141st APHA Annual Meeting

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289271
Planning, implementing, and assessing healthy, equitable policy advocacy: Gear for advocates and their allies

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 : 3:30 PM - 3:50 PM

Jme McLean, MCP, MPH , PolicyLink, Oakland, CA
Persistent health disparities in communities across the country underscore the important role of policy change to impact the social determinants of health and advance health equity. Changing the conditions that affect low-income people and communities of color through policy advocacy can require complex processes with many players and shifting tactics. Getting Equity Advocacy Results (GEAR) is a new resource for planning and tracking the progress of equitable advocacy and policy change. Drawing from the wisdom and experience of seasoned advocates and action researchers, GEAR features benchmarks for equity advocacy and tools for their application. This presentation will introduce the GEAR framework and describe ways in which health advocates and their allies can use benchmarks related to ongoing organizing, research, capacity building, and communications across the multiple stages of a campaign to strengthen the effectiveness of advocacy for equity, identify opportunities to drive equitable change, obtain feedback for advocacy improvement, and demonstrate the many tangible interim impacts of campaigns for health equity.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Diversity and culture
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Describe links between health equity and policy advocacy Identify four major stages of an advocacy campaign for health equity Name four essential activities in an advocacy campaign for health equity Discuss three unique considerations to planning and assessing an advocacy campaign for health equity

Keywords: Advocacy, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal author of the Getting Equity Advocacy Results materials, including the GEAR benchmarks and related tools. This work is part of my portfolio in health equity and the built environment, equitable community change, and advocacy evaluation. It is informed by my experience as an adviser and analyst for community based organizations, foundations, and government at the local, state and national levels. I hold masters degrees in planning and health from UC Berkeley.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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