Advocacy Assignment

DUE TOMORROW BY 9:00 PM CALIFORNIA TIME. READ ALL OF THE ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Advocacy Assignment

What are you passionate about? What topics do you care about? What health issues are important to you?

Advocacy is arguing in favor of something that is important to you, such as a cause, idea, or policy. Advocacy occurs when a person engages in dialogue about an issue they care about. It can occur in many forms – – speaking out, letter writing, protesting, voting, and even wearing a t-shirt that makes a statement. A person can offer their opinion and suggestions for how to improve something to the people who are in control, for example to policy or decision makers.

For this assignment, you will conduct research to find a topic you would like to advocate for. A list of at least TEN talking points will be developed based on the research conducted. These talking points or bullets of research that you have found will be used to support your letter. The research will be used in the body of your letter. The talking points must be summarized and use proper APA in-text citations, you can only use one – two direct quotes.

Based on the list of talking points/research a letter will be written to advocate for your health issue.

Expectations:

· Talking Points that are made up of researched facts to support your letter. Must include a statement about what you are advocating for, ten talking points/facts and consequences. Be sure to include Reference List in APA format and cite every point included.

· Do not copy/paste your researched facts. Please paraphrase in your own words, otherwise this is considered plagiarism. You will receive a “0” if your facts are copy/pasted.

· Advocacy Letter –addressed properly and to a person who is located in California

· See BeachBoard for grading rubric and sample letter and talking points

· One two direct quotes can be used for talking points, but I prefer you paraphrase your research.

TALKING POINTS WHEN ADVOCATING FOR PRESERVATION OF CCG

Advocating for: Restore $20,000,000 in funding for the Community Challenge Grants program, which has had enormous success and has played a major role in reducing the teen birth rate in California.

TALKING POINTS/FACTS (Based on Research) You must use the library research sites

• The Community Challenge Grant program (CCG), administered by the Teen Pregnancy Prevention division of the Office of Family Planning, is one of the most successful prevention programs in the state. Data and evaluation results indicate a major impact on teen pregnancy rates, making it the lowest teen pregnancy rate California has seen in decades. Great progress has been made but much more work on these issues remains (Office of Family Planning [OFP], 2018).

• At least fifty percent of teen mothers do not finish high school. Eliminating CCG teen pregnancy prevention funding will increase the drop‐out rate, leading to a less prepared workforce and a poorer education system (Brunner, 2017).

• Cutting dollars for teen pregnancy prevention does not save money. For every dollar spent on teen pregnancy prevention, California saves $3.75 dollars on intervention, such as health care for

pregnant teens and their babies and public assistance to support families of teen parents (Johnson, 2018). This figure does not include social costs, such as the cost of a less prepared workforce due to parenting teens not completing high school, societal problems related to teen parenting such as academic challenges for children born to teen parents, and dealing with delinquency, which is higher among children of teen parents (Johnson, 2018).

• Teen pregnancy rates in California and the U.S. are still unacceptably high, and the community needs to maintain a strong focus on this issue to ensure that all California teens have the opportunity to complete their education and attain their goals (Brunner, 2017).

• California has been the leader in the Nation when it comes to teen pregnancy prevention, largely because of the flexible, community‐oriented approach taken in the past by the Office of Family Planning. Community Challenge Grants fund programs that are tailored to a community, allowing for maximum effectiveness (OFP, 2019).

• Programs funded by the Community Challenge Grant program include many after‐school and

leadership development programs. Because of this, their elimination would also affect crime rates, high school drop‐out rates, and more (OFP, 2019).

• Loss of these services will derail a decade of hard work resulting in higher teen birth rates! Creating more fatherless households is not going to improve California’s recession (OFP, 2019).

•The United States has the highest rates of teen pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. Teen pregnancy costs the United States at least $7 billion annually (CDC, 2018).

•Nearly four in ten young women become pregnant at least once before they reach the age of twenty—nearly one million a year. Eight in ten of these pregnancies are unintended and 79 percent are to unmarried teens (Johnson, 2018).

•The younger a teenaged girl is when she has sex for the first time, the more likely she is to have had unwanted or non-voluntary sex. Close to four in ten girls who had first intercourse at 13 or 14 report it was either non-voluntary or unwanted (Brunner, 2018).

References

APA Format, this means you need a reference page for you talking points! Review how to reference citations and how to format your reference page. References should not be on the same page as your talking points.

 
Your Name

Address

City, State & Zip Code

Date

Name of the Reader
Title of the Reader (if he/she has one)
Address of the Reader

Salutation:

1st Paragraph – State what you want the person to do for you.

2nd Paragraph – State the most important facts that support your cause. You want this paragraph to explain the most compelling reasons for action.

3rd Paragraph – Talk about how the reader can make a personal difference. This paragraph should not just be facts, and should engage the reader in a personal way. You can refer to your request again here.

4th Paragraph – Thank the reader for considering your request, and provide information on how you may be reached.

Closing
Your Signature

Your typed name
Your title (if you have one)