A commitment to advocacy, Affiliate growth and mobilizing state public health leaders to improve health made the Mississippi Public Health Association stand out as winning the Council of Affiliates’ Outstanding Affiliate of the Year Award.
The COA recognizes an APHA-affiliated state or regional public health association that has shown growth in areas such as advocacy, infrastructure and preparing future public health workers.
Buddy Daughdrill, executive director of the Mississippi Public Health Association, receives the Outstanding Affiliate of the Year Award on behalf of his Affiliate during the Council of Affiliates Awards Reception held during the Annual Meeting.
Photo courtesy EZ Event Photography
“I thought of it as a tribute to the public health professionals in Mississippi that work so hard each and every day to protect the health of all Mississippians,” said Buddy Daughdrill, the Mississippi association’s executive director, who received the award on its behalf at APHA’s 142nd Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans.
Members of the Mississippi association credit their future success to a decision made in 2007 to hire the organization’s first paid staff person — the executive director — and to applying for and receiving an APHA Affiliate Capacity Building Initiative grant in 2008, Daughdrill said. The grant helped the Affiliate achieve its nonprofit organization status, hire a part-time accountant, establish an office and increase its advocacy work.
The grant was used as leverage in 2010 to acquire a three-year $150,000 Bower Foundation grant that helped the APHA Affiliate ramp up its advocacy work. With the grant, the Mississippi association was able to hold annual legislative breakfasts at the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, with elected officials, create policy briefs to send to legislators, hire a policy intern and create an advocacy toolkit for members covering topics such as how a bill becomes law and why they should become advocates.
The increase in advocacy work paid off in 2012 when the state legislature was considering cutting $9 million from the state’s public health budget. In response, Affiliate staff partnered with other state-based organizations for an advocacy campaign that included providing documents to legislators to show how Mississippi lagged behind neighboring states such as Alabama and Arkansas in the number of public health dollars spent per resident. Ultimately, the state legislature decided against the cuts, Daughdrill said.
“We called upon all of our members to contact their legislators individually in support of not cutting the budget and what the implications of cutting the budget would mean,” said Daughdrill, an APHA member. “I think putting together the funding comparison and having our members contact their legislators made the difference.”
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association