Geiger Gibson Capstone in Community Health Policy & Leadership Webinar Series Executive Branch Role Legislative Branch Role Judicial Branch Role Advocacy Role Merle Cunningham MD MPH - Program Director Geiger Gibson Program in Partnership with NACHC GWU School Public Health & Health Services

The Role of Advocacy in Health Policy October 22, 2013 Presented by Amanda Pears Kelly National Advocacy Director National Association of Community Health Centers

Learning Objectives At the end of this session, participants will be better able to: Understand why & how advocacy influences health policy Appreciate the keys to successful advocacy Apply the rules for organizing grassroots advocacy

Advocacy and Health Policy Good Policy Should Come First: Who Wants to Advocate for Bad Policy?

Why Does Advocacy Matter in Health Policy? Policy Decisions Do Not Happen in a Vacuum - Competing Priorities - Dueling Numbers - Health policy is about people Advocacy is Not Just Lobbying - Getting Policymakers to Pay Attention - Getting Legislators to Vote Yes (or No) Legislative Decisions ALWAYS Involve Politics - Good Policy Development is not enough - Sometimes votes matter more than relationships - What Good is Perfect Policy that Never Becomes Law?

Action = Effective Advocacy Effective advocacy has one requirement: ACTION Simply discussing issues, challenges, and plans is NOT effective advocacy. To Be An Effective Advocate & Attain Your Goals You MUST Make advocacy an ongoing commitment and priority. Translate discussions, plans, and passions into moveable actions. Make your voice and perspective heard and understood.

Effective Advocacy = Power Grassroots advocacy is about BUILDING POWER Power is not measured by the number of advocates on a list Power is not measured by the number of small (or even large) victories we win. Power must be measured by our ability to successfully advance our own agenda and to make it unthinkable that any other political or special interest would ever want to take us on.

The Real Deal: Relative Effectiveness of Advocacy Communications 1. A visit to your health center 2. A personal meeting back home 3. A personal meeting in Washington 4. Personal telephone calls 5. Personalized Letters (faxed) 6. Personalized emails 7. Template emails (ineffective unless in volume)

Advocacy 101 The Basics Keys to Successful Advocacy Know what you want Know who can give it to you Know what they want Know how to make the loudest squeak Advocacy is an ongoing effort Keys to Successful Advocacy Advocacy is a competitive activity There are winners and losers and, sometimes a stalemate is a win! Advocacy is an ACTIVE, not a passive process You are not the only one who wants something; So you have to be heard through the din of all the other interests

Goals To win T0 positively Impact Advocacy Targets To build an Ongoing Capability To involve your board and staff To involve the community

Metrics Can someone get the target on the phone? Can you get the target to your center & how often? How often is the center in the media? How many local organizations/elected officials do something CONCRETE to support you? How many grassroots advocates do you have? How active are they? How many voters have you registered? Do they vote? How much of what you ask your targets for do you get?

Recognition -Recognize your targets -Recognize your community supporters -Recognize your best grassroots advocates -Recognize your advocacy leaders -Recognize your center!

Empowering Yourself Through Advocacy Your level of commitment is directly related to your ability to make an impact. You must demonstrate personal commitment to your issues if you expect to receive the support and commitment of your officials and community members.

Do’s & Don’ts of Health Center Advocacy Offer Answers You Don’t Have Assume Knowledge of Health Centers Believe Someone Else is Taking Care of Your Advocacy Burn Bridges Be Intimidated Confuse Being Quiet for Being Polite Express Partisanship Forget to make your ASK Dos: Know What You’re Asking For Know Your Audience Know Your Opponents Know The Rules Make a Commitment Be Polite Say THANK YOU Keep it Simple

Making Effective Advocacy Happen: Building A Culture Of Advocacy In order to realize the full potential of our grassroots power it is critical that we create a culture of advocacy at the local, state and federal levels Building a culture of advocacy means: Changing the culture and attitude from within the health center, recognizing advocacy as a critical and mandatory component to our daily work and planning. Making a commitment to doing the work to build and organize our grassroots in order to fully realize the potential of our grassroots power. Growth and recognition of grassroots advocacy and effectiveness the same way other critical skills and programs are recognized for health center staff and boards.

Building A Culture Of Advocacy Essentials For Empowering Your Health Center Through Advocacy in the community Recruit Advocates Inform others of your issues and advocacy efforts, ask them to get involved and make a commitment to health center advocacy. Develop Partnerships Reach out to local businesses and organizations to educate them about the health center and ask them to join in health center advocacy efforts. Increase Exposure: Begin an advocacy campaign at your health center. -Set up legislative visits at the health center with local, state, and federal officials regularly. -Write letters to the editor on health center issues. -Hold health center events -Make people (elected officials, the media, the public) aware of who you are and what you provide the community.

Building A Culture Of Advocacy Build And Maintain Relationships With Elected Officials Establish an ongoing schedule of hosting and meeting with local, state, and federal elected officials and their staff at the health center. Know your officials interests, background, committees, career etc. Let your officials know how many patients/ constituents you are serving and update them regularly on developments Offer yourself as an information resource to your officials and their staff. Recognize and thank your officials for their support of health centers.

Essentials For Empowering Yourself Through Advocacy Making Effective Advocacy Happen: Establish What Works At Your Center And In Your Community Essentials For Empowering Yourself Through Advocacy Staying Informed- provide board members, staff, patients, and community partners with regular updates on what’s happening in D.C. and your state capital and how it could affect their center. Ongoing Priority and Commitment- make advocacy a standing item on the agenda at every board meeting. Recognition- publicly recognize and thank both officials and health center advocates. Patient Involvement- involve your patients in as many advocacy activities as possible.

Ultimately Y The success of a policy can only be measured by it’s impact on real people – not with numbers or abstractions. The success of your advocacy can only be judged through the benefit of the policies and actions you make happen.

“…The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.” -Mohandas Gandhi

Questions? apearskelly@nachc.com