Advocacy Tool Kit

Welcome to IMPACT’s Advocacy Tool Kit. We have created this tool kit so that others may re-create groups similar to IMPACT in different areas. 

Disclaimer: This tool kit is considered a draft that is constantly being updated with new information. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at impact4hc@gmail.com - 10/26/2020

Sample Pitch

Determine your vision.

 

Please view our previous academic presentations and slide decks here to learn more about our formation and vision.

While determining your vision and plan, use the 5 M Model to determine your strategy.

Organize your team.

 

Choose a diverse team of individuals with similar goals. Your team should include others from different institutions, backgrounds, specialities, and networks. Additionally, it is crucial that everyone on your team has a social media presence.

Then, organize your team via a Slack channel or another similar platform. Please view these articles about creating the Slack workspace, making it work for your team, and working efficiently in it. Your team can also use a Google Drive for rapid document creation and editing. 

Pick an issue.

 

Crucial issues to advocate for during the COVID-19 pandemic include universal masking, proper social distancing practices/guidelines, healthy equity, and more. 

  • For universal masking advocacy, please refer here for guidance from Co-Founder/CEO Dr. Vineet Arora. 

Select an advocacy tool.

 

Letter - Letters to your government officials are a great place to start! Check out our Social Distance Advocacy Letter Template here. Also, see other examples of letters we have sent to government officials here. 

Petition - You can also create a petition on Change.org to expand your initiative. See our universal masking petition here.

Op-ed - Please click here to view Co-Founder/COO Dr. Shikha Jain’s Op-Ed Guide if you are interested in writing and publishing an op-ed.

  • View our KevinMD op-ed on universal masking as an example here.

  • View Co-Founder/Chief Equity Officer Dr. Garth Walker’s op-ed on social distancing in the Chicago Sun-Times here.

  • For a full list of our op-eds, please click here. 

Actively promote on social media and engage your community.

 

After creating your advocacy tool(s), actively promoting your work on social media is crucial.

  • Infographics are a great user-friendly way to engage with others and disseminate your message. Please click here to view and download our original IMPACT infographics as examples.

Engaging with your community and partnering with other organization is also a good strategy to amplify and disseminate your message. For examples of partnerships, please click here to view our partners!