HLTH 5473 Module 3 Communication and Outreach Strategy Example

Reaching Families Where They Are: Communication and Outreach Strategies for a School-Community Partnership on Adolescent Diabetes Risk

Student Name

American College of Education

HLTH5473: School-Community Health Partnerships

Module 3 Assignment

Instructor Name

October 19, 2026

Introduction

Modules 1 and 2 looked closely at a composite rural middle school community with rising adolescent diabetes risk and identified the partners needed to respond: the clinic, health department, extension office, cafeteria, parks department, churches, a Spanish-speaking parish, coaches, parents and students. A partnership of this kind succeeds only if people hear about it, understand it, trust it and choose to take part. This paper develops the partnership's communication and outreach strategy: who needs to be reached, what they need to hear, who should say it, through which channels and how the partnership will listen as well as speak.

Audiences

The strategy begins by dividing the community into audiences with different needs. Students aged 11 to 14 are the central audience; they respond to peers, coaches, humor and activity more than to health warnings. Parents and caregivers are a second audience, many working long shifts at the poultry plant or on farms, many with diabetes in their own families and some wary of being judged. Families who speak Spanish at home, whose views the assessment captured least, need communication in Spanish from trusted sources. Families of students already referred for elevated blood sugar need private, supportive contact. Partner organizations and school staff need clear information about roles, schedules and results. Community leaders, such as the town council and school board, need evidence and stories that justify support for improvements such as trail lighting.

Core Messages

Messages should be positive, practical and free of blame. The central message for families is that the community is working together so that every child can be strong and healthy, and that small changes, such as swapping one sugary drink a day for water or walking the trail as a family, make a real difference. Messages avoid terms like obese or diabetic when describing children, which can stigmatize, and focus instead on energy, strength and family. For students, messages connect health to what they care about: playing sports, having energy, cooking something tasty and being with friends. For families of students with elevated blood sugar, messages emphasize that prediabetes can often be turned around and that help is available at the clinic and school. For partners and leaders, messages link the work to data on diabetes risk and to the town's own assets.

Tailoring and Targeting

Kreuter and Wray (2003) distinguished targeted communication, designed for a defined group sharing characteristics, from tailored communication, adapted to an individual based on information about that person, and argued that both work by increasing the relevance of information to the audience. They noted that tailoring stimulates greater attention but is not always necessary; messages that fit an audience well can have similar effects. For the partnership, targeting is the main approach: separate materials for students, parents and Spanish-speaking families, each tested with members of that group. Tailoring is used where information about individuals exists and privacy allows, for example when the school nurse sends a personal letter and follow-up call to families of students referred for elevated blood sugar, referring to their child's own screening and to specific services nearby.

Trusted Messengers

Who delivers a message matters as much as what it says. In this community, pastors, coaches, the extension educator and the clinic's nurse practitioner are more trusted than distant agencies. Campbell et al. (2007), reviewing church-based health promotion, found that churches can reach broad populations and influence behavior at several levels, that involving churches in program design is essential for participation and sustainability and that interventions incorporating spiritual and cultural context have been effective, particularly for African American congregations. The partnership will therefore work with church health ministries to announce family cooking nights and walking groups from the pulpit and in bulletins, and with the Catholic parish to host a Spanish-language session. Coaches will promote after-school activity at practices, and students in a health club will create messages for their peers.

Channels

Channels are chosen to fit families' daily lives. Many parents do not read school newsletters but do read text messages, so the school's text system will carry short, bilingual announcements. Printed flyers will go home in backpacks and be posted at the grocery store, dollar stores, the clinic and laundromats. Friday night football and weekend youth games offer in-person reach, with a partnership table offering water, fruit and information. Church bulletins and announcements reach many families on Sundays. Local radio, especially the Spanish-language program on Saturday mornings, can carry brief spots. Social media pages run by the school and churches will share photos of activities, with permission. Each channel carries the same core messages in a form suited to it.

Two-Way Communication

Outreach is not only about sending messages. Families must be able to ask questions, raise concerns and shape the program. The partnership will hold listening sessions twice a year at different times and places, including evenings and Saturdays and at the parish in Spanish. A simple text line will let parents ask questions or request help, answered within two days by the school nurse or extension educator. Brief surveys at events will ask what families found useful. Students in the health club will gather feedback from classmates. What the partnership hears will be reported back, for example in a short newsletter describing changes made in response, so families see that their voices matter. This approach reflects community-based principles of shared power and mutual learning (Israel et al., 1998).

Ethical Cautions

Communication about weight and diabetes can harm if handled carelessly. Messages that single out children with larger bodies can lead to teasing and shame, and shame does not motivate healthy change. The partnership will avoid weight-focused messages to students, will never identify individual students in public materials and will keep communication about individual screening results private. It will be honest about what the program can and cannot do, avoid promising cures and respect families' choices. Materials will be written at an accessible reading level and tested with parents to ensure they are understood. Photos will reflect the community's diversity and will be used only with consent.

A Sample Month of Outreach

To show how the pieces fit together, consider the partnership's plan for its first October. In the first week, a bilingual text announces a family cooking night at the Baptist church, followed by a flyer in backpacks and an announcement from the pulpit. The same week, the school nurse sends personal letters to the families of the 23 students referred last year, inviting them to a private meeting with the clinic's nurse practitioner at the school. In the second week, the health club hosts a water and fruit table at the Friday football game, with students handing out cards describing the new after-school walking club. In the third week, the Spanish-language radio program interviews the extension educator and a parish volunteer about the cooking night planned at the parish hall. In the fourth week, the partnership holds a Saturday listening session and sends a short text survey. At the end of the month, the core team reviews attendance, responses and questions and adjusts the next month's plan. Seeing a month laid out this way helps partners understand their roles and keeps outreach steady rather than sporadic.

Measuring Reach and Response

The partnership will track how well its communication works. Measures include the number of families receiving text messages and the share who respond or attend events; attendance at cooking nights, walking groups and listening sessions, by language and neighborhood where possible; the number of families of referred students who connect with the clinic after the nurse's letter and call; and survey responses on whether messages were clear and respectful. If Spanish-speaking families or families from particular neighborhoods remain underrepresented, the partnership will adjust messengers and channels. Module 4 will examine the health challenge itself in more depth.

References

Campbell, M. K., Hudson, M. A., Resnicow, K., Blakeney, N., Paxton, A., & Baskin, M. (2007). Church-based health promotion interventions: Evidence and lessons learned. Annual Review of Public Health, 28, 213-234. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.28.021406.144016

Israel, B. A., Schulz, A. J., Parker, E. A., & Becker, A. B. (1998). Review of community-based research: Assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual Review of Public Health, 19, 173-202. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.19.1.173

Kreuter, M. W., & Wray, R. J. (2003). Tailored and targeted health communication: Strategies for enhancing information relevance. American Journal of Health Behavior, 27(Suppl. 3), S227-S232. https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.27.1.s3.6