In July, NACCHO Government Affairs team members Eli Briggs and Ian Goldstein presented a webinar for the Michigan Public Health Training Center entitled “Making Your Voice Heard: Messaging and Advocacy for Public Health Professionals.” A recording of the webinar is available here.

On the webinar, attendees learned about how and why to engage in advocacy and how to craft effective messages to deliver to policymakers. They discussed resources that are available to help with advocacy and messaging including the NACCHO Advocacy Toolkit and Strategic Messaging Guide. The Advocacy Toolkit demystifies the federal appropriations process and describes how and when to make your voice heard. The Strategic Messaging Guide includes suggested messages about public health topics that can be used with the media and policymakers to effectively explain how your health department works to keep people healthy and safe. Both documents and other resources are available at https://www.naccho.org/advocacy.

Want to learn more? NACCHO’s website has the following resources to help you learn about legislative advocacy and engage Members of Congress and their staff:

• Learn about NACCHO’s legislative priorities, including the following issues:
  • A balanced approach to deficit reduction, including spending cuts and revenue, and an end to sequestration.
  • Budget and appropriations for programs within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, Health Resources and Services Administration and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response which strengthen local health department performance.
  • Continuation at authorized levels of the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
  • Infrastructure and policies that support local health department capacity (workforce and technology) to participate in health data exchange with health care and human service providers.
  • Implementation and planning for reauthorization of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act.
  • Establishment of a Public Health Emergency Fund to allow immediate access to emergency funding when public health disasters or disease outbreaks occur.
  • Support for local health department involvement in implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including maintenance of core public health programs authorized and funded by the ACA and clinical and community preventive services supported by the ACA.
• Listen to Podcasts from Washington.
• Sign up for News from Washington (delivered to your inbox each Friday).
• Join the Congressional Action Network.

Contact Ian Goldstein, NACCHO Government Affairs Specialist, for more information.