Voices for Healthy Kids

Policies aiming to advance equity can have the opposite effect if they’re not written carefully. However, asking for racial equity language in public policy is new territory for many advocates; this guide helps them tee up the conversation with policymakers.

Grantees of Voices for Healthy Kids—an American Heart Association initiative—needed help focusing policies where need is greatest. MG developed research-based messages to make the case. In 2020, when calls were amplified for racial justice and a pandemic was ravaging communities of color, Voices for Healthy Kids committed to being more direct about focusing policies in communities affected by structural racism.

MG and Voices for Healthy Kids produced a robust message guide and hosted a series of trainings for grantees, for affinity groups working on specific policy issues, for funders and others, and the guide is being used across the country. Advocates are reporting they are using the messages to work more effectively in coalitions and to advance racial equity policies.

The guide is available for free and open use, and is applicable for securing racial equity language in a variety of policies that can help address public health disparities.