ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTITIONER
SPOTLIGHT ON NEHA RESOURCES: WORKFORCE OUTREACH TOOLKIT
First-of-Its-Kind Outreach Toolkit Specifically for the Environmental Health Workforce In the next few years, about 40% of the workforce intends to leave their jobs. Simultaneously, local public health departments need 70% more full-time employees to provide a minimum set of public health services. As one part of our efforts to address these issues, we have developed the first-of-its-kind outreach toolkit specifically for the environmental health workforce at the local level. The toolkit includes templates, fact sheets, and a comic book of communication strategies to help raise the visibility and appre- ciation for the workforce among the public and policymakers. Individuals working in environmental health programs are encouraged to use these tools to build relationships with local groups, organizations, and decision-makers to raise the visibility of the environmental public health workforce and help build the next generation of the profession. Using the toolkit to present to local groups, talk with decision- makers about a specific policy, or write a proclamation is a simple way individuals and teams can: • Increase local visibility of your environmental health programming • Share your resources and learn about other resources in the community • Give new opportunities to staff for public speaking or youth engagement
• Uncover new opportunities and funding • Get students interested in the profession
tive to the long policy reports made for environmental health experts. You can use policy briefs to provide data, recommend next steps, and suggest legislation to decision-makers, politi- cians, and nongovernmental organization advocates. • How to Write a Proclamation: Proclamations can be used by environmental health programs to build buy-in with local offi- cials about a specific environmental health topic or environmen- tal health in general. Comic Books and Fact Sheets You can download or bookmark these comics and fact sheets as reminders of strategies and considerations to share environmental health messages: • Simplifying Your Message: Most people living in the U.S. are not able to interpret scientific information. This comic and fact sheet can help you simplify your data and messages so decision- makers and your community can easily understand and use your information to make healthy decisions.
Templates and Samples You can download and personalize these samples and templates: • Guide to Community Outreach: Use this guide to build rela- tionships with local groups and organizations to raise the vis- ibility of the environmental public health workforce and help build the next generation of the profession. • EH 101 PowerPoint slide deck: You can customize this slide deck and use it to inform your community, decision-makers, and other partners on the importance of the profession and what we do. • Guest Editorial Template: You can customize this template to create a guest editorial for your local newspaper or media about the importance of the profession and need for support from community leaders and decision-makers. • How to Write a Policy Brief: A policy brief is a 1–2-page sum- mary of relevant information on a topic to guide non-environ- mental health professionals in policymaking. It is an alterna-
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Volume 87 • Number 3
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