Chapter 4. Getting Issues on the Public Agenda | Community Tool Box

Often, community members are unaware of serious issues facing their communities. In these cases, it is crucial to raise awareness, gain community support, and put the issue on the local agenda. This section discusses how to plan for informing people in a community about an issue and persuading them of its importance.

What is the local agenda?

The local agenda refers to whatever a community sees as necessary to address.

Road repair or public building maintenance may be unrelated to health and community services, while other matters, such as local financial support for childcare, syringe services programs, or public-private cooperation to stop youth violence, have everything to do with them.

Raising awareness and engaging the public, officials, and policy makers is not a simple matter. Depending upon how much they already know, there are several steps to go through, and each takes time.

Bring awareness to the issue.

Community members and officials in the community may not know the issue exists, or may believe it couldn't exist in their community. The first step in getting it addressed is raising public consciousness about it.

Ensure understanding of the issue and its importance.

Awareness of an issue is only the beginning. People may understand that it exists, but not understand its implications. They may feel that it doesn't really matter, that it only affects a few people or places far away, or that there's not enough evidence of its effects.

The next step is to explain the issue clearly; whom it affects and how it works, where it is encountered, and what the significance is. Clear and credible information can help community members and public officials understand why the issue deserves attention.

Generate concern about the issue.

Once people are aware of and understand issues, the next step is to foster concern about them. This involves making sure that people understand how issues affect them directly or indirectly, and play out in their communities. It's when they recognize their own connection to the issue that they'll begin to see it as something that's not only serious, but that needs to be addressed locally.

Get the issue on the local agenda.

What does this mean? It can mean many things, including literally placing the issue on the local agenda, in the form of a bylaw (potential or actual), regulation, referendum, or policy statement, which may be the ultimate goal.

• Influence public opinion. Public opinion is an important factor in setting the local agenda. Issues become items on the local agenda when they reach a certain level of public consciousness, and the community starts to consider them worthy of attention. Stories about them may start to appear in the media, speakers and programs that refer to them may be sponsored by mainstream institutions and organizations (service clubs, faith communities, universities), and community members may discuss them in their daily conversations. Once it's clear that the public is concerned about these issues, politicians and other officials are more likely to take notice.
• Affect unofficial public policy. Policy, as discussed by the Community Tool Box, usually refers to the laws or regulations that formally structure how particular issues are considered and handled. Much of the time, however, especially at the local level, the practices that shape public affairs are informal, and depend on the assumptions, pressures, priorities, relationships, and influences that affect the decisions of elected and appointed officials. Economic development, for example, may receive attention because officials hear directly from residents who are struggling to find work. Official support for shelters for people experiencing homelessness or adult literacy may be influenced by public pressure or officials' personal knowledge of people affected by these issues. Affecting this informal policy is a large part of getting an issue on the local agenda.
• Encourage individual and community action. A final aspect of getting an issue on the local agenda is getting it on the agendas of individual community members. A recycling program won't work unless households participate, whether because they believe in the need for a cleaner environment or because participation benefits them in some other way. Successfully reducing youth violence may depend partly on adults throughout the community - parents in particular - examining and changing attitudes and behaviors related to violence. When enough individuals and organizations take action on an issue, that issue becomes part of the local agenda.

Thus, getting a health or community development issue on the local agenda means helping the community see the issue as important enough to take action, and encouraging shared responsibility among the public, elected and appointed officials, organizations, and individual community members.

When is the best time to get issues on the local agenda?

Any time can be a good time to promote community health and development, but certain conditions make the job easier.

When an important issue surfaces that needs to be addressed immediately. The discovery that the town water supply is contaminated by leakage from long-buried gasoline tanks is the perfect time to get a discussion of water pollution and water supply on the local agenda. The advantages are that the issue must be dealt with now, and that it won't go away without some permanent way of addressing it. There's no better time to raise an issue.

When an already-troublesome issue reaches critical proportions. A small child is injured or killed in a drive-by shooting; a person experiencing homelessness freezes to death in a doorway on a bitter winter night; a factory closes and the local unemployment rate skyrockets. In circumstances like these, it often becomes easier to get a particular issue into the public consciousness. Everyone hopes not to have to reach this point before people pay attention, but changing people's perceptions is difficult. Sometimes it takes a crisis to make getting your issue on the local agenda possible.

When an external source calls attention to your issue. A new government commission report, a major news story about a particular problem or community, a presidential remark, a book by a respected author, or widespread attention from a prominent media outlet or public figure can make your issue more visible, and make it a good time for you to bring it to the attention of people in your community.

When new information reveals or underlines a serious issue. A university study or government report may alert the community to the fact that it has a very high number of cases of an unusual cancer. This information may open the way for an investigation of possible environmental or other contributing factors and a plan for action.

When political conditions make it easier or appropriate. In an election year, for instance, there are two reasons why it may be possible to call attention to issues and get them discussed.

• Politicians seeking election or re-election may be particularly attentive to constituent concerns and may be willing to take up your cause as a campaign issue.
• Additionally, in many localities, issues can be placed on the ballot when applicable laws and requirements are met.

Even in non-election years, a well-publicized political event or situation may help put your issue in the spotlight.

Who should plan for getting issues on the local agenda?

