Build your activism toolkit.
Our Activism Clinics are designed to provide current BUSPH students, faculty, and staff with training on a specific area of public health activism in a hands-on workshop experience. Each session will help students become well-rounded, skilled professionals who can develop issues from the ground up, explore strategies, and communicate effectively with community members, stakeholders, courts, agency officials, scientific experts, opposing parties, and more. These clinics are available for in-person participation only. Online learning modules are in development.
Our Mission
- To provide a high-quality, skills-based educational experience for the BUSPH community, especially students, who want to be competent, ethical public health practitioners with expertise in the field of public health advocacy and activism.
- To ensure that public health policies and practices protecting and creating healthy environments are properly interpreted and implemented to protect people and places for the benefit of this and future generations.
Upcoming Activist Clinics
April 19, 2023: From Outrage to Action: How to translate the urgency of the moment into meaningful change
Date: April 19, 2022
Time: 1-1:50pm
Location: Talbot 302C (Board Room)
In this clinic, participants will learn how to identify a problem and then frame that problem as a public health issue that can be influenced by activism and action.
Instructors: Professor David Jernigan, Dean Craig Andrade
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From Outrage to Action: How to translate the urgency of the moment into meaningful change
In our inaugural clinic, participants will learn how to identify a problem and then frame that problem as a public health issue that can be influenced by activism and action.
Instructors: Professor David Jernigan, Dean Craig Andrade
This session took place on October 26, 2021.
The online version of this training is in development.
Additional Resources:
The Three Pillars of Public Health Advocacy: An overview of the advocacy landscape and how to navigate it
In this clinic, participants will receive a high-level overview of the three main disciplines of public health advocacy and how they are connected and support each other.
The three pillars are:
- Organizing
- Communication (media advocacy)
- Direct Advocacy (lobbying)
Students will walk away with an understanding of what it takes to create change on a specific issue.
Instructors: Professor David Jernigan, Emily Barbo
This session took place on November 15, 2021.
The online version of this training is in development.
Developing Your Advocacy Strategy
This clinic will provide an overview and examples of the key elements of a successful strategy. Participants will apply this in small groups focused on specific issues and applying the Midwest Academy’s strategy chart, taking a possible campaign from goals to constituents to targets to tactics.
Instructors: Professor David Jernigan
This session took place on Monday, February 7, 2022.
The online version of this training is in development.
Public Health Storytelling - The Art of the Interview
Date: Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Time: 5:00 – 5:50pm
Location: Instructional Building (INS), Room 311
Instructors: Professor Jennifer Beard, Sara Mar, Rubina Veerakone
Storytelling can be a powerful tool to create social change. In this clinic, we will be focusing on the importance of the first-person narrative and the art of the interview to capture that narrative. The interview is the way in which the voices of not only experts but also the people most affected by health inequities and policy issues can be heard, connecting the “head” with the “heart” of our work in public health and beyond.
This clinic covered:
- Framing a story
- Who to interview
- What to ask
- Ethics
The online version of this clinic is in development.
Preparing a Policymaker Pitch
Date: Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Time: 1:00 – 1:50pm
Location: Instructional Building (INS), Room 301
Instructors: Professor David Jernigan
Pitching a policy idea to a policy maker is one of the last steps we take in public health advocacy. After all the research and organizing and media advocacy, eventually we have to talk to the people in power. They are just that – people in power. This clinic will focus on how to prepare for and approach those people, and participants will get to create and practice a policy maker pitch on an issue of their choosing.
Tweeting for Social Change
Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2022
Time: 1:00 – 1:50pm
Location: Instructional Building (INS), Room 301
Instructors: Professor Ellie Murray
It is one thing to do important research or learn about important work, it is another thing to communicate those research findings to the public. In this clinic, we will discuss how to use Twitter as a tool to hone in on a target audience and craft a message that leads to public health change.
The online version of this clinic is in development.
