Using Credible, Persistent, and Resolute Advocacy

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Using Credible, Persistent, and Resolute Advocacy

• AAHPERD Public and Legislative Affairs Committee

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The Public and Legislative Affairs Committee of
the Alliance

• Provides member input to advocacy initiatives and
  public relations efforts of the national office
• Committee Members
• Pat Van Volkinburg, Midwest District, Chair
• Debra Ballinger, Eastern District
• Josey Templeton, Southern District
• Monica Lounsbery , NAGWS
• Lori Dunn
• Bonnie Edmondson
• Sue Hummel
• Staff Liaison Judy Young

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Advocacy

• Advocacy is about informing others
• Advocacy is about influencing change
• Knowledge - - tell our story
• Programs, goals, objectives, impact
• Credible programs, outcomes, rationale
• Policy - - toward meaningful change
• Persistent in our Resolve
• Effective advocacy is a process not an event

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Advocacy AAHPERD

• Strategic Goal 1 Increase Advocacy Efforts
• Promote Active, Creative, and Healthy Lifestyles
• Provide a process and procedure for members and
  collaborating partners to conduct advocacy
• Educate policy makers on the importance of
  contributions of our professions to society
• Provide resources to promote and disseminate
  programs in health, physical education,
  recreation, dance and sport
• Expand recognition for Alliance programs

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Why Advocacy?

• To increase Value
• What we do is often misunderstood under-valued
• To increase Visibility
• Social and organizational change requires
  proactive efforts
• Social accountability
• To increase Viability
• Funding for programs, grants, etc.
• Access
• Opportunity/Social Justice/Equity

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Impact of Advocacy

• Increased visibility
• Helps garner support for issues
• Name recognition
• Organize efforts and create coalitions
• Long term sustainability of efforts
• Public credibility requires accountability
• Do research
• Keep records
• Publicize truth, not just issues
• Leads to enhanced value
• Which enhances the viability and leads to
• Policy change
• Funding

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Cost of Advocacy?

• Credible programs with accountability
• Cant sell a bad product
• Need research on practice and
• Need credible RESULTS that stand up under
  scrutiny
• Persistence
• Work/efforts by many over long haul
• Not one shot visit to the hill
• Multiple follow-up visits, e-mails, letters,
  phone calls
• Resolve
• To carry initiatives through to positive end
• To re-negotiate/find common ground
• At national, state, and local levels

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Challenge of Mobilizing a Profession
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How are the Professionals in our Field Focused?
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Who is Advocating for Our Field?

• Federal Level
• Alliance and National Associations
• State Local Levels
• YOU! US! State Associations Leaders
• In others
• Individuals
• Community interest groups

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AAHPERD Advocacy Priorities

• Addressing the major public health issue of
  obesity and physical inactivity in the U.S.
• Promoting improved school health and physical
  education programs
• Guaranteeing equitable access to health care,
  sport opportunities, and recreation programs for
  all citizens in the U.S. regardless of ethnicity,
  gender, or disability

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Some Federal Legislation

• Policy-Related Legislation
• Inclusive
• Elementary Secondary School Act (No Child Left
  Behind) amended to include Physical Education
  Health Education as core subject areas, and
  teachers in requirements for Highly Qualified
  designation
• Safety
• Senate 794 amend title 23, to improve safety of
  non-motorized transportation, including bicycle
  and pedestrian safety (Harkin, sponsor)
• HB 1319 certification of swimming instructors
  at swimming pools specializing in training people
  with developmental disabilities.
• Equity Title IX
• Monitor challenge renewed efforts to reduce
  impact/interpretation of Title IX with respect to
  girls and womens educational opportunities
• Increase Title IX efforts through NAGWS Backyards
  and Beyond Program

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Some Federal Legislation

• Policy-Related Legislation, cont.
• Accessibility
• Family Life Education Act - - provide
  comprehensive sexuality education
• HeLP America Act Healthy Lifestyles and
  Prevention America Act
• Sets provisions for establishment of, and
  incentive for wellness programs
• School nutrition incentives, school mental health
  program grants, et al.
• Support Arts in Education program and inclusion
  of dance education in schools

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Some Federal Legislation

• Funding-Related Legislation
• Carol M. White PEP grants
• IDEA increased funding
• Parks Enhancement Act
• IMPACT
• Physical Activity and Healthy Eating
• Rehabilitation Services Administration
• YOU CAN HELP THE ALLIANCE SUPPORT THESE
  INITIATIVES!

