Health Center Advocacy in Action

By Amanda Pears

In early June NACHC kicked off its first Health Center Advocate Video Contest. We initiated the contest with two goals in mind: to encourage health center advocates to share and communicate the health center story in a personal way in their own words, and to help demonstrate the ease and effectiveness of new media and social media as an advocacy tool.

Well it worked. We received videos from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii and health center advocates produced an amazing variety of videos communicating their personal relationships with their health centers and showing what makes the health center community so unique.  We had to choose six finalists from the  videos submitted six finalists and we posted those to the NACHC Facebook page for our fans to vote on.

For two weeks after the finalists were posted, thousands of people visited the NACHC page to view the videos and vote for their favorite. New fans, existing fans, and health center advocates from around the country viewed the videos and without a doubt, these health center stories reached well beyond the health center community. As National Health Center Week begins, it is now time for us to announce the winners as part of the celebration.

While the contest and videos submitted are, as we hoped, both entertaining and compelling, they also taught us several lessons about using this new type of media for advocacy. We know that effective advocacy very much depends on the ability to tell your story and get your message heard.  Given the hugely expanded reach sites like Facebook and YouTube have, video messaging is quickly becoming one of the most effective new advocacy tools. In the age of viral video and the limitless opportunities the internet provides, health center advocates now have a new and powerful  megaphone to communicate the importance and success of the Health Center Program.

All of us at NACHC want to thank and congratulate everyone who contributed to the video contest for your outstanding work and willingness to share your important story. We also want to thank everyone who came to the NACHC Facebook page to vote. We hope you will stay active and engaged. To all the health center fans and advocates considering giving video advocacy a try, we say heartily, why not? Your story and YOUR VIDEO could be the next big viral phenomena! Imagine the possibilities….

Look for announcements about contest winners all week during National Health Center Week. Check the NACHC Facebook page for daily announcements Monday through Wednesday, the Grand Prize Winner will be announced Thursday, August 12^th.

By Amanda Pears

When it comes to grassroots advocacy, two of the most effective tools you have are your voice and your story.  Sometimes something as simple as sharing your experiences and  telling your story is the very best way to advocate for change and win support for your cause. The most difficult task for advocates remains how to get your voice and your story heard by the people who need to hear it.

Today, thanks to social media outlets like Facebook and You Tube, reaching a mass audience with your story can be as easy as the click of a button. To help Health Center advocates see just how easy sharing their story could be, the NACHC Advocacy Team initiated a contest to encourage advocates to tell their story using these new media tools. We wanted to use the contest to begin an ongoing effort to have advocates share their personal stories about their health centers stories that we know exist in every community in which a health center is located.

Well, health center advocates from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii stepped up, submitting an amazing sample of what their health centers and their personal role as a health center advocate mean to them. Now, less than two weeks before one of the largest health center advocacy events of the year; National Health Center Week, we want every health center fan and advocate to enjoy the videos submitted by our contest finalists and help us pick the winners.  Contest winners will be selected based on the number of ‘votes’ they receive by their fans on Facebook. Winners will be announced during National Health Center Week, August 8-14^thand aired on the NACHC Facebook page for all to enjoy.  Today, anyone can check out and vote for a favorite entry by visiting the NACHC Facebook page and “liking” your favorite video.

While we await final contest results, we’d like to recognize and congratulate each of our contest finalists for their successful and compelling video submissions:

Alliance Medical Center, Sonoma County, California – Submitted by: Ray Holley

AltaMed Health Services, Los Angeles, California – Submitted by: Angel Obregon

Eastern Aleutian Tribes, Anchorage, Alaska – Submitted by: Ladonna Lindley

Grace Hill Health Centers, St. Louis, Missouri – Submitted by: Gerald Sonnenberg

Martin Luther King, Jr. Family Clinic, Dallas, Texas – Submitted by: Ciro Ortiz/Joetta Black

Waimanalo Health Center, Waimanalo, Hawaii – Submitted by: Robert Rhodes

As I said, our contest had a purpose – to encourage everyone to begin to use the amazing array of new tools available to assist you in getting your voice heard and your story told. None of the individuals that submitted videos to this contest are professional film makers, in fact most, if not all, were in their garage, their health center parking lot, or a quiet lawn setting and were using a pocket sized FLIP or small camcorder to document their story.

If you’re like me, almost every day you see or read about the latest ‘viral video’ making its way around the internet and the world. Imagine the reach and impact of a simple video seen by millions of people. Maybe your health center story is the next big viral video, but only if you tell it!

I left Central Ohio just after 6:30am on Monday, July 19, to drive to Heart City Health Center in Elkhart, Indiana.  The sky was overcast, but the scenery was beautiful – miles of highway through endless fields of corn.  This is the Midwest after all.  The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the health center was the construction project under way.  Vernita Todd, Heart City’s CEO, took me on a tour of project that will soon expand the health center from 13 exam rooms to 29!  Thanks to ARRA funds, and hard work from the health center’s staff and Board, the expansion is set to open this September.

