Public Health Concerns Advocacy Letter

Please read the guidelines and sample letter to complete the work

sampleletter1.pdf

SAMPLE LETTER THAT YOU CAN USE TO WRITE TO YOUR LEGISLATOR

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(Month) (Day) (Year)

The Honorable (First name) (Last name)

(Room Number), State Capitol

Sacramento, CA (Zip Code)

RE: (state the topic or include the bill number, author and subject if you are writing to support

or oppose a particular legislative bill)

Dear (Assembly Member/Senator) (Last name):

My name is (your first and last name) and I am a regional center consumer (family member

/service provider/advocate/community member) who resides in your district.

(State why you support or oppose the bill or other issue here. Choose up to three of the

strongest points that support your position and state them clearly.)

(Include a personal story. Tell your representative why the issue is important to you and how it

affects you, your family member and your community.)

(Tell your representative how you want her or him to vote on this issue and ask for a response.

Be sure to include your name and address on both your letter and envelope.)

Sincerely,

SIGN YOUR NAME

Print your name

Street address

City, State, Zip code

TIPS FOR WRITING, SENDING AN E-MAIL OR CALLING A LEGISLATOR

Writing a letter to a legislator

Use the proper salutation, for example:

The Honorable (first name) (last name)

Address

City, State, Zip code

Dear (Assembly Member / Senator) (last name)

Be courteous and informative in your communication.

State the purpose of the letter in the opening sentence and if you are referring to a bill, include

the bill number, author and topic. If you live in the elected official’s district be sure to say this in

the opening paragraph as well.

Focus on the message and key points. Personalize the letter by including examples of how the

legislation might impact you and your family. Keep the letter brief – not more than one page.

Restate your request at the end of the letter, for example urging them to support or oppose the

bill. Thank the legislator for his or her support and offer to address any questions that he or she

might have. Be sure to include your contact information, and sign the letter.

Sending e-mail communication to a legislator

The same guidelines apply to e-mail as to written letters. Before sending an e-mail, you might

want to call the legislator’s office and ask if a letter sent by e-mail is effective. If you do send an

e-mail, send it to the representative. Do not copy other representatives or send a mass e-mail.

Make it a brief message with no special layouts or graphics. Do not include attachments.

Include your full name and address so it is clear that you are a constituent, and ask for a

response. You might also want to send a hard copy of your e-mail to the legislator.

Phone calls to a legislator

State your name and address and identify yourself as the legislator’s constituent. You will often

be speaking with a secretary or aide. Briefly make known your position as they keep track of the

issues that people call about to report to the legislator. Have your thoughts organized in

advance, which will help you to keep the call brief and to the point. It is also very helpful to

share how the issue affects you personally. Thank them for their support.

PublicHealthConcernsAdvocacyLetterguidelines.docx

Public Health Concerns Advocacy Letter

Faculty Assignment Guidelines & Scoring Rubric

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to provide an opportunity for students to apply and disseminate information based on the status of public health policies and practices designed to address important public health problems, concerns and implications for nursing practice. The learning goals for this activity are:

· Identify and explain one issue area of national concern.

· Describe population-level statistics that describe the problem.

· Increase skills for influential writing around public health issues.

· Increase skills for advocacy activities.

Requirements:

Through this assignment, the student will

Write a letter to their legislator (House of Representatives or Senator) on a public health topic. The student will state relevant statistics in the area, indicate how this issue is affecting nursing practice and describe the action the student would like the legislator to take in regards to a current bill, or in support of the issue. (COs 1, 2 and 8)

Preparing the letter

You are going to prepare a letter to your Representative or Senator on a public health issue/topic. You are going to ask your legislator to take some sort of action on the issue (you do not have to send it to the legislator unless you so choose). Here are the steps for the letter and what I am looking for in these sections.

Steps for researching your topic

Step 1: Pick one of the following public health concerns as identified by the ANA or CDC. For more information and search for your topic. The topics are:

ANA topics:

https://ana.aristotle.com/SitePages/issues.aspx

CDC topics

https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/strategy/index.html

Step 2: Identify two key statistics about the public health issue that speaks to its importance. This could be something like “53% of women are exposed to violence during pregnancy” or something like that.

Step 3: Determine who is being affected by this issue – i.e. what type of population (age? Gender? Race/ethnicity? Occupations?)

Step 4: Research using nursing association, public health association websites about how this affects nurses.

Steps for the letter:

Step 1: Identify your representative using https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members

Choose either your representative or Senator to address your letter.

Step 2: Go that legislator’s websites, and research issues they are involved in. This will help identify their current stance on the issue you are addressing.

Step 3: Draft your letter in a Word Document. Address the following sections:

· State the purpose of your letter.

· State your identify as a student nurse, and your address.

· Provide the rationale for why this issue is important. Include the background research you conducted on the issue, very briefly. Include the 2 statistics you found.

· Identify why this issue is of importance to nursing.

· Identify a solution to the issue, and ask the legislator to support this solution. (The solution should be realistic, such as supporting future legislation to do xyz. Something like “put $15 billion towards this issue” is not very realistic. If you need any help with this, please let me know.

Best Practices in Preparing the Paper

Utilize resources available to you to assist with finding appropriate literature and articles from professional nursing journals relevant to your topic and preparing for and writing the paper. The letter does not have to be in APA format, but please cite in your assignment the website where your statistics are taken from. Language in the letter should be courteous. Proper spelling and grammar are required.

Letter sections:

Letter should be a minimum 500 words, maximum 1,000 words.

Points

Purpose and Identify (includes correct identification of the legislator based on address)

Background

• Two statistics

Affected population

Request of legislator:

· Solution identified and is realistic

Grammar/spelling:

· Proper grammar and mechanics

· Correct spelling

· websites or resources for statistics

· word count.

Total

A quality assignment will meet or exceed all

of the above requirements.