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WE NEED TO DIVE IN!
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Credible, Persistent, ResolveAdvocacyDiving in
is only the beginning!
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What Can I Do? First Steps

• Build credibility
• For yourself.Learn About
• Issues separate fact from hear say
• Read the RESEARCH, not just the tabloids
• Legislative Action in Your Statewhere your
  representatives stand on issues.their
  family/background in voting, etc.
• Legislative web sites
• Search for bills related to physical activity and
  healthy lifestyle
• Search for reports related to physical activity
  and healthy lifestyle
• Identify legislative champions
• Write to these people
• Schedule meetings

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Credibility First Steps

• Build credibility
• For your programs
• Cant sell a bad product create quality
  programs
• Create age-appropriate curricula
• USE the RESEARCH, not the traditional ways
• Contact local mediacreate media worthy events
• Invite your stakeholders

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What Can I Do?

• Learn about the issues, and then
• Identify existing barriers
• Program
• Financial
• Environmental
• Social
• Policy
• Create a plan
• Learn about your state legislative process

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Taken from http//www.leginfo.ca.gov/bil2lawd.html
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What Next?Persistence

• Find allies - - Strength in Numbers
• Share your knowledge
• Seek out their knowledge
• Join your state association
• Learn and involve yourself in state associations
  advocacy plan
• Join other related organizations
• Use Advocacy to change knowledge and perception
  of others to join your cause
• Parents
• Youth
• Physicians
• Chronic Disease

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Rally the Troops

• Get help and support from others to help advocate
  
• Work to build coalitions
• Talk regularly with your legislative champion
• Track related bills and look for opportunities to
  advocate
• Keep an organized tabbed binder of related
  legislative issues
• Track progress
• Examine, prioritize, develop and implement
  advocacy strategies

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Example of Resolve PEP

• The more co-sponsors a bill has the better
• Our advocacy efforts can help get co-sponsors for
  the bill
• We need to develop a plan that includes
• 1. raising awareness about the needs for
  school-aged children to have access to physical
  education during the school day
• We must provide credible data to support this
  notion
• 2. educate and build support from
• Parent groups
• Students
• Physician groups
• Chronic Disease
• Other professional Organizations
• Others
• form a coalition to advocate the message to law
  makers and ask them to co-sponsor the bill
• RememberCPR
• This will take Time

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Considerationsfor RESOLVE

• Develop a structure/action plan to support
  sustained advocacy
• Develop and communicate accurate and meaningful
  messages
• Learn the tools of the trade
• Provide a process and procedure to collaborate
  with other organizations.

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Strategies Tools of the Trade
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Develop an Advocacy Plan

• Plan
• Create a time line for action
• Create an action plan
• Does your state curriculum follow the NASPE
  Standards and Benchmarks? Or your states
  standards?
• Is there a legislative allowance for substituting
  extra-curricular activities for the PE
  requirement?
• What are the components of exemplary programs?
• Which key people/organizations to engage?
• Where can your program improve?

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What are your short term goals? Long term goals?
Set Priorities

• Its an on-going process
• The responsibility belongs to everyone
• Do you know the graduation requirements
  (recommendations) for your state?
• Are you trying to save your program from
  elimination or reduction?
• Or
• Are you trying to increase the daily and/or
  graduation requirements?

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Who Should Advocacy Efforts Target?

• Policy makers
• Legislators, state superintendents of school,
  state school boards, teachers unions, local
  leaders, media, etc.
• Those who can influence policy makers
• Parents
• Students
• Teachers school administrators
• Medical professionals

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Who Should Advocacy Efforts Target? Cont.

