Advocacy skills are essential for the public health practitioner. Recognizing this need, two statewide public health organizations partnered for a series of advocacy trainings. Outcomes included an increased competence for such advocacy as providing expert testimony, writing position papers, forging stronger relationships with policy makers, and committing to ongoing advocacy. An increase in statewide initiatives also included a legislative scorecard, development of a model advocacy network by voting districts, advocacy policy for associations, fact sheets for legislators on pending public health issues, a new university advocacy course, and advocacy action by two associations' members to reach common goals. The trainings and subsequent initiatives provide a template for organizations and individuals to build advocacy skills and increase the role of public health professionals in setting state public health policy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.