It’s time to take the first step in your advocacy journey — picking the right child health issue.
Given the number of issues present in any community, choosing just one might feel daunting. There may also be a multitude of child health issues that you are passionate about, that you observe in your community, and that require advocacy to address – but starting on one discrete issue is a great way to find your focus, develop and sharpen your skills, and help achieve a measurable impact.
To get started, determine your problem, your vision, and your solution.
What’s Troubling You?
Is there a threat to children’s health that you’ve seen again and again and that you think could be prevented? Have you noticed a child health challenge that’s particularly widespread in your community? At the end of the day, what do you worry about most regarding your patients?
Your answer to these questions will lead you to a problem. It could be asthma, or child hunger, or gun violence. The problems confronting children can be systemic, social determinants or a result of inequity.
Once you have your problem, you can work backwards to find its root cause. What is the most fundamental reason for this problem’s prevalence? For asthma, it could be air pollution, while for child hunger, it could be food deserts.
What’s Your Goal?
You’ve identified a problem and its root cause. Now, imagine a world where that problem no longer exists. What does that look like? How have your patients’ lives changed? How has your community benefited?
It’s okay to be idealistic — that’s the point. Because, by imagining a world free of this problem, you’re crafting a vision.
As you move further along your advocacy journey, you’ll use your vision to inspire others, illustrate the huge impact that policy proposals can make, and gather support for turning those proposals into laws. And right now, your vision can inspire you to keep striving to make a difference.
What’s Your Ask?
After finding your problem, and envisioning a better world without it, you just need to connect the dots between these two points.
What has to change for your vision to become a reality? What policy proposals could address the root cause of your problem? How can people take action to transform those proposals into laws? How do you move from a community with a problem to a community with a problem solved?
Try to be as specific and concrete as possible. Your answer to these questions is your solution. The solution comprises the tangible reforms that make such a transformation possible — the reforms you’ll be asking others to help you accomplish.
Your solution informs your ask. What is it that you’re asking of policymakers? What action do you want them to take?
It is also important to keep in mind that it is OK if your ask alone would not solve a problem as daunting as air pollution or immigration reform. Sometimes advocacy means chipping away at a sweeping problem bit by bit and passing solutions that are politically palatable – and sometimes there’s a moment for big, innovative change.
Either way, your ask should be clear and well-defined. In fact, elected leaders are accustomed to hearing a specific, concrete ask when they meet with their constituents. Although that might feel transactional, having a clear, direct ask when it comes to advocating to lawmakers is critical to making progress on your topic.
For example:
An ask that needs improvement: Please pass policies that support child nutrition.
A stronger ask: Please support legislation that would strengthen federal child nutrition programs, like the WIC program.
Strongest ask: Please co-sponsor/support the WIC Act which would close a gap in nutrition support by allowing children to participate in WIC until they start kindergarten and are eligible for school meals.

You are the child health expert
As a pediatrician, you are a child health expert and not a policy expert, so you are NOT expected to know what bills, regulations or other policies are moving across the different levels of government. That is what AAP is for! Based on the issue you are interested in advocating for, we can help you determine a relevant and strategic ask. There may be a bill moving at the federal level that AAP supports, or your chapter may already be advocating on the topic. We are here to help guide you.
What Makes a Good Advocacy Issue?
As a pediatrician, you are uniquely suited to advocate for children. You are a child health expert, and you know what it takes to best support a child's health and well-being. When you see an issue impacting your patients and community, you have the power to speak up. Your voice is valuable, credible and trusted.
When determining your advocacy issue, it is important to understand whether the issue is already being addressed by others. In fact, there is a good chance that the AAP or your state chapter is working on it! Start there. The Academy and state chapters are plugged in and often know the key players on a wide range of child health issues. We can give you a clear sense of the policy landscape surrounding an issue and any work in progress.
For issues that already have a groundswell of support, adding your efforts to the chorus of voices speaking up can be powerful. As we know, there is power in numbers. And as a pediatrician, your support on a specific issue offers an important child health perspective and expertise that many other advocates do not have.
Here are some prompts to get you thinking about your issue and what you bring to the table:
- Does this issue match your clinical expertise?
- Do you regularly treat patients dealing with this issue?
- Is this issue prevalent in your own community?
- Can the issue be addressed by public policy? Is there political will to address it?
- Is there a national event or other external driver impacting your issue?
- Are you the first person to consider undertaking advocacy on this issue?
- Have you seen solutions or interventions that work well to address the issue?
- Can others be invited to join your future advocacy efforts?
And remember, turn to AAP and/or your state chapter to determine what advocacy may already be taking place on this issue as well as for expert guidance on how to approach the topic.
An Advocacy Issue in Action
All of these decisions can seem overwhelming. Rest assured, other pediatricians have felt the same way.
Dr. Ben Hoffman certainly did when he found himself in the same situation as you.
He was working as a pediatrician with the Indian Health Service on the Navajo Nation in Gallup, New Mexico. Several nights in a row, he was called into the emergency room to care for a child critically injured in a car crash. What most disturbed Dr. Hoffman was how preventable these injuries were: None of the children were wearing a seat belt or restrained in a car seat. After the fifth such incident, he decided to take action.
Dr. Hoffman researched car seat safety and injury prevention, and emailed an activist who’d been working on this issue for decades — Dr. Marilyn Bull. Connecting with Dr. Bull and other activists opened up the world of advocacy for him.
It led to Dr. Hoffman leading a community-based coalition in Gallup to increase car seat use. Dr. Bull got him involved with the AAP’s Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention and he became involved in state-level legislation. He joined a coalition pushing for an improved state car seat law in New Mexico and, for the first time since a fifth-grade field trip, he traveled to the state capital in Santa Fe to testify for the bill, which was passed into law. Four years later, he served as a primary drafter for a booster seat bill — which became law and has since saved the lives of countless children.
This tremendous impact was made possible by Dr. Hoffman’s diligence in identifying his community’s problem, crafting a vision for a safer world, and connecting with the advocates already working to implement solutions.
You, too, can make a difference like Dr. Hoffman did. It all starts with picking the right issue for you — and then determining the next step.
Last Updated
01/30/2023
Source
American Academy of Pediatrics