Advocacy

I collect dictionaries. I know…weird. But I find reading different dictionaries helps me understand the meaning of words more deeply. With the advent of online dictionaries, there are new tools available to learn about the origin of words, their use in different grammatical contexts, and—perhaps most interestingly—how frequently they are used. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “advocacy” is used about five times per million written words. Surprising, no? Does this indicate how often advocacy is on the mind of members of modern society? Perhaps.

It should be, I think, because advocacy is a primary way to bring change. For example, the work of educational, governmental, and religious institutions has, as a foundation, advocating for particular points of view and actions to advance their causes. Schools provide students information to prepare them to be good citizens, governments use media and entertainment to project the image they want citizens to hold of them, and religious institutions advocate for moral behavior that comports with the tenants of their religion. We could go on—advocacy is everywhere.

But we aren’t talking about it much.

KPHA is helping to change that. The KPHA Advocacy Committee exists to help association members learn various ways to advocate and to promote opportunities to advance good public health policy in our laws and regulations. If you want to learn how to advocate, we recommend you start with the three webinars available here: https://kpha-ky.org/resources/resources/videos.

After viewing these, you may wish to bookmark our legislative tracker, so you can keep informed about potential legislation that may affect the public health landscape in Kentucky. The tracker is available here: https://www.kentucky.gov/Services/Pages/billwatch.aspx.

Of course, the Advocacy Committee welcomes all interested in learning more and in participating in advocacy to join the committee. The more voices being shared, the stronger our message will be.

Let’s work together to make our own dictionary entry:

ad·vo·ca·cy
/ˈadvəkəsē/
Noun
A path KPHA takes to improve public health in Kentucky

Laura Foley, CAP