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C.A.B. "Community Awareness Branding"

State: KY Type: Neither Year: 2015

FCHD is located in Kentucky’s capital city of Frankfort. The Franklin County community covers 207.75 square miles and has a population of 49,648 that surges with a daily influx of Commonwealth of Kentucky employees.  Although Franklin County is the site of the State Capitol, the county itself is considered a rural area. With having such a surge in population during the day and being a rural community providing affordable branding and advertisement of the health department and accessible access of public health and community education information within the community can be a challenge. Goal: To increase branding and advertisement within the community by highlighting different public health issues as well as community partners’ health initiatives through a series of 30 minute segments aired monthly in addition to weekly State Journal articles. Objective: To provide free advertising and branding through 52 newspaper articles to be published in the Sunday edition of the State Journal as well as airing 12, 30 minute W.O.W segments on the local Cable 10 channel annually. The opportunity was brought to FCHD to provide free local media avenues through the State Journal, the largest newspaper distributor in the area and the local cable provider. This has allowed FCHD to collaborate with community partners, the subject matter experts to provide the most reputable articles and W.O.W. segments possible. All goals and objectives were met by providing the community with free and reliable public and community health information. Each year, 12 W.O.W. segments and 52 articles have been provided to the community for over 10 years, totaling 520 newspaper articles and 120 W.O.W. segments. Our intended outcomes were to reach 20,000 citizens within the community through media outlets consecutively on a monthly basis, to increase awareness of public health issues and to share all media outlets with MAPP partners and increase subject matter expert’s participation. Through the newspaper we wanted to improve and diversify news articles currently being centered on national awareness topic areas and increase personal experience. Through the local cable 10 channel segments we would like to reach a broader audience with limited access. The actual outcomes have had the ability to reach 97% of community households otherwise that have access to Cable 10 Channel, 30% of the community tune-in to watch new production and re-runs of various health topics covered through 30 minute segments. 80,000 citizens participate through online newspaper coverage and weekly print sources. The collaboration efforts have led to twelve of the seventy-two MAPP Partners contributing new TV segments to increasing community awareness and two MAPP Partners worked with newspaper coverage. This collaboration is important because in previous year’s only one health educator was responsible for all newspaper articles. This collaboration and additional use of resources provided a new insight and fresh ideas from MAPP partners and coverage of new topics. By inviting other health department staff from various disciplines to contribute to weekly news briefs the quality and diverse personal experiences added new value to existing programming.  In the spirit of true community comradery/spirit, our local TV station and small town newspaper have generously reached out to FCHD and committed invaluable time and media resources to further promote public health.  Their role in branding our mission has ensured Essential Public Health Service 3: Inform, Educate and Empower people about health issues. The public health impact is providing the community with free and reliable public and community health information that otherwise would not be provided. By providing this free media to the community all areas of the county, rural or city have access to the latest health information. On FCHD's website, www.fchd.org we provide links to the last 6 months articles and some links to our local commercials, also linking short pieces of a W.O.W. segment or commercial. We want the community to stay in-tune and up-to-date by providing links on our website to news articles, W.O.W. segments, commercials, through evolving social media outlets.        
In the face of continued budget cuts, the Franklin County Health Department (FCHD) has been forced (charged with thinking outside the box) to think outside the box and explore new avenues for branding/promoting the public health message/awareness/updates/alerts/timely health information for the community.  Gone are the days of extravagant budgets that routinely allowed for paid multiple media advertisement and program promotion.  While budget cuts often create stress and barriers, FCHD has taken this precarious situation and used it as an outlet for creativity, collaboration and innovation.  Franklin County Health Department (FCHD) is located in Kentucky’s capital city of Frankfort. The Franklin County community covers 207.75 square miles and has a population of 49,648 that surges with a daily influx of Commonwealth of Kentucky employees.  Although Franklin County is the site of the State Capitol, the county itself is considered a rural area. With having such a surge in population during the day and being a rural community providing affordable branding and advertisement of the health department and accessible access of public health and community education information within the community can be a challenge. Franklin County is also home to Kentucky State University (KSU), a historically black college/university.  The community’s diversity includes 10.4% African American, .2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.4% Asian and 2.8% Hispanic or Latino residents.  According to the United States Census Bureau, 21.7% of the residents are under the age of 18, and 13.8% of residents are 65 years of age or older. Our intended outcomes were to reach 20,000 citizens within the community through media outlets consecutively on a monthly basis.  The actual outcomes have reached 97% of the community households which have access to the local TV station, Cable 10, 30% of the community tune in to watch new and re-run of various health covered through 30 minute segments.  80,000 citizens participate through newspaper coverage through on-line and weekly print sources. Prior to the community awareness branding (C.A.B) campaign, public information dissemination was limited to departmental/agency/internal silos.  Each agency took responsibility for informing the public of their upcoming programs.   Duplication of services and public health messages were the norm.   Franklin County’s CAB campaign provides a unique educational tool for residents to stay abreast of public health issues and presents a cost effective mechanism for the community to share their resources to brand public health.  In the past, the traditional ways of promoting public health media outlets have been used: articles/advertisements, radio interviews/advertisements/PSA’s; billboard messaging, etc. at accelerating costs.   C.A.B is creative and unique because it features the result of public health partnerships and utilizing free media outlets to reach a greater number of the population. Writing or discussing your own role in promoting public health promotion is invaluable. C.A.B has taken a powerful look at the role of public health promotion/branding through the eyes of true expert; the public health workers.  The sharing of available weekly newspaper space, monthly video production and airing has given the community an up close and personal view of public health and what they can do to stay safe from a multi-partner voice. C.A.B is not necessarily new to the field of public health, but rather a creative use of an existing practice.  As part of the NACCHO Model Practice Database, we find that several health departments have taken advantage of local media outlets to promote the public health message.  C.A.B’s success is due to the weekly public health partnership branding that is provided within the community of Frankfort and Franklin County at no cost to the local health department or partners contributing to the message via print local newspaper, web-based  local news , as well as, monthly local TV programming.  Each message addresses the CDC Winnable Battles, as well as, any and all public health topics or concerns including but not limited to: nutrition, physical activity, obesity, tobacco prevention, sexually transmitted diseases, mental health promotion, suicide prevention, bullying, public health preparedness, national health observance recognition, essential public health service delivery/assurance and much more. Although this public health branding initiative is not yet an evidence-based practice, it is an effective and inexpensive way to increase public health branding in a community of our size.  The information that is shared within the community partner network are recognized as public health experts and lend voice to many of the timely public health issues.   
