Advocacy Letter

REQUIREMENTS:

  • Proper heading and addressed to the correct person/ governmental agency
  • Introduce yourself and state why you have a stake in this issue -establish why you wrote to this agency
  • State the issue and why it is a concern for PH
  • Explain your ideas for solution or at least the steps needed to begin to address the issues -provide at least 3-5 factual statements (statistics, studies, etc) that support your opinion.
  • Proper salutation This letter should be NO MORE than 5 paragraphs.
  • You must use proper citation (either APA or MLA) for anything you cite in the letter. You must provide a works cited page at the end of your letter.

The purpose of an advocacy statement is to express your view, supported by evidence, about a topic, usually to a politician or a political office, in order to promote a position. In public health, these advocacy letters take on an important role in promoting a public health issue which a member of the public health community feels is not being adequately addressed by those in power.
https://linguaholic.conn/linguablog/how-to-write-an-advocacy-letter/ e., (This website should give you some basics as to what must go in this letter)

Here are some basic requirements for your advocacy letter: Pick a public health issue you feel is not adequately addressed either locally, on a state level or on a national/international level. (Topic examples: gun control, vaccines in school, combatting obesity, school lunches, food insecurity, access to healthcare, drug abuse, reproductive health, sex education, LGBTQIA+ issues in PH, etc.) No topic is off limits.
Then, research your topic so you can make fact based salient points in your advocacy statement.

Finally, craft a letter that both advocates your position and offers some actionable steps that can be taken to promote this issue and possibly change the current governmental intervention on this issue.