Stroke Smart Advocacy Groups

Stroke Smart advocacy groups consist of members of the community interested in saving lives and reducing disabilty by expanding stroke awareness in their circles. Business and faith leaders, stroke survivors and family members, teachers, librarians, heatlh officials, social workers, senior services representtives, and EMS officials, for example have influential access to the community and are thereby in unique positions to disseminate stroke smart knoweldge. Meeting monthly, these good samaritans brainstorm ideas to spread the word, sharing lessons learned and pooling on the unique abilities of each member. They adopt bulletin boards, delivery magnets and wallet cards to businesses for display, host information sessions and rec centers, talk with their sports teams about recongizing the signs and symptoms of a stroke, and so much more. Their efforts keep the inititiave at the forefront of the community so that when someone does have a stroke, people around the patient recognize the symptoms quickly and call 911. 

Advocacy groups meet regularly and each member addresses the following four items as the backbone of the agenda:

1) What has happened to disseminate Stroke Smart knowledge since last time?

2) What do I plan to do to disseminate Stroke Smart knowledge until we meet again? Brainstorming with the group happens here. Should someone adopt a bulletin board, contact the rec center for permission to display a poster and train the staff, write an article for the local paper, speak to their dentist about displaying the magnets, offer a Stroke Smart class at the senior center, etc. 

3) What have I learned that the group may find useful in their Stroke Smart efforts?

4) This is what I need from the group to assist in my efforts.