One way in which we can understand public health advocacy points to the role of public health in voicing the needs of populations who do not have a collective voice: marginalized populations, vulnerable groups and, in general, groups who do not have a say. (Carlisle, S. 2000)

The Centre is focusing on several dimensions of this question and will be producing documents on each of the following areas:

Defining the concept The Question: What is advocacy and how does it differ from citizen activism? Our projects: produce briefing notes to explain what advocacy for health is. The tools for producing advocacy activities The Question: how to produce advocacy activities? Our projects: an inventory of the principal guides, available in English and French, will be produced in order to guide public health actors in their work.  Organizational modalities The Question: How can public health units undertake advocacy in a coordinated, principled, and relevant fashion? Our projects: The NCCHPP will summarize the frames of reference used by different public health units from across Canada.

Ethical dimensions
The Question: the fact of speaking for a population raises different ethical questions. Some underscore the risk of paternalism when one purports to speak for a population. Others point, on the contrary, to the ethical issues when one chooses not to practice advocacy.
Our projects: we will be proposing a summary of approaches from the perspectives of ethics, public policy, and advocacy.




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