Justice for Youth Too, not Just Us

The problem of public leadership is calling into existence a public that can understand and act on its own interests.

                -John Dewey

There is a misconception regarding public health organizations working to combat the prevalent community health obstacles of our day. This misconception revolves around the belief that communities lack the capacity to lead and instead require a benevolent intervention to ‘put them right’. On the contrary, our communities suffer only from a lack of an ability to organize its leadership and coordinate its advocacy. This deficit of structure produces a deficit of purpose. Public health as a discipline depends most heavily on an extensive network of social support that empowers a public to purposefully understand and act on its own health interests.

The days of uninformed constituencies suffering from poor disease management, a lack of a prevention and/or promotion plan is over. Empowerment through the Health Promotion Council’s advocacy work builds community capacity to simultaneously combat health risk factors and bolster health protective factors. The diversity of services provided through this advocacy lens grants our communities the knowledge and organizations the capacity to develop relevant and appropriate prevention/promotion strategies.

In particular, HPC’s Advocacy Institute (AI) empowers stakeholders to organize, mobilize, and advocate for sustainable community change. Through work focused on the connection between public health and policy, community health, and the implementation of a strategic advocacy action plan, we prompt participants to call their communities’ capacity into existence and create healthy change. This innovative educational program prepares participants to be the change their communities need as their strategy for action grows and their leadership skills mature. Ultimately it’s this maturity that facilitates the development of sustainable community health. HPC’s advocacy work has the potential to ‘put the city right’  by empowering individuals, families, communities, institutions, and policymakers to call into existence a vision for health that respects leadership at all levels.

On a personal note, as one of the primary contributors to the development of AI, I see the program as a vehicle for capacity building for so many public health stakeholders. From youth developing leadership skills to school administrators working towards systemic reform to city policymakers making public health more accessible, these groups are more like puzzle pieces awaiting transformational leaders. AI engages stakeholders; primarily youth to this point so that they can see where they ‘fit’ in the picture. To this point, the public health picture has a piece missing and we are working to convince youth to take their rightful place.

AI has proven to be extremely enriching for those who have participated from legislative trips to community events and school seminars. My hope is for participants to find their individual and collective voices to speak up and their individual and collective feet to stand up. Ultimately, no one can push youth into their place as leaders. They’ll have to advocate on their own behalf. Good thing they have the Advocacy Institute.