• We suggest that you get in touch with your Mayor’s office, Chamber of Commerce, City Council, etc. and pitch the idea of them hosting a public forum on women and heart disease. Please see the
template letter for you to use and make your own.
• Confirm a distinguished guest like the Mayor, Governor, a State or US legislator, etc., who will be in attendance. This will help you attain press coverage.
• Plan the panel: We suggest that you include a woman living with heart disease who is willing to tell their story; a cardiologist; a cardiac nurse; yourself or a WomanHeart Spokesperson; and any other relevant people to the topic. Remember to keep your panelists to about 4-8 people. You don’t want to have too many speakers as you want to ensure enough time to have a question & answer period.
• Once you hear back from your town leaders and they have agreed to host the event, contact your local papers and ask them to announce the event in papers, website, bulletins, etc. Remember to include all exciting details, like guest speakers and number of attendees expected.
• Use your own presentation or the template presentation in the Support Coordinator’s resource kit on women and heart disease. Remember to make the presentation your own and tell your story. Nothing grabs attention better than your personal story.
• Once you have approximate number of attendees, contact the National Office, with plenty of time, to order enough
Red Bags of Courage ® for the event.
• See if you can have the event video taped. This will be good to document and if successful to improve upon for future years.
• Make sure to follow-up with the press that was in attendance to be sure an article will be written.
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WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease is a founding partner of The Heart Truth Red Dress campaign. The Heart Truth and Red Dress are trademarks of HHS.