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Building Stronger Voices: Vertically Integrated Pediatric Advocacy Groups
Let’s kick off 2026 by using our outside voices! We are introducing a turnkey model of advocacy to unite faculty, residents, medical students, and the community under coordinated frameworks. All you have to do is sign up for an issue you are interested in advocating for. You will receive an email any time there’s an opportunity to activate. You’ll get background information to frame the issue, talking points, and links to make it easy to advocate.
These vertically integrated approaches align clinical practice, research, community engagement, and policy advocacy to drive meaningful change across four critical areas of children’s health:
Medicaid and Workforce Development
The objective of this group is to strengthen both the financing and delivery of pediatric care and advocate for solutions that prevent burnout and foster growth of the pediatric workforce. Much of this work will focus on expanding Medicaid coverage and appropriate reimbursement rates while addressing workforce shortages through loan forgiveness, training pipelines, and other reforms.
Gun Safety and Injury Prevention
This group’s goal is to reduce pediatric gun injuries and deaths. Their work will entail conducting research, training providers on safe storage counseling, developing community intervention programs, and advocating for evidence-based policies like child access prevention laws.
Mental Health
The objective of this group is to advocate for increased funding, behavioral health screening in primary care, expanded telehealth, and mental health parity enforcement. Their goal is normalizing mental health care, reducing stigma, and ensuring timely treatment access for all children.
Vaccine Confidence and Immunization Access
The goal is maintaining high immunization rates while ensuring no child faces barriers to life-saving vaccines. This group will champion evidence-based healthcare and research, advocate for school immunization requirements, combat misinformation, and remove vaccination barriers.
Why Integration Works
By coordinating actions and voices across multiple levels simultaneously, this integrated model creates lasting impact that siloed efforts cannot effectively achieve. Contact Ilina Das Ewen to join one of these groups today.
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