ACP: Advocacy - Election 08 - How to Get Involved

Advocacy

How to Get Involved

Grassroots Advocacy

The Key Contact Program
ACP's continued success on Capitol Hill greatly depends upon year-round grassroots support from the College's over 5,000 Key Contacts. Key Contacts communicate with their members of Congress on issues of importance to medical students, internists and their patients, and report the results back to ACP. To enroll as a Key Contact, ACP members are not required to have existing relationships with their members of Congress. ACP gives them the tools necessary to develop and maintain relationships. The program is open to all membership categories.

Enroll now in the Key Contact Program.

The Legislative Action Center Once enrolled as a Key Contact you can use the College’s Legislative Action Center (LAC) to respond easily to current ACP legislative alerts, identify their federal legislators, and compose a letter, e-mail, or a fax to their members of Congress. Talking points and sample letters that can be easily personalized are provided. The LAC also provides election information, Congress' schedule, tips on communicating with legislators, and media center.

State Level Advocacy

The ACP Washington Office has launched a new initiative to help small and medium-sized chapters become more involved in state advocacy by providing all the necessary information, tools, and staff support needed to advocate effectively in their state.

If you or your chapter would like to become more involved in advocacy but feel you do not have adequate resources or time to do so, the ACP Washington, DC office can help you/chapter with the offered services below:

Create state specific issues briefs to be sent to state legislators, governors, or policy staff members.
Assist in setting up meetings with your state’s governor.
Help identify key health care committee members of your state legislature.
Provide talking points for letters-to-the-editor or op-eds for local media.
Provide talking points to present legislative testimony.
Provide tips for beginning to build an effective state-based grassroots network.
Help with coalition building or political fundraisers.

If you are interested in any of these services, please contact your ACP chapter governor to let them know of your interest in registering the chapter.

To sign-up for assistance with one or all of the items listed, or for more information, please contact Shuan Tomlinson, ACP’s state health policy coordinator, at stomlinson@acponline.org.