Advocacy

As part of its mission, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford is committed to advocating on behalf of and with our patients and families in the community and before governmental bodies to ensure that all have access to quality care. Advocacy includes educating the community and policy leaders on the health needs of children and expectant mothers, being involved in legislation that affects children's health, and working with physicians as they advocate for their patients and families.

Some of the programs that we actively involved with include:

Children’s Regional Integrated Service System

Children's Regional Integrated Service System is a 27-county regional collaborative aimed at making the California Children’s Services (CCS) program for children with special health care needs more effective, efficient and family-centered. The membership includes local and state family support organizations, pediatric provider organizations and hospitals and county CCS programs in the region.

Residents Advocacy

In collaboration with the Stanford School of Medicine, we designed and implemented an advocacy elective as part of the pediatric residency curriculum. Activities include understanding the legislative process, working in the community and designing public service projects. For more information, please call (650) 724-6352.

Advocating for Children and Expectant Mothers

One of the most effective ways to improve our community for children and expectant mothers in the long term is to utilize legislative advocacy on their behalf. Quite simply, this means supporting laws and policies that are good for families and opposing ones that are not. Advocacy is how we ensure laws are passed that can protect and improve the health, safety and well-being of expectant mothers and children.
 
Very often, children don’t have a voice in the decisions that affect them and their families. Our advocacy efforts are aimed at ensuring that their concerns are always heard when public policies are debated and legislation is passed.
    
Grassroots advocacy – We mobilize people who care about children’s health to influence policy issues that concern them. Grassroots advocates help us support expectant mothers' and children’s health care issues at the local, state and federal levels. Some examples of our grassroots activities include:

  • Writing a letter to your legislator
  • Making a phone call to your legislator
  • Attending a rally with fellow advocates to demonstrate support to legislators
  • Testifying before a legislative committee
  • Participating in Capitol Hill events
  • Visiting legislators at the Capitol
  • Informing others about an issue to increase awareness and support
    • Direct lobbying– We talk with policymakers about issues that affect children’s health and provide information and resources

How you can help

Join the Grassroots Advocacy Network today
Voices are always needed to strengthen the Grassroots Advocacy Network. When an issue comes up for which your voice is needed, you’ll receive an action alert with clear, brief background information and ways that you can help. You can choose to receive alerts by email, fax or mail. With each alert, we will give you all the tools you need to make taking action quick and easy – including sample letters, phone scripts, and legislator contact information. You will be able to influence public policies in five minutes or less. To join the Grassroots Advocacy Network, please contact us at dibautista@stanfordchildrens.org.