Healhy Democracy Healthy People

Thrive Through Civic Health: We Will Vote

Why Organize the Health Sector?

The 2024 election will have lasting impacts on the health and wellbeing of our communities. Despite applauded record voter participation, in 2020 a third of U.S. eligible voters did not cast a ballot and more than half of eligible voters did not vote in 2022. In addition, much of the population served by our health systems are among those most likely to face barriers when voting and are underrepresented at the ballot box. Perhaps most surprising and concerning is that healthcare workers themselves,  including physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and dentists are 12-23% less likely to vote than the general population.

The health sector has an opportunity to both tell the story of what is necessary for health and build the collective influence and political will for the policies that support healthy communities. To achieve this aim a paradigm shift focused on building influence and power is required. By embracing a community organizing, base-building approach which includes integrated voter engagement the health sector is poised to serve as an influential advocacy network. The first step is to  organize during and between elections and requires  several intermediary calls-to-action that aim to build power and leaders.

The health sector is the largest workforce and accounts for at least 22 million workers which represents about 14% of all workers in the United States. The We Will Vote initiative  serves as a strategic call to action for the health professional workforce to vote and to also promote voter participation with their colleagues, organizations and the communities they serve. The health sector can play a powerful role in building the public understanding of the critical relationship between voting and health.

It remains clear that to build a bench of health sector champions committed to  promoting the policies and systems necessary for a healthy multiracial democracy, we must provide opportunities to develop leaders and take action collectively.  The Thrive Through Civic Health: We Will Vote initiative serves as  a call to action designed to be taken at the individual, organizational, and field levels and allows for a breadth of leadership development opportunities across the health sector. These opportunities provide an onramp to expand and amplify a shared understanding of the interdependence between healthy communities and a healthy democracy. Health leaders can play an important role in promoting a public commitment to an inclusive, representative democracy.

The Thrive Through Civic Health: We Will Vote (WWV) initiative is a coordinated strategic action lead by Civic Health Alliance, Healthy Democracy Healthy People, and Vot-ER, designed to improve population health by strengthening civic and voter participation across the health sector. WWV serves as an invitation to partner with public health, health care, philanthropy, non-profit, and community organizations to strengthen voter participation commitments.

The focus of the WWV Initiative is to implement a  health sector strategy to build awareness, commitment, and momentum and increase voter participation of health sector workers.  The WWV initiative serves as a foundation for deepening our commitment to the importance of an inclusive democracy for community health and wellbeing.

The goals of the Thrive Through Civic Health: We Will Vote initiative are to:

Join Thrive Through Civic Health: We Will Vote

Are you sharing the pledge to vote with others? Track your impact by email gnora@hdhp.us for a unique link.

Resources to Expand our Collective Impact

Communications Toolkit

This toolkit is meant to serve as a comprehensive content guide to support your work amplifying key campaign moments. The toolkit includes monthly content from August through November:

We Will Vote | Field Guide

There is a wealth of resources to support your work in promoting nonpartisan civic and voter participation. The Thrive Through Civic Health: We Will Vote team put together a comprehensive set of materials and resources to guide you through your voter education initiatives including:

Organizing for Power Toolkit

We are stronger when we join with others to organize towards collective action. This toolkit provides templates and resources to:

Storytelling Toolkit

Personal stories are a powerful way to create change and support health sector voter participation. This toolkit is meant to guide you in sharing your story about why democracy matters to you and the health of your community. Included in this guide are:

Want to track your organization’s impact? Email gnora@hdhp.us for a trackable link for the story submission and pledge to vote.

Current We Will Vote Organizational Champions

The We Will Vote Organizational Champions represent over 250,000 health professionals across the country. Join the movement and commit to promoting nonpartisan voter participation across the health sector by signing the organizational commitment today!

Led by Civic Health Alliance, Healthy Democracy Healthy People, and Vot-ER