|
|
|
| The latest news from and for state health care advocates |
August 2010 |
Community Forums
|
These community events are the “meat and potatoes” of a public education campaign. Direct-to-consumer education events can either be your main strategy or the end result of the Train-the-Trainer model. Community events can serve as an important tool to educate the general public and engage your partner organizations and are often a great hook for generating positive media attention.
Get Started
- Get organized. Reaching a significant number of people with a public education message can seem like a daunting task, especially in large states. Organizational commitment, event checklists, and the use of strong partners can help.
RESOURCE: Event Checklist (Health Action New Mexico)
- Cover a lot of ground. States with larger coalitions have strategically divided up regions among coalition groups. UHCAN Ohio has kept in regular communication with other groups doing this work to cover a larger geographic area. The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) in Texas has used a variation of this approach. CPPP reached out to groups across Texas to set up public education events. Policy experts from CPPP offered to do a presentation on the new law if the local partner groups promised to have at least 50 people in the room. Although CPPP staff had to do aggressive outreach to set up these meetings, relying on partners to do the legwork and turnout has helped them tackle such a large state.
RESOURCES: Road Show Basics (Center for Public Policy Priorities) | Community Forum Proposal (Health Action New Mexico)
- Find local leaders. In rural states, it might seem like an impossible task to reach small towns and communities. Groups in Missouri found that the best way to cover their large and rural state was to partner with trusted messengers in local communities. They also found that “local trumps professional” when it came to educating rural communities. Partnering with respected local leaders, such as physicians or faith leaders, helps increase turnout and gets people to listen.
Make the Most of Key Partnerships
Every good advocate knows there is power in numbers. An effective, well-developed public education campaign can be greatly enhanced by the strategic use of partners.
- Go back to old friends. During the legislative campaign leading up to the passage of the health care law, partnerships and coalitions expanded to unprecedented sizes. Many groups have found that in addition to forging new relationships, reenergizing these same partnerships and coalitions has been the key to successful campaigns. For example, the Campaign for Better Health Care in Illinois created committees in key congressional districts during the campaign, and now, organizers are reaching out to these groups to help them refocus their efforts on public education. These smaller, more localized coalitions have helped the Campaign for Better Health Care cover more ground. Groups in Illinois and other states also have forged successful new partnerships with organizations that were weary of joining legislative campaigns but are comfortable with educational campaigns, such as the AARP and League of Women Voters.
- Reach out to strange bedfellows. West Virginians for Affordable Health Care partners with more traditional allies and community groups to help with turnout and with nontraditional partners such as hospitals and insurers to be presenters. These nontraditional partners help create a well-rounded panel to answer attendees’ questions. Make sure to clearly communicate the purpose of the event to these partners: This event is strictly educational, not a debate about the merits of the new law.
- Get local. In many states, groups reached out beyond traditional state coalition partners for public education. Local churches, service organizations, small businesses, and senior centers have all been essential in multiple states. The Center for Public Policy Priorities in Texas has found county-based United Way groups to be some of the most effective, engaged partners for public education events. Health Action New Mexico and North Carolina Fair Share have found the Council of Churches to be a key partner for reaching local communities.
RESOURCES: Sample Promotion Flyer (Center for Public Policy Priorities)
- Target your outreach. Many groups have found that educating specific constituencies about the new law and how it will affect them is the most effective way to communicate the benefits of reform. The Maryland Citizen’s Health Initiative reached out to local colleges and universities to get information to young adults and their parents. West Virginians for Affordable Health Care led senior-specific health care forums during the daytime before their broader evening forums.
RESOURCES: Young Adult Coverage Tool Kit for Universities (Maryland Citizen’s Health Initiative) | Medicare PowerPoint (West Virginians for Affordable Health Care)
Magnify with the Media
Strategic use of the media is an excellent way to amplify positive messages around the law.
- Create a media “hook.” Linking a public education event to an implementation milestone or securing a newsworthy speaker (e.g. member of Congress) can help garner press coverage in competitive media markets. In Illinois, Campaign for Better Health Care has been successful in attracting media to their events in Chicago by doing both. For example, they held an event with Sen. Durbin around the Medicare Part D rebate checks in June. Many groups across the country are looking ahead to the six-month implementation milestone on September 23 to plan a series of media events within their communities.
- Target longer format media outlets. West Virginians for Affordable Health Care has found that longer format coverage, versus 30-second sound bites, better complement the work they are doing around public education. As such, they have scheduled targeted print media and radio interviews around their town meetings to secure more in-depth coverage about the new law.
- Use media to help with turnout. Health Action New Mexico has used the media not only to get coverage of their public forums, but also to let people know about these events. They make sure to send their first advisory to the media three weeks prior to the event in hopes that local outlets will post their event ahead of time.
RESOURCE: Sample Press Release (Health Action New Mexico)
- Engage attendees in follow-up media work. Take Action Minnesota has a creative spin to their media strategy. They are relying more heavily on participants writing both letters to the editor and op-eds for local newspapers rather than actual media coverage at the event.
RESOURCE: LTE Builder (Campaign for Better Health Care)
The Program
While presentations will vary across audiences, there are a few components that are universal to all successful presentations.
