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The Power of Community Advocacy
Part One in a Three-Part Series on Policy in Prevention
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead,
US Anthropologist (1901 - 1978)
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By Anne Roberts
This quote has been used for many years to inspire and motivate folks to speak up and work for change. It captures the notion that one person, or one small group, can turn the ship around. But after a lifetime of working as an advocate, I’ve learned that there are some critical elements, strategies, and skills that could help the “small group of thoughtful, committed citizens” enhance their likelihood of success.
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Anne Roberts is a lifelong advocate for the health and well-being of children and youth, having served for 20 years as CEO for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, followed by 10 years at INTEGRIS Health as Director of Legislative Affairs. In these roles, she was a registered lobbyist and worked with state and national policymakers to advance positive changes for Oklahoma families. She received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Oklahoma. |
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Additional Policy and Advocacy Resources |
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Connecting Alcohol Policy Strategies to a Comprehensive Prevention Approach
South Southwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center, HHS Region 6
This webinar will demystify policy work for practitioners and increase their comfort with and ability to engage in it effectively. The first webinar, Essentials for Prevention Practitioners, focuses on critical elements for practitioners interested in engaging in alcohol policy work. The second webinar, Implementation Essentials, builds upon the first and provides greater detail on how practitioners can plan for and implement effective policy strategies.
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Pacific Southwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center, HHS Region 9
This guide provides resources to assist prevention practitioners with developing a plan for advocacy and policy change in their communities. It includes online and webinar courses, tools for understanding the environment, understanding and selecting policies, guidelines for advocacy, and step-by-step processes and strategies to frame your message to have the most positive effect and inspire others to act.
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Using “Big Data” and Other Digital Methodologies to Monitor Substance Use Disorders (SUDs)
By Iris Smith, Ph.D.
Coordinated data collection, analysis, and synthesis at the individual, community, state, and national level are key elements of an effective prevention system. Epidemiology helps us identify patterns in behavioral outcomes, as well as associated risk and protective factors. Epidemiological data provides information about the scope, frequency, and severity of prevention targets, the impact on local communities, and aids in the generation of hypotheses to test causal relationships between exposures and outcomes.1 The public health approach to substance use emphasizes the importance of looking beyond the individual to the contributions of the physical and social environment on health outcomes. Techniques such as spatial analysis can be useful in broadening the lens of prevention to factors in the social environment that influence outcomes, helping us determine where, when, and with whom to intervene.2
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What's Happening Around the Region? |
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The Growing Threat of Xylazine and Its Mixture with Illicit Street Drugs
November 22, 2023
12:30 – 2 p.m. MT / 1:30 – 3 p.m. CT / 2:30 – 4 p.m. ET
This presentation will review the history of U.S. street drug markets since the early 1990s to explain the emergence of xylazine, fentanyl, and crystal methamphetamine in regional markets formerly dominated by heroin and cocaine. It will examine the relationship between each of these newly prevalent synthetic substances and describe what we know so far about their impact on related comorbidities. Finally, it will assess how the public health impact of recent transformations to the US narcotics supply relates to the experience of drug consumption and the actual way that people use drugs in their everyday lives. It will conclude with lessons learned to help determine what prevention strategies could be used to counteract the impact on communities.
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