Who’s got some of the best funded and staffed health policy change work in the country? Stop thinking coasts, because the answer will surprise you… Missouri. For a little over a year now the Missouri Foundation for Health has been funding locals to use their civil rights skills to change health policies to better serve the long overlooked LGBT population.
For the last year we’ve had the pleasure of being the technical assistance provider to this Missouri-based collaboration aimed at changing health policies in the state to support LGBT health. Now we know health policy change is the most durable way to invest resources, because it lasts long after the funding is gone. We also know that the focus on policy change has really been amped up in recent years. Beyond that we know one more thing: there are very few resources to find out how to do policy change for LGBT wellness. Many of us are incorporating policy change into our goals, but it’s a newer field for the arena, we have fewer precedents to guide us. That’s why we are pleased to introduce a tiny series of blogs from the great folk in Missouri – telling us some of the lessons they’ve learned in the last year of LGBT health policy change work there.
Without further ado, please welcome Tracy McCreery, from the Missouri equality advocacy organization, PROMO. Tracy and the head of their partner group, Sherrill Wayland from SAGE Metro St. Louis, are the two person team who’s trying to change LGBT health in Missouri, one policy at a time.
LGBT HealthLink, The Network for Health Equity 