- Just the facts, ma’am. The long legislative campaign to pass the health care bill created a lot of confusion and mistrust among Americans across the country. It was very difficult to wade through all of the political double-talk to get the facts. Now that the bill has officially become law, people are hungry for information about what it actually means. Across the board, groups agree, keeping the event strictly educational is essential to bring in new faces and defuse the opposition.
- The right level of detail. Groups find that presentations have to be tailored for the audience. The Center for Public Policy Priorities in Texas offers two presentations. The first presentation is a basic Health Reform 101. The second presentation goes into more policy detail and is usually used when presenting to groups that have greater baseline knowledge.
RESOURCE: Sample Event Invitation (Center for Public Policy Priorities) | Pick-and-Choose PowerPoint (Center for Public Policy Priorities)
- Start broad, then get specific. Missouri Jobs with Justice found that the key to a good presentation is achieved when finding a balance between the big picture of the health care law and the specifics about how it will help the people of your state. Usually, the immediate benefits are a good place to focus. Many groups use PowerPoint Presentations that can be tailored for events based on the audience. We describe these as “Pick-and-Choose” PowerPoints in the Resources section below.
RESOURCES: PowerPoint (Health Action New Mexico) | PowerPoint (Take Action Minnesota) | PowerPoint (Health Care for All New York) | PowerPoint (Families USA)
|
Stay up-to-date on shifting attitudes. The Herndon Alliance recently completed another round of focus group and polling research to explore how to build support for the new law and marginalize repeal efforts. They outline a specific approach to help you present a compelling case when doing public education activities.
|
- Develop your speaker line-up. After their explanation of the law, many groups have added other speakers to their program to enhance their credibility. Organizers across the country told us time and again that the best messengers depend on the community, the goals of the event, the audience, the co-sponsors for the event, and a host of other factors. However, common themes run throughout public education campaigns and here are a few key examples:
- Personal Stories: In Illinois, organizers with Campaign for Better Health Care have found that story sharers are the best and most credible messengers at their community events. Story sharers help to put a human face on complex policy issues, are effective in diffusing the opposition, and frankly, are often the most memorable presenters.
- Government Officials: Health Action New Mexico developed a panel with state government agencies that will be working on implementation of the new law. This format allowed these representatives to speak directly to consumers and hear their concerns.
- Stakeholder Panels: West Virginians for Affordable Health care brought in a variety of stakeholders, including doctors, hospitals, and insurers. A broad panel gives attendees a greater sense of fairness and transparency about the new law.
- Faith Leaders: In Missouri, groups used faith leaders to reach rural communities as trusted messengers about the new law.
RESOURCE: Sample Community Forum Agenda (Health Action New Mexico)
- Leave time for questions. When presenting in a public forum or at a community event, it is useful to limit the formal presentation to 25-30 minutes and leave at least another 30 minutes for questions and answers.
The Takeaway
Perhaps the most important component of a good program is what happens after your attendees leave the room. Providing participants with useful materials has been a key component of public education events.
- Keep the focus up front. Missouri Jobs with Justice found that it is most effective to leave a variety of resources and materials in the back of the room from which people can choose rather than overloading them with materials during the forum.
RESOURCES: Young Adult Coverage Fact Sheet (Campaign for Better Health Care) | Fact Sheets (Missouri Health Care for All)
- Give them something to take home. West Virginians for Affordable Health Care distributed a 32-page guide about the new law to all forum participants. They found that participants appreciated information and although they might not read the entire guide, they can reference various sections to get their questions answered after the meeting. Health Action New Mexico gathered materials from many resources to create a packet of information, and provided targeted packets in Spanish and for Native Americans.
RESOURCES: An Updated Guide to National Health Care Reform (West Virginians for Affordable Health Care) |Sample Tool Kit -Table of Contents (Health Action New Mexico)
- Evaluate! A good evaluation mechanism will help you improve your program and further your success in generating a positive view of the law. The Center for Public Policy Priorities uses SurveyMonkey, while Missouri Jobs with Justice uses paper forms. A key element of a good evaluation is asking if you affected the opinion of your participants.
RESOURCE: Sample Evaluation (Missouri Health Care for All)
|
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge and thank all of the advocates who took the time to share the lessons they learned during the first months of health reform implementation in building public education campaigns in their states. Without them, this work and these resources would not be possible.
If you want to learn more about what is happening in one of the states below or have something to share about a public education campaign in your state, please contact us at stateinfo@familiesusa.org.
Illinois: Campaign for Better Health Care
Maryland: Maryland Citizens Health Initiative and Maryland Health Care for All
Michigan: MichUHCAN
Minnesota: Take Action Minnesota
Missouri: Faithful Reform in Health Care, Missouri Health Care for All, and Missouri Jobs with Justice
New Mexico: Health Action New Mexico
North Carolina: North Carolina Fair Share
Ohio: UHCAN Ohio
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Health Access Network and Philadelphia Unemployment Project
Tennessee: Tennessee Health Care Campaign
Texas: Center for Public Policy Priorities
Washington: Washington CAN!
West Virginia: West Virginians for Affordable Health Care
|
[Return to the top]
|
|
|