Food Safety|Global Immunization|Heathcare-associated Infections|Motor Vehicle Injuries|Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity|Teen Pregnancy|Tobacco
Goal: To increase branding and advertisement within the community by highlighting different public health issues and community partners’ health initiatives through a series of 30 minute segments aired monthly as well as weekly State Journal articles. Objective: To provide free advertising and branding through 52 newspaper articles to be published in the Sunday State Journal as well as airing 12, 30 minute W.O.W segments on the local Cable 10 channel annually. This practice has been a work in progress for at least 10 years for FCHD. When the Franklin County MAPP was formed the practice expanded to our community partners. We thought this was a great way to allow free and reliable media access and branding out in the community about public health as well as other health initiatives our community partners would like to advertise/inform. There is an open invitation to all MAPP partners that they may suggest an idea for what to present in the articles or W.O.W. segments or if they would like to submit an article or have our segments filmed at an event they are hosting, it can be done. Not only do we collaborate with our community partners we collaborate among departments within FCHD on topics based on staff’s areas of expertise. Providing the public with quality and reliable health information is what we at FCHD strive to do. Collaborating and highlighting the amenities our community partners offer ensures this service is the best representation of the practice provided in our community. Stakeholders involved in this practice:          - Franklin County Health Department          - Frankfort Plant Board-Cable 10          -Various Community Partners(MAPP)- YMCA, Frankfort Regional Medical Center, Faith Based Community, University of Kentucky (Dental Program), Local Farmer's Market, Cooperative Extension, EMS/Fire Department, Local Financial Institutions, etc. This program could not be done without the collaboration of our community partners. They are the subject matter experts that helps better inform and educate the viewers and readers. There is an open invitation to the community partners that they may provide articles at any time and they may contact the health educator supervisor if they would like to be a part of the W.O.W segment.    
Goal: To increase branding and advertisement within the community by highlighting different public health issues as well as community partners’ health initiatives through a series of 30 minute segments aired monthly as well as weekly State Journal articles. Objective: To provide free advertising and branding through 52 newspaper articles to be published in the Sunday State Journal as well as airing 12, 30 minute W.O.W segments on the local Cable 10 channel annually. All objectives were met in that all W.O.W. segments and articles have been released/published out into the community on a weekly/monthly basis for 10 plus years. We have received constructive and positive feedback from community partners and community members. Often while out in the community a community member will come up to our health education supervisor and let her know they saw her on TV doing her W.O.W. show or that they really enjoyed the recent article in the newspaper. While that is qualitative data and numbers can’t be actually given it is still very important that we get that kind of feedback from the community we serve. People are seeing these segments and reading the articles, therefore, we are reaching the public as stated in our goals and objectives. Data collected through this project include; 12, 30 minute segments on the local channel along with 52 articles in the State Journal to increase awareness of community health issues, emerging public health issues, as well as branding within the community.  Over a ten year period, there have been at least 520 articles printed and delivered to Franklin County as well as surrounding counties reaching some 22,000 people weekly, about 80,000 online readers monthly, and 120, 30 minute W.O.W. segments airing to those within Franklin County to an unlimited amount of subscribers within the community.    
A few lessons learned include, FCHD could not do every TV segment and article themselves! In the beginning stages of this practice it focused on what FCHD did and services provided. This was not sustainable, we needed to add in our community partners and broaden the scope of what the W.O.W. segments included or what newspaper article topics were printed. By doing so, we have increased awareness of community health issues, emerging public health issues, as well as branding within the community. We have also created, through a quality improvement project, a spreadsheet indicating assignments, dates, times, topics, etc. for each publication whether for W.O.W. or articles. This allows us to stay organized and prepared for months ahead of time before assignments are due. It has also allowed us to track what topics and community partners have been used in a segment/article and in the event of a cancellation there is a back-up for each publication. Currently, we are looking into how we can collect more data on who is or is not watching our programs and reading the articles. Within the next year we would like to add our W.O.W. segments to our YouTube channel so that there is easy access to on-line videos at all times. Then we could count how many “views” each segment receives. We would also like to use Google Analytics to see how many times the articles posted on FCHD’s website are “opened” so that we can provide some more quantitative data in this practice. The word “free” in public health doesn’t happen much but providing free advertising and branding with our community partners on emerging public health issues or health initiatives is a great service that we provide and will continue providing. This has become something that the community looks forward to and as long as there are community partners willing to participate will ensure that the community is informed and educated, using these free resources.    
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