Developing a Health Advocacy Campaign

Introduction

As mentioned in the first part of the developing an advocacy campaign paper, obesity is one of the greatest health care concerns among Hispanic Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2011). Measures to change the obesity incident numbers among Hispanic Americans, includes the implementation of good eating and exercise habits, since a young age. The purpose of this paper is to ....

Proposed Policy

The policy described in this paper is in line with the Let’s Move campaign, so it will be a reinforcement to the existing Let’s Move campaign, which was introduced on February 2010 by the First Lady Michelle Obama, with the objective to raise a healthier generation of kids in the United States (Let’s Move, 2016). The Let’s Move campaign has five main items (Let’s Move, 2016): create a healthy start for children; empower parents and caregivers; provide healthy food in schools; improve access to health and affordable foods; and increase physical activity.

My proposed policy entails three objectives, which are: education for parents on the best way to take care of their families from what they feed their children to how they influence their eating behaviors; advocate for more physical exercise for children throughout their childhood; and to change unhealthy cooking and feeding habits by parents and caregivers. The proposed policy is aimed at reducing obesity in children, within the Hispanic Americans population. The policy will involve all individuals engaged in the upbringing of children. These include parents, family members, maids, and teachers. The proposed policy will entail teaching them healthy cooking and feeding habits. It will also advocate for more physical exercises for children to enable them to keep fit.

The first law that would impact my advocacy efforts is the school nutrition legislation. This legislative approach helps to increase access to healthy, nutritious and cheaper food in schools by school children (United States Department of Agriculture, 2015). This policy was aimed at improving national nutritional standards of children in the country. This policy was in accordance with the Federal Health, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (United States Department of Agriculture, 2015). This policy permits national school breakfast and lunch to increase reimbursement per meal by six cents and allowed the Secretary of Agriculture to improve the nutritional standards in the school (United States Department of Agriculture, 2015). 

The best way to influence legislators on the obesity initiative is speaking about the issue. Once it is decided, the initiative should be implemented into law. Some of the ways of influencing legislators are individual meetings, where an advocate presents facts and analysis of the propose legislation to a group of parliamentarians; telephone calling and letter writing; and three legs of lobbying.

Using headings to guide your paper

The three elements of advocacy are lobbying, media and grassroots (Jansson, 2011). Lobbying is where one makes a direct, private and face-to-face contact with the legislator and share with him about the issue (Jansson, 2011). The lobbyist is responsible for knowing both sides of the issue (Jansson, 2011). Lobbying has an aim of building a relationship with legislators and their key staff (Jansson, 2011). It’s important since they got to know you and will always check on you before they vote on any legislation.

The media leg refers to everything that is done to spread the word so that it can reach out to many people (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2013). This is done through the use of media such as radio, televisions, newspapers and any other form of media. It also involves the use of informal media, such as newsletters, notice boards, chart rooms and posters. Use of media is effective since legislators pay attention to media and also, more people will be reached out (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2013).

Grassroots is a method of influencing legislation involving the influence of the members of the public (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2013). Simply it is a call for action. Usually, when someone needs a policy to be passed by the legislature, they send out frequent calls to action to urge the citizens to contact their legislators and urge them about the rule (Goudreau & Smolenski, 2013).

The legislative process is long and complex.  The first process, a representative takes the idea and turns it into a bill (Lustig, 2012). It doesn't matter who outside of Congress supports the idea. If no one in the Congress is willing to file it, it doesn't become law. This hurdle can be overcome through finding a legislator who can file it.

If the bill is filed, it undergoes two reading. After the bill has been read in the House and Senate, it goes through an assigned committee (Lustig, 2012). In the committee, if the chair opposes the bill after hearing it, it is withdrawn from the house. This can be overcome through ensuring the chair supports the bill fully.

After the bill has passed, the next process involves making some changes to the bill (Lustig, 2012). The bill returned to the House for debate, if the majority of the legislatures passed to the next stage. This hurdle can be overcome through finding for massive support from many members of the legislature through lobbying and use of media.

Conclusion

The proposed policy is aimed to reduce obesity in children, within the Hispanic Americans population by educating parents and caregivers about good eating habits and exercise. A campaign such as Let’s Move has as objective to raise a healthier generation of kids in the United States. By reinforcing the Let’s Move campaign and influencing legislators on the obesity initiative issue, this proposal has the chance to decrease the obesity incident numbers among Hispanic Americans children.

References

Centers for Diasease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2011). National estimates and General Information of Diabetes and Prediabetes in the United States. National Diabetes Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2011.pdf

Goudreau, K. A., & Smolenski, M. C. (2013). Health policy and advanced practice nursing: Impact and implications. New York: Springer. Retrieved from http://lghttp.48653.nexcesscdn.net/80223CF/springer-static/media/samplechapters/9780826169426/9780826169426_chapter.pdf

Jansson, B. S. (2011). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Let’s Move. (2016). America’s Move to Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids. Retrieved from http://www.letsmove.gov

Lustig, S. L. (2012). Advocacy strategies for health and mental health professionals: From patients to policies. New York: Springer.

United States Department of Agriculture. (2015). Food and Nutrition Service. Retrieved from http://www.fns.us