My next stop was Gary Community Health Center in Gary, Indiana (and yes, I had the Music Man song stuck in my head as I drove there!).  In the middle of this struggling town stood this large health center – a true beacon of hope.

Like every health center I visited on this trip, Gary Community Health Center has exciting event plans for National Health Center Week (August 8-14, 2010)! They will be doing everything from holding a new site Grand Opening to passing out information at the local baseball stadium.

From Gary I drove southeast to Valparaiso to speak at HealthLinc’s Board meeting.  We discussed Health Care Reform, National Health Center Week, and all of the advocacy work that is still ahead for the Health Centers Program (and there is a lot!!).  Big thanks to CEO Beth Wrobel for inviting me to the meeting!  The Board included time to talk about Health Center Week on their agenda, as HealthLinc has some exciting events planned, coordinated with U.S. Senator Dick Lugar’s office; check them out here.

After spending the night in Valparaiso, I drove to NorthShore Health Centers in Portage.  When I arrived, a few conversations with patients in the waiting room made it clear that this health center is really serving its mission.  I watched as front desk staff helped a young man fill out new patient forms and apply for the health center’s sliding fee scale.  They were very warm and caring, and the process took no time at all.  CEO Jan Wilson told me about the health center, and showed me the wing they had dedicated to their State Representative, Charlie Brown.  What a great way to recognize and say “thank you” to any health center’s legislative advocate!

My last stop was Indiana Health Centers, Inc.’s South Bend site.  Practice Manager David Chapman took me on a tour of the large building the health center occupies.  They have major renovation plans, utilizing ARRA funding, for maximizing the space.  From changing the layout of the intake and waiting rooms, to moving walls, this health center is getting ready to see more patients!

Thank you to all of these Northern Indiana health centers for their time and for sharing with me how they are utilizing ARRA funds and planning of the future!  As I mentioned before, there is still a lot of advocacy work ahead for the Health Centers Program, so at each stop I put in a plug for signing up more Health Center Advocates.  You too can encourage others to sign up (without going on the road) just by sharing this link to NACHC’s online Advocate sign-up form: http://www.capwiz.com/nachc/mlm/signup/

By Marc Wetherhorn

“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

Health reform is now law and although there continues to be debate, argument and political posturing about the law and what it means for each American, change is here.  If you are a Health Center advocate or supporter, I want to take a moment to emphasize that your advocacy work is not over. Like it or not (and we should absolutely like it!), as a result of the $11 billion designated in the law for strengthening and expanding health centers, we are now part of the changes coming to the American health care system.

I’m sure you have read or heard some of the things that have been said about health centers – some of it by people who don’t seem to know what a Federally Qualified Health Center is – as a result of the support for health centers in reform.   As a result, what health centers do from now on will be far more important than anything anyone says about us when it comes to proving why we are a model that deserves to be integral to America’s health care future. Whether you were for or against the reform bill that passed, you now have an obligation to ensure that the Health Center Program and your health center achieve the promise that the law offers. You also have an obligation to let your community and elected officials know what you are doing and what it means and will mean for real people in your community.

As advocates, we may now have different tasks and different targets, but these new tasks are no less important than the past advocacy efforts that got us to this point. This is an election year and, more than ever, everything will be focused through a political lens. The stimulus, health reform and all federal spending will be front and center and there should be no doubt that health center funding and our role in health reform will be highlighted, debated and, yes, even distorted. All of this makes our role in educating everyone about health centers and the role we will play in health reform more important than ever before. No politics – just the facts.

So, what kinds of things should our advocacy now include? I would suggest the following:

• Open Your Doors – for years we have preached the value of getting elected officials to visit your health center. Now we have to expand our horizons beyond just elected officials and make sure that we use every opportunity to get not only elected officials, but the media and the community into our health centers. They need to see exactly what we do, who we are and who we serve. The best cure for misinformation is familiarity and that means cultivating the same kind of relationships with the media and community leaders as we have with elected officials.
• Celebrate National Health Center Week , August 8-14, in a BIG way – Health Center Health centers are already putting much of the $2 billion dollars received in the stimulus bill to work and preparing to put the funding included in health reform to work as well. Health Center Week is a perfect opportunity to hold events to show off what you have done, are doing, and plan to do. This is really THE year. Elected officials are home in August, they’ll be looking for opportunities to get out and meet constituents in the community, and it’s a perfect time to invite them to the health center and make an impression.
• Don’t be shy – A number of Health Center Advocates have already had great letters to the editor and Op-Ed pieces published (Alaska, Arizona). You should do the same. Check out the NACHC website for talking points and sample letters to the editor. A wave of local support for Health Centers and Health Reform will be an important and powerful message we need to send.

As health reform moves forward, Health Center Advocates need to remember the words of the immortal Pete Seeger: “Do-so” is more important than “say-so.”