Restoring Hope In Democracy: Meet Healthy Democracy Healthy People
In 2021, a study was published outlining a surprising statistic: health professionals are 12-23% less likely to vote than the general public. Where some saw a problem, Jeanne Ayers saw a call to action and an opportunity for the 2024 election. It was time to organize the healthcare sector in a new way, and Minnesota was primed to lead the way. Thus began a multi-pronged initiative called We Will Vote to strengthen civic and voter participation across the health sector. It was a resounding success that engaged with 18 organizations in Minnesota and reached 18,660 health professionals.
This monumental effort is just one of many success stories coming from Health Democracy Healthy People (HDHP), headed by Jeanne Ayers. She founded the organization after a healthy history of leadership roles in state governmental public health for nine years, including serving as the Assistant Commissioner of Health and Chief Health Equity Strategist for the Minnesota Department of Health. She also worked in professional continuing education for 15 years and served as the founding director of the Centers for Public Health Education and Outreach at the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. Most recently, HDHP merged with the Institute for Responsive Government, Health & Democracy where Jeanne now serves as a fellow and our Minnesota team adopted the name- Health & Democracy Partners- MN.
HDHP began in 2020 as a coalition of eleven national public health organizations focused on strengthening civic and voter participation and promoting an inclusive, representative democracy. They propose an expanded approach to advancing health equity; one that’s based on the belief that we can’t address other determinants of health without creating a healthy democracy. Their aim is to do so by organizing people and organizations, organizing narrative through research and data, and organizing policies and resources at every level.
The coalition has made numerous inroads with broad-reaching wins for public health and health equity. They created the Health & Democracy Index, an analysis that compares twelve public health indicators and voter turnout to the restrictiveness of voting policies in each state. This analysis then served to encourage public health and health care organizations to promote civic and voter participation as a path to improving population health outcomes. For example, voting was added as a core objective in 2023 to Healthy People 2030, an initiative from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and is now being prioritized in a number of state health assessments and plans.
The through line of all of this work is a simple but profound statement: we need to embrace the broader truth about what creates health.
Strengthening civic and voter participation is not limited to national elections. The work is continuous, and it starts with local relationship building. This is where Jeanne is finding hope, encouragement, and empowerment. This is the space where she sees the roots of democracy blooming. She encourages anyone looking to take action to invest in those smaller relationship-building spaces and to seek out ways to expand participation. Building connections at the community level across differences to solve problems is key to creating a thriving population and harkens back to the aspirational vision of democracy- where all community members can form a process to learn together, work together, and build solutions together.
ABH is a proud supporter of Health & Democracy Partners- MN. We signed onto the We Will Vote initiative in 2024 and continue to promote civic engagement for all populations. We encourage you to learn more about the organization and find your path for creating a healthy democracy!