Joyce Erickson Interview Paper

After watching the interview with Joyce Erickson, the president and coordinator of Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth County Tobacco Coalition. I saw how she started and carried out the amendment to the clean air act in Wisconsin. I believe that this act is extremely important in promoting the health of residents and visitors in Wisconsin restaurants and bars. Seeing how Joyce witnessed this medical problem first hand with both her father and her granddaughter helped to show me that I need to work on a topic/policy that personally impacts me. This would allow me to become more compassionate and fight harder to make a change. Joyce made an interesting point when she first started this act in Wisconsin. She started this locally, and explained to the bars and restaurants about the benefits of eliminating smoking. It is …show more content…
As stated earlier, Joyce said that she started locally. She began talking with people near her hometown to get an individual group of working professionals and citizens together to present their issue to stakeholders. These stakeholders can be found at places such as hospitals, clinics, and can even be individual health care providers. Another thing to think about when changing a policy is to partner up with agencies that work with the same issues and community as your potential policy change targets. In Joyce’s case, working with restaurant and bar managers with concerns about tobacco use in there facility, helped Joyce to achieve the viewpoint of the professionals this change would impact. Going back to how to start a policy changes, I still believe the most important piece of information from this interview was how to begin the process, starting with local politicians. Many of these people will fight with you to help change your policy with expertise in initiating acts. It is important to find the policy makers and party that support your idea for change first at the local