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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Ellen Alkon, MD, MPH, Public Health Education in Medicine, Public Health Division, Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, 241 N. Figueroa Street, Room 143, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Rosa Soto, Grassroots Nutrition and Physical Activity Campaign, California Center for Public Health Advocacy, P.O. Box 2277, La Puente, CA 91746, and Maria Santa Maria, 58th Assembly District Grassroots Team, California Center for Public Health Advocacy, 9438 Danby Avenue, Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670, (562) 458-0648, ealkon@dhs.co.la.ca.us.
A major source of the success of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy has been a Grassroots Nutrition and Physical Activity Campaign. Through this nonpartisan Campaign, teams of local residents in five State Assembly districts collect information and then teach policy makers, community leaders, and community residents about the importance of establishing policies and programs to promote healthy eating and physical activity for children and adolescents.
The Campaign has used a six step process: (1) identifying local residents who have a passion for helping children, (2) organizing teams of advocates to promote nutrition and physical activity in their own legislative districts, (3) collecting local data to describe the importance of the issue, (4) nurturing and validating Campaign participants, (5) gaining the attention of policy makers, legislators and media by publicizing local data and organizing visible educational activities, and (6) continually evaluating the Campaign’s progress.
The Grassroots Campaign has been extraordinarily successful. Teams have held eight town hall meetings, met with policy makers dozens of times, conducted numerous community surveys, and received local media attention more than 20 times. Five State legislators have developed legislative proposals at least partly because of information they received from the Teams. Legislators have described the Campaign as “a winner,” and “one of the most successful grassroots efforts I have seen.” The lessons learned could be extremely valuable to others interested in supporting local residents to address critical public health issues.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.