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The Role of Health Education Associations in Advocacy 315
the 21st Century , identified advocacy as one of four critical areas for improving graduate
education in the next millennium (Merrill, Chen, Gielen, McDonald, Auld, &
Mulrooney, 1998). Policy advocacy is also cited as one of the critical areas for future
education and training of the public health education workforce (Allegrante, Moon,
Auld, & Gebbie, 1999).
CURRENT ADVOCACY ROLES OF HEALTH EDUCATION
ASSOCIATIONS
With the increased recognition of advocacy in the profession and practice of health
education, today [1999] most health education groups include a specific reference to
policy involvement in their mission statements or organizational goals. Many groups
have offices in or near the nation ’ s capital to facilitate their involvement: American
Association for Health Education, Association Public Health Association (APHA,
which includes the Public Health Education & Health Promotion Section and the
School Health Education and Services Section), Association of State and Territorial
Directors of Health Promotion and Public Health Education, SOPHE, and the Society
of State Directors of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. Although SOPHE
was headquartered for more than forty - five years in New York and California, the
Society relocated to Washington, DC, in 1995 explicitly for the purposes of increasing
its policy advocacy efforts (Bloom, 1999). The American School Health Association,
based in Kent, Ohio, retains a part - time registered lobbyist to represent its views in
Washington, DC.
In addition to organizing individual advocacy efforts, health education organizations
have been working collectively since 1972 as part of the Coalition of National
Health Education Organizations (CNHEO) to “ facilitate national level coordination,
collaboration, and communication among member organizations; provide a forum to
identify and discuss health education issues, formulate and take action on issues affecting
the members ’ interest; serve as a resource for external agencies; and serve as a focus
for the collaborative exploration and resolution of issues pertinent to professional health
educators ” (Coalition of National Health Education Organizations, n.d.). Recent examples
of political issues that the CNHEO has addressed on behalf of the health education
profession include tobacco legislation, Healthy People 2010, and proposed regulations
for identifying health educators as part of the Standard Occupational Classification
(SOC) used by the Departments of Labor and Commerce.
All CNHEO members have advocacy committees or mechanisms in place for
issuing action alerts to their leadership and members as well as resolution processes to
form the basis for their political positions. The availability of electronic communications,
including Web sites and listservs, has greatly enhanced the timeliness of groups ’
political responsiveness and helped ease financial barriers of advocacy - focused communications
programs. Advocacy priorities span the broad range of issues from funding
of research in the behavioral and social sciences, to education/training of future