Learn the definitions of advocacy and lobbying, along with the examples of each when it comes to working in prevention.
Utilize this media guide to become familiar with the basics, resources, background of NIDA, and the glossary filled of commonly used terms in addiction science and neuroscience.
Review this powerpoint by Sandra Puerini Del Sesto to define advocacy and lobbying, describe what a prevention professional’s ethical obligation to advocacy is, distinguish acts of advocacy and lobbying, and list the advocacy guidelines for actions that promote wellness and prevent substance misuse and related behavioral health problems!
Alcohol policy is often the product of competing interests, values and ideologies, with the evidence suggesting that the conflicting interests between profit and health mean that working in partnership with the alcohol industry is likely to lead to ineffective policy. Opportunities for implementation of evidence-based alcohol policies that better serve the public good are clearer than ever before as a result of accumulating knowledge on which strategies work best.
Our comprehensive youth advocacy training program is geared toward middle and high school students to equip them with skills to create change in their communities and fight for the first tobacco-free generation.
Public health and commercial tobacco prevention practitioners have increasingly centered equity in policy development to ensure that policies to combat commercial tobacco–related harms do not unintentionally perpetuate or exacerbate health disparities. This shift includes efforts to improve evaluation activities to better measure health equity impacts related both to outcomes and to how the policy was developed and implemented.
Learn more about our equitable approach to evaluation for commercial tobacco prevention at the point of sale. Then, explore our lists of sample metrics for measuring the community impacts of policy partnership in four areas. Everything presented in this tool can also be downloaded in a single guide that includes all of the metrics as well as space for notes.
Environmental scanning aims to identify your community’s risk factors that can contribute to underage or excessive alcohol consumption. Conducting a scan allows you to observe and document the 4 P’s: Price, Product, Promotion, and Placement. Recording these observations and pairing that information with other assessment data, such as youth survey data, allows you to create a clear picture of alcohol in your community. From that picture, you can then identify strategies to reduce underage and excessive use of alcohol.
A list of key questions to ask when analyzing media messages.
This study assessed support for commercial tobacco retail policies among adults. Overall, 62.3% of adults supported a policy prohibiting the sale of menthol cigarettes, and 57.3% supported a policy prohibiting the sale of all tobacco products. A majority of adults supported tobacco retail policies aimed at preventing initiation, promoting quitting, and reducing tobacco-related disparities. These findings can help inform federal, state, and local efforts to prohibit the sale of tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes.
This toolkit was created for prevention specialists who need some tips in navigating conversations with local lawmakers in the era of legalized cannabis use. Many prevention specialists feel discomfort in outreaching to their municipalities because they do not want to unintentionally advocate or lobby, as this is prohibited. This toolkit helps prevention specialists broach those conversations and clearly outlines the differences between advocacy and education. The latter is very much allowed and encouraged! Along with the toolkit is a modifiable slide deck. This template serves to provide an introductory conversation between prevention specialists and their respective municipalities. It is a way to provide education and discussion as municipalities consider opting in to allow retail cannabis stores to operate in their area.
The purpose of this Strategizer is to clarify what constitutes lobbying activities for non-profit organizations and to what extent these organizations can participate in lobbying activities in particular and the legislative process in general.
Citizen participation is an essential component of any democratic government. In order to be representatives of the people, legislators need input and feedback from the people they represent on important issues. Many people never have any contact with those who represent them in government despite the significant impact the decisions of elected officials have on their lives. As a citizen, you can help ensure good legislation on the state and national levels by communicating with your elected representatives at the proper time.