Marlene K. Tappe

Advocacy 101: getting started in health education advocacy.

Advocacy for the public’s health and for the profession are widely recognized as responsibilities of health educators. Increasing emphasis on advocacy by professional organizations has peaked the interest of health educators, yet knowing where to begin as an advocate is, to many, a mystifying process. This article provides basic advocacy terminology, dispels concerns about participating in advocacy activities, and provides a practical and stepped approach to becoming an effective advocate. A tiered approach is used in relation to the advocacy strategies of voting behavior, electioneering, direct lobbying, grassroots lobbying, Internet use, and media advocacy to help individuals in their quest to begin or enhance their engagement in advocacy. A compendium of highly accessible resources is also provided. Finally, this article provides motivation for the beginning advocate.

Developing Effective Written Communication and Advocacy Skills in Entry-Level Health Educators Through Writing-Intensive Program Planning Methods Courses

Written communication is a requisite skill for practitioners in the field of health education. Advocacy skills are now considered to be both a professional competency and an ethical responsibility. Given that many advocacy strategies involve written communication, it makes sense that the skills of writing and advocacy be developed concomitantly and within a writing-intensive class. The purposes of this article are twofold: (a) to describe the role of writing-intensive program planning methods courses in the development of written communication and advocacy skills in entry-level health educators and (b) to suggest strategies for planning, implementing, and assessing writing-intensive assignments and instructional activities designed to develop students’ written communication and advocacy skills. Multiple examples of writing assignments are presented that can be used in helping students in developing their critical thinking, writing, and advocacy skills.

A Content Analysis of the CNHEO Journals for Policy and Advocacy Articles: 1991–2000

Abstract Advocacy and public policy were determined to be one of the six key focal points for the profession at the Health Education in the 21st Century meeting held in 1995. A content analysis of journals of the member organizations of the Coalition of National Health Education Organizations was conducted to discover whether there was a difference in the number of advocacy and policy initiative-related articles published between the 5-year periods immediately preceding and following this meeting. The titles and abstracts for all research articles and commentaries appearing in the American Journal of Health Education, the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of School Health, Health Educator, Health Education & Behavior, Health Promotion Practice, and the Journal of American College Health were examined using a 10-item descriptor code designed to measure advocacy and policy terminology. Intercoder reliability was 94%. Inference proportions analysis revealed statistically significant differences in the number of articles containing advocacy and policy related keywords (p < .05) between the two time periods for only the American Journal of Health Education and the Journal of School Health. A variety of suggestions for increasing the number of advocacy and policy publications is recommended.