Developing a Community Awareness and Action Program

This tool provides you with a step-by-step outline on developing educational events and building community awareness and capacity. Consider five key questions:

1. How do you begin the planning process?
2. Who is the audience?
3. What do you want to accomplish?
4. What do you want to say to your audience and how often?
5. How do I get from plan to program?

How do you begin the planning process?

Begin your program planning or campaign development by involving a planning team. Teams can help either develop a single class or activity or a full campaign that uses various programs and activities in a sustained manner. You may find that resources and funding limit the scope of your efforts and restrict you to a single program.

A campaign, on the other hand, using various public-education tools and media channels sustained over a longer time, has a far greater chance of successfully affecting your community and its older drivers. Creating awareness of older-driver safety begins the process of both changing behavior and changing the environment of a community to encourage safer mobility. A campaign can take the next step in prompting the community to take action and continue the plan. Using community members and key organizational partners further increases your chances for success.

Who is the audience?

Once you develop goals, begin your planning process by identifying the intended audience. Will the audience be your usual clients - or can the topic, goals and content level appeal to a broader audience? Or will you develop materials for a more targeted audience, perhaps people affected by a specific condition, or their caregivers? Will your audience speak a different language, come from a different culture, or live on a low income? Your intended audience will determine your selection of advertising, location and speakers.

In defining your audience, consider the action you'd like them to take as a result of your campaign.

• What do they believe now?
• What benefit will they receive from listening to your program?
• How can you make it easy for the audience to become involved and take action in your campaign?

How you answer these questions, and the nature of your audience, will determine your selection of messages to deliver and advertising, location and speakers.

What do you want to accomplish?

Have your planning team determine four to six goals. These goals will help you focus the program and evaluate its success. Ask yourself, "Are the goals clearly stated and measurable so that I will know if I have achieved them?"

In addition to your own goals, consider the needs of your organization, your clients and possible partners. Even if a presenter comes to you with a great idea for a program, established goals will assure that your efforts stay aligned. If you have more than one target audience, develop strategies to address your overall goals with each group.

What do you want to say to your audience and how often?

The next step is creating sustained, frequent and consistent messages for your defined target audience. When developing goals for the program or campaign, create a one-sentence message that conveys the information or action you want the audience to take home. Think of a few phrases that have stuck in the public mind: "Buckle up for safety"; "Eat five fruits and vegetables a day"; "Don't drink and drive." Try to limit your campaign to no more than three messages.

Current marketing wisdom says that it takes seven exposures for someone to become aware of a product or information. (How many times have you seen the "Got Milk" commercial?) Plan for your message to reach the audience frequently. Use it on all your promotional materials, letterhead, handouts, prizes or giveaways. Your message becomes a "household word" only if you sustain the campaign over time.

How do I get from plan to program?

Next, follow the basic steps for program development adapted from those outlined in the Blueprint for Better Health module:

Once you have completed these eight steps, you are ready to implement the program.