• Rotary clubs, PTAs, chambers of commerce
• Build awareness among teachers, food service
  staff, coaches, nurses, and other school staff
  about the contribution of proper nutrition and
  physical activity to the maintenance of lifelong
  healthy weight and healthy lifestyles.2
• 2http//www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/call
  toaction/2_2_2.htm

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Developing a Process and Procedure for
Collaboration

• Advocacy opportunities through collaboration
• American Heart Association
• Action for Healthy Kids
• Governors Councils
• National Coalition for Promoting Physical
  Activity
• State and local health divisions
• American Diabetes Association and American Cancer
  Society
• Other associations

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Developing a Process and Procedure for
Collaboration Cont.

• Make sure your association is represented on
  other boards and members of your board are
  members of the boards of other organizations.
• Consider adoption of bylaws which address this
  need

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Committee Formation Who?

• What professions and organizations can you
  recruit pediatricians, health department
  experts, etc
• State AHPERD 3
• Regional AHPERD
• Parents
• Colleagues
• 3http//www.aahperd.org/

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Committee Formation Who? Cont.

• College and University faculty administrators
• Local leaders
• Students
• School Districts
• School Administrators
• Become allies with other powerful organizations
  USDA, American Heart Association, American
  Diabetes Association, and others

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Develop an Advocacy Plan Cont.

• Strategies
• Identify experts who can act as spokespeople
• Hold community meetings to educate and recruit
  stakeholders
• Attract media coverage/invite media to key events
• Prepare news releases
• Petition parents and other stakeholders
• Is your school district engaged in making certain
  you provide a quality program?
• Are your PE colleagues engaged in the process?

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More Strategies

• Attend school board meetings to speak on behalf
  of the benefits of physical education and health
  education.
• Create a simple public forum message (overheads
  and leave behinds) for a cadre of PE teachers
  and others to use to deliver the message.
• Create form letters, email, and phone messages
  to send to
• Parents
• Legislators
• School Board Members
• Media

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More Strategies

• Does your school have a website?
• Provide names and contact information of
  legislators for constituents
• Identify related professional organizations who
  can support you (recreation, parks departments,
  fitness clubs, etc.)
• Identify web links that can provide information
  to support the need for physical activity.
• Public Service Announcements invite media to
  record interesting events at school.

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More Strategies

• Become familiar with Healthy People 2010 4, the
  Surgeon Generals Report and Youth Risk Behavior
  Surveillance Survey (YRBSS).
• Use NASPE Position Statements that support
  Physical Education.
• Utilize the Governors Council for information,
  form letters, templates, key points, etc
• Evaluate the success of the campaign
• 4http//www.healthypeople.gov/Publications/Corners
  tone.pdf

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Develop Meaningful Accurate Messages with Data

• Remember messages should be designed to
• Inform Such as
• A growing body of research confirms that the
  physical activity of infants and young children
  is an important component of early brain
  development and learning.3
• Overweight among children and teens has doubled
  in the past two decades 16 percent of children
  and teens aged 6 to 19 were overweight in
  1999-2002, triple the proportion in 1980.
  Fifteen-percent of children in the same age group
  are considered at risk for overweight. The
  percentage of African American, Hispanic, and
  Native American children is about 20. 2
• Persuade Such as
• Young people are at particular risk for becoming
  sedentary as they grow older. Encouraging
  moderate and vigorous physical activity among
  youth is important. Because children spend most
  of their time in school, the type and amount of
  physical activity encouraged in schools are
  important.2

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Develop Meaningful Accurate Messages with Data
Cont.

• The message should be meaningful to the audience
• Quality physical education programs are needed to
  increase the physical competence, health-related
  fitness, self-esteem, and enjoyment of physical
  activity for all students so that they can be
  physically active for a lifetime (Seefeldt
  Vogel, 1986). Knowing that physical activity
  promotes health is not enough students must be
  given opportunities to gain the knowledge and
  skills needed to adopt active lifestyles.5
• 5http//www.pepgrants.com/downloads.htm

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Develop Meaningful Accurate Messages with Data
Cont.

• The message should be succinct
• Quality Physical Education can teach young people
  about lifetime fitness, development movement
  skills, and offer physical activity opportunities
  to all students, including those with
  disabilities.5
• The percentage of overweight youth in the U.S.
  has more than tripled in the past 30 years.6
• 5http//www.pepgrants.info/newpe.htm
• 6Ogden CL, Flegal KM, Carroll MD, Johnson CL.
  Prevalence and trends in overweight among US
  children and adolescents,1999-2000.JAMA
  20022881728-32.

