate and up
  to date? Will it stand up to official scrutiny or
  will people just consider it confused?
• You may feel you need more information and
  research and more help before you can make such a
  decision.

13
Plan

• Once a decision is made, you need to work out a
  clear plan of action. This should include
• the main problem
• the objectives of your advocacy work such as a
  change in the law or challenging corruption
• people who have the power to change the situation
  the targets
• the methods and activities that will be
  appropriate to use for this situation how to
  liaise with other supporting groups
• time schedule
• possible risks
• responsibilities
• measures of success how will you measure the
  results?

14
Take action

• The kind of action taken will vary greatly,
  depending on the culture, the social or political
  situation. There are several kinds of action
• Direct influence (lobbying) on the target This
  could include writing letters to officials,
  meeting with them, providing information and
  research findings that may be of interest to the
  target group, inviting officials to visit and
  learn more about the situation themselves or
  attending public meetings already arranged by the
  target group.
• Campaigning Campaigning involves telling others
  about the situation in a way that encourages them
  to take action. It could include arranging public
  meetings, taking part in demonstrations or
  marches, writing newsletters, providing
  information sheets or preaching.
• Media work Using the media to spread the message
  can greatly expand the number of people that are
  aware of the situation, though usually in a less
  direct way than campaigning. Media work could
  include writing an article or letter for a
  newspaper or magazine, talking on the radio,
  working with journalists to tell them about the
  situation or producing a press release about some
  activity or event.

15
Evaluate

• It is important to set aside time at regular
  intervals to look back and consider how effective
  your actions have been. What have been the
  results, if any? In addition to the main
  objective, has anything else changed? Should
  anything have been done differently?
• It may be very helpful to make a list of things
  that have been successful and the things that
  have failed. For example
• Our successes
• clear responsibilities
• realistic objectives
• good use of existing networks
• Our failures
• too few supporters
• unsympathetic media coverage
• not enough information
• After evaluating what has happened, what changes
  could you make? Is further action still needed?
  It may be helpful to repeat the cycle and work
  out a new strategy.

16
Hook, Line and Sinker

• Each individual actually already has what is most
  important to their legislator
• 1) they are a constituent (hook)
• 2) they understand the needs of their
  community/state (line)
• 3)they are in position to ask for their Members
  support (sinker)
• Christopher Kush President, Soapbox Consulting
   

17
Your Rec. Safety Task Today

• Activity 1 Your group needs to draft policy
  statements on three different recreational safety
  issues that include
• 1) What is the issue and why is it important?
• 2) Why would increased safety relating to these
  issues be good for the public and the community.
• 3) What are the steps that need to be taken to
  implement this new recreational safety policy?
• Activity 2 Your group needs to draft a letter to
  an official attempting to advocate for increased
  safety relating to one of the issue(s) discussed
  in Activity 1.
• The letters should
• 1) convey your opinion,
• 2) list three reasons supporting your opinion
• 3) ask for a response