Stories

Building Communication Capacity in North Carolina

As members of the North Carolina Task Force on Child Abuse Prevention, the Division of Public Health within the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Prevent Child Abuse (PCA) North Carolina opted to develop a public education campaign that promotes community responsibility for child well-being. After analyzing commissioned research on the pitfalls of traditional messaging, however, this pair realized it needed to first build communication capacity. PCA North Carolina and DHHS shifted gears and instead developed communication toolkits and formed a learning community. They also offered train-the-trainer workshops on effective framing and on working with the media to raise the profile of this issue with sights on social change. This way, state organizations were equipped to make the case for safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments and healthy child development; convey consistent messages across departments; and impart these valuable skills to their grassroots networks.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/child-abuse-neglect/communication-resources/efc-building-community-commitment.pdf

Houston's Approach to Selecting Evidence-Informed Strategies

Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest city in the United States. Of the nearly 2.2 million people who live in this sprawling metropolis, more than 25% are younger than age 18 - one of the largest youth populations in the country. Community leaders could easily be overwhelmed by the sheer scope of youth violence in their city. Instead, a coalition led by the local health department chose to start small and focus prevention efforts at the neighborhood level. While statistics on youth violence in Houston presented dire facts, the city did not need to start from scratch to find a solution. It just needed to migrate what others were already doing to a stronger model, and in a specific community. “We really were committed to identifying evidence-informed strategies that fit with the culture and the direction that our youth-serving agencies were going,” STRYVE Program Director Sheila Savannah said.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://vetoviolence.cdc.gov/apps/stryve/grantee-profiles#houston