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The Message Should be Accurate

• Moderate daily physical activity can reduce
  substantially the risk of developing or dying
  from cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and
  certain cancers, such as colon cancer. Daily
  physical activity helps to lower blood pressure
  and cholesterol, helps prevent or retard
  osteoporosis, and helps reduce obesity, symptoms
  of anxiety and depression, and symptoms of
  arthritis.2
• 2http//www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/call
  toaction/2_2_2.htm

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The Message Should be Accurate Cont.

• Only 25 percent of students in grades 9 through
  12 engaged in moderate physical activity for at
  least 30 minutes on 4 or more of the previous 7
  days in 2003.2
• Only 28 percent of students in grades 9 through
  12 participated in daily school physical
  education in 2003, down from 42 percent in 1991.2
• PE helps control health care costs both now and
  later. Obesity-related pediatric costs have
  tripled in the past 25 years even when inflation
  is taken into account.6
• 2http//www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/call
  toaction/2_2_2.htm
• 6http//www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1
  116358723107Advocacy20Document20220Why20Reinst
  ate20PE20for20School20Children.pdf

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The Message Should be Accurate Cont.

• Data-based information is often most compelling
  Utilize
• Professional literature from state and local
  agencies
• AAHPERD
• NASPE
• USDA
• American Heart Association
• American Diabetes Association
• Governors Council
• Action for Health Kids
• National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity

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Communicating Your Message

• Arrange face to face meetings with
  Administrators, Media, and Legislators
• Utilize literature and data from agencies such as
  AAHPERD, state AHPERDs, district AHPERDs
• Leave behind facts
• Childhood and adolescence are pivotal times for
  preventing sedentary behavior among adults by
  maintaining the habit of physical activity
  throughout the school years.2
• Physical activity among children and adolescents
  is important because of the related health
  benefits (cardio-respiratory function, blood
  pressure control, weight management, cognitive
  and emotional benefits).2
• Young people are at particular risk for becoming
  sedentary as they grow older. Encouraging
  moderate and vigorous physical activity among
  youth is important. Because children spend most
  of their time in school, the type and amount of
  physical activity encouraged in schools are
  important.2
• Theres a wealth of info available on the AAHPERD
  and NASPE websites
• 2http//www.surgeongeneral.gov/topics/obesity/call
  toaction/2_2_2.htm

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Web Site Information

• American Alliance for Health, Physical Education,
  Recreation Dance www.aahperd.org
• American Alliance for Health, Physical Education,
  Recreation Dance Advocacy http//member.aahperd.
  rog/advocacy/
• American Heart Association, Inc.
  www.americanheart.org
• The Carol M. White Physical Education Program
  http//www.pepgrants.com/
• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
  www.cdc.gov
• The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
  School Health Profiles www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/pr
  ofiles/2004/narrative.pdf
• National Association for Sport Physical
  Education http//www.aahperd.org/naspe/template.cf
  m?templatemain.html
• U.S. Department of Health Human Services
  www.surgeongeneral.gov

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Tools of the Trade

• Advocacy Legislative Center AAHPERD
• National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
  and Health Promotion - Behavioral Risk Factor
  Surveillance System (CDC-BRFSS)
• National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention
  and Health Promotion - Youth Risk Behavior
  Surveillance System (CDC-YRBSS)
• National Association of Sports Physical
  Education (NASPE)
• Resources for Advocates of K-12 Physical
  Education Programs
• Sport and Physical Education Advocacy Kit (SPEAK)

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Final Thoughts

• What are the barriers you face?
• Now is the time!
• Our field needs advocacy efforts which
  incorporate CPR
• Credibility
• Persistence
• Resolve

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You dont have to struggle alone
AAHPERD Public and Legislative Affairs
Committee -Provides members input to advocacy
initiatives and public relations efforts of the
national office. Pat Van Volkinburg,
Chair patvanv_at_umich.edu