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:
- Serve as a strategic call to action for the health sector workforce to vote and to also promote voter participation with their colleagues, organizations and the communities they serve.
- Expand the public understanding of the critical relationship between voter participation and health outcomes.
- Introduce community organizing practices shown to build power and collective influence to the health sector.
- Develop healthy democracy champions prepared to build the public and political will for policies that assure an inclusive, representative democracy.
Join Thrive Through Civic Health: We Will Vote
- Become an Organizational Champion of We Will Vote, Sign the Organizational Commitment Today!
- Become an Individual Champion of We Will Vote, Sign the Pledge to Vote Today!
- For more questions about the We Will Vote initiative, email info@hdhp.us
Resources to Expand our Collective Impact
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:
- Foster an organization-wide commitment to voting by scheduling a presentation with our team
- Making Your Organization Voter Friendly
- Remind your organizational members and community to vote
Organizing for Power Toolkit
We are stronger when we join with others to organize towards collective action. This toolkit provides templates and resources to:
- Connect with colleagues about collaborating on nonpartisan voter education and registration efforts
- Support a core team of individuals who are ready to promote civic and voter participation
- Share the initiative in organizational meetings or class lectures
- Develop a team of colleagues to lead a campaign with easy-to-use templates
Coming soon: Share Your Democracy Story Toolkit
Current We Will Vote Organizational Champions
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Advocates for Better Health
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American Public Health Association
- Iowa Public Health Association
- Michigan Public Health Association
- Minnesota Public Health Association
- Pennsylvania Public Health Association
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American Medical Women's Association
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Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health
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Big Cities Health Coalition
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California Primary Care Association
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Civic Health Alliance
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CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy
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Division of Public Health, Central Michigan University
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Doctors for America
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Engaging Communities to Change Health Outcomes (ECCHO)
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Eta Gamma Chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma
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Frey Evaluation LLC
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Grantmakers In Health
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Healing the Vote
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Health Begins
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Health Policy Institute of Ohio
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Healthy Democracy Healthy People
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Human Impact Partners
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ITest Health
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National Disability Rights Network
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National Network of Public Health Institutes
- Public Health Institute of Oklahoma
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Network for Public Health Law
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Ohio Academy of Family Physicians
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Oklahoma Turning Point
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Open Pixel Studios
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Oregon Health and Science University’s Richmond Community Clinic
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Society for Public Health Education
- Minnesota Society for Public Health Education
- Great Lakes SOPHE
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Public Health Accreditation Board
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Skyview Family Medicine
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Transition Health
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University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
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Unruhly Medicine
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Vitalyst Health Foundation
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Vot-ER
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Woods Family Medicine
Lead by Civic Health Alliance, Healthy Democracy Healthy People, and Vot-ER