Growing up in Mexico, the notion of writing to my elected officials, let alone visiting their offices, was simply unheard of and perhaps dangerous.
The first time I was invited to go on an advocacy trip to Washington, D.C., was in 1991 as a board member of GMHC. My first question was if it was OK for me to go as a non-citizen. I had no clue if this was going to jeopardize my visa status in any way or hamper my intent to pursue permanent residency in this country. The experience was so exhilarating that I became a regular on these trips.
When I joined APHA, I did not really know much about the Association. At first, it was just a treat to attend a conference. Later on, it became an opportunity to present my work at a national meeting. By then, I was becoming aware that this was a very large, complex and important group.
Through my involvement with the Latino Caucus, I began to understand the process by which APHA develops its policy statements. In 2005, I got a first-row seat when the Caucus wrote a latebreaker that became Policy 20061: “Addressing the Needs of Immigrants in Response to Natural and Human-Made Disasters in the United States.” That experience led to further involvement with the Caucus’ policy committee and eventually to one of the two seats on the Action Board, working as liaison to other Caucuses in the Association.
And that’s when I really got to grasp the importance of the advocacy work APHA does. From development of policy statements to their review and archiving and to our role in engaging APHA membership in all stages of the work, I found this work really interesting and fulfilling.
While each one of us decided to join APHA for our own reasons, the advocacy work remains for me the main reason I’ve stayed actively involved all these years. In the different roles I’ve played, a favorite activity has always been the Capitol Hill visits the Action Board and the Executive Board conduct every year.
I am also an avid user of the Association’s action alerts, a quick and simple way to take action and share my opinion with my elected officials about issues that matter to me. All of us receive emails from APHA a regular basis that invite us to speak out in all matters related to public health.
If you haven’t ever responded to an APHA action alert, I invite you to try. Once you fill in a basic profile, you can click the ubiquitous “remember me” box and you never have to fill that out again! As an educator, I find action alerts extremely useful to foster civic engagement in my students. I also forward these to colleagues, friends, neighbors and to anyone else who I know may be interested in a specific issue. I’m eager to hear about your experiences using APHA’s action alerts. Please let me know at president{at}apha.org.
To read and share this column in Spanish, visit www.thenationshealth.org/content/51/3/3.2.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association