Hayslett Group

Leading the way in helping all Georgians prevent serious health threats and employ health promotion and disease prevention is the role of Georgia’s public health system. Political dynamics have a history of making it difficult for public health to fulfill its commitment to a healthy Georgia. With declining revenues, the reorganization of state agencies, and budget cuts, Georgia’s public health system, itself, is unhealthy and unstable. The pressing need for better policies, stronger leaders and improved framework can no longer be ignored or put to the side.

In 2009, Healthcare Georgia Foundation responded to the need for the development of state and local leadership capacity to advocate for effective public health policy by awarding Hayslett Group grant support to conduct a statewide advocacy campaign, Advancing Public Health in Georgia. Hayslett Group is an independent full-service public relations firm based in Atlanta who has worked with various industries including the health care sector for more than 15 years. In 2008, Hayslett led the Foundation’s successful campaign to advance a statewide trauma system in Georgia.

The objectives of the Foundation’s campaign are to build local advocacy capacity for public health programs and policies; promote polices that strengthen state and local public health; inform state and local decisions regarding the allocation of resources for public health; strengthen individual and organizational public health leadership at state and local levels; facilitate collaboration across professions, associations and organizations in support of public health; and promote community awareness of the need for and benefits from an investment in public health. The Hayslett Group will carry out these objective through four campaign strategies including: developing a public health leadership academy to organize and mobilize Georgia’s local boards of health to advocate for improvements to the public health system and funding; develop a public health news bureau to tell the public health story; develop strategic public health communications to spotlight the importance of public health capacity; and develop policy-related communications to ensure that public health is part of the 2010 political dialogue by positioning public health as a key campaign issue.

Advancing Public Health in Georgia is based on a population health perspective that recognizes that the health of each of us is inextricably linked to the health of all of us. By building the capacity of local boards of health to understand health issues and elevating the role of local boards of health in promoting and protecting the health of the public, communities will be in a stronger position to shape effective public health programs and policies.