Health Education Standards in Ohio – Information for supporters

(LNCI members – you may or may not know that Ohio does not have any health or physical education standards for our students in this state. If you are interested in this issue, read on:)

Happy New Year to our partners and supporters for Health Education Standards in Ohio!

We appreciate all of your support in 2011.  It enabled us to launch efforts to build support for health education standards for Ohio.  Without grassroots support, it just wouldn’t be possible!

Now that 2012 is upon us, we still have much work to do.  Periodically, we’ll update you on the status and let you know ways you can support the effort going forward.  We hope that you find this informative and valuable.

There are a couple of quick activities where everyone can help.  First, you can encourage grassroots support by asking others to sign postcards.  The directions for the postcards and the postcards are available for download on our website.  Simply run copies (or let me know if this is a problem and a supply can be sent).  Have colleagues, friends and family sign the cards and return them to me.  There is no need to who your legislative members are.  We’ll take care of district matching.  We’ll be using these at an upcoming event and will then deliver them to your legislative member.

Also, thank you to everyone who attended our November 16^th Advocacy Day.  We had great feedback.  Many of you made personal action plans.  We would love to hear how things are going!  To help, we have created an online survey for you to update the status of endorsements.  If you weren’t able to attend, we are still looking for groups, organizations and individuals to endorse health education standards.  Resources are available on our website (both online endorsement form and a downloadable paper copy).

As next steps, you and others interested are invited to the American Heart Association’s annual Advocacy Day on March 14^th.  One of the topics to be discussed is state health education standards.  You can find updated information on the event, as well as resources (jpg and postcard announcing the event) on our website.  This is a great opportunity for those unable to attend the November event.  Please encourage those interested to register as soon as possible.

If you are interested in joining our Health Education Standards Advocacy Committee, please reply back to this message and I’ll add you to the list.

Again, special thanks to all of you who supported our effort in 2011.  And, thanks for your continued support in 2012!

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Cresha Auck Foley, MA
Government Relations Director, Ohio

American Heart Association/American Stroke Association
5455 N. High Street, P.O. Box 163549
Columbus, Ohio 43216-3549
Tel.: 800.282.0291, Ext. 4357
Cell:  614.296.1665
Fax 614.848.4227
E-mail: cresha.auck@heart.org
www.americanheart.org
www.americanstroke.org