The road to advocacy--searching for the rainbow

The essence of public health advocacy is spreading the word-spreading the word to members of one's community about ways to protect and promote health, and spreading the word to decision makers about health policies that need to be enacted. The authors profile 2 women who spread the word-one who focuses on breast cancer in the Asian American community and one who works in cooperation with churches in the fight against HIV/AIDS in African and African American communities-and discuss the importance of "creating shoulders for others to stand on" in the fight for social change.