Planning is the first step toward action; you'll want to recruit help and support for what you'll do. Choosing a planning group carefully can contribute greatly to the eventual success of your effort.

A planning group should involve people who may be affected by the issue, or who may have a role in addressing it:

Stakeholders; those with a direct interest in the issue.

• Those directly affected or involved in the issue. Stakeholders in youth violence, for instance, might include young people who have experienced violence, their parents, residents of neighborhoods where violence is common, and/or school personnel affected by violence. It may also include young people involved in gangs or other violent behavior, or others living in areas where violence is common.
• Those who deal with the issue. Using the same example as above, that would include the police, the court system (judges, probation officers), the schools, hospital emergency room staff and other health professionals, youth and family agency directors and staff, etc.

Those indirectly affected. This category includes such people as merchants whose business has suffered because people are afraid to shop in the evening or to come to their neighborhoods; young people who may be unfairly associated with violence because of their age, appearance, or racial or ethnic background; and property owners unable to sell or rent their houses because of the reputation of the neighborhood.

Policymakers. There are really three groups here: those who make formal policy, those who make informal policy, and funders.

• Formal policy. The group that sets formal policy might include local politicians, planners, and community governing or oversight bodies (the Board of Health). All of these can pass or sponsor local ordinances or official regulations.
• Informal policy. This group, which may include some local boards or other entities, agencies, schools, the police and courts, and even businesses, can shape policy unofficially through organizational policies, practices, and decisions.
• Funders. Funding organizations can also influence priorities through what they choose to fund.

Influential people and other interested community members. If you include people whose opinions are respected in the community, you are more likely to get community support for your effort. This may include business leaders, leaders of the groups most affected by the issue, clergy and other leaders of the faith community, community activists and advocates, and other individuals with widespread community respect and credibility.

More important is that these groups have meaningful opportunities to shape the plan and the effort that your initiative makes to alert the community to your issue, bring it to the forefront, and deal with it. They can bring both information and, ultimately, an action plan back to their segments of the community, and help to gain support for your initiative. Without their participation and support, there's less chance of actually getting your issue into public consciousness and onto the local agenda.

How do you develop a plan for getting issues on the local agenda?

What steps do you need to take to get your issue addressed?

Identify and recruit a planning group. Put together a representative group that can help to make the best plan possible and carry it out effectively in the community.

Pick and define your issue carefully. It's crucial to define your issue clearly enough so that people can easily understand it, and narrowly enough so that it can be addressed. An example could be an increase in a particular type of cancer in a region. The cancer increase may be complex; you may want to refine the focus on:

• Early identification and treatment of those affected
• Investigating possible contributing factors
• Addressing environmental factors associated with the increase

Choosing and defining your issue carefully will greatly increase the chances that you'll actually be able to do something about it.

Plan for a communication campaign, not just for a one-time barrage of information or persuasion. Envision the whole campaign, not just the beginning.

• Find out how much the community already knows and cares about the issue. Are community members aware of it? Do they care about it? Are they willing to do something about it? Are they already doing something about it? The answers to these questions will help you start where most community members are.
• Plan a campaign that focuses on where the community is now, while also planning the next steps.
• Find "hooks" to draw people into your issue. These may have to do with their own connection to the issue (local statistics, testimony from community members) or with particular aspects, risk and protective factors, etc. that speak to their values and concerns. Some parents may not be willing to stop smoking for their own sake, for instance, but may be willing to quit to protect their children from the effects of secondhand smoke.

Address public opinion. Obtaining public support provides advantages: you'll have community support for what you want to do; the media may take notice and further reinforce that support; and policy makers and funders may be more likely to formally consider the issue and provide resources. A plan for getting issues on the local agenda, therefore, should include attention to public opinion.

There are at least three ways to influence public opinion:

• Contact the public directly. Use posters and fliers, social media, website, presentations, community forums and meetings... any way you can think of to directly reach people.
• Partner with the media. The media can be incredibly helpful in educating the community about the issue itself, and about your organization or initiative. By publishing statistics and editorials, covering human interest and other relevant stories, and presenting content that deals with the issue, local newspapers, radio, TV, and local digital media can raise awareness and help shape attitudes about your issue.
• Partner with trusted intermediaries. Clergy, widely-respected community leaders, local sports figures, community members and public officials who are trusted in the community - all can help you influence public opinion. If you can educate them and gain their support (or, better yet, if they're already familiar with the issue and agree that it's important), you'll have a much better connection to the community, and your message may be taken more seriously.

Address unofficial policy. Try to find out why those who set or influence policy believe and act as they do. Approach them with individual stories of the effects of the issue on local people (told by those people themselves where possible). Have conversations with them to discover what their major concerns are. These may inform you about how to frame the issue.

Show people there are things they can do. Volunteering, writing letters to the editor or to policy makers, talking to friends, and speaking out at public meetings are some ways that people can help.

Address public policy. To change official policy - and thus to place your issue more firmly on the local agenda - you need to mount an advocacy effort, and work with legislators and local officials. The major elements of such a campaign are:

• Find a champion among legislators, public officials, or policy makers for your issue.
• Advocate with legislators and local officials who control or influence official policy.
• Run a media and publicity campaign to get public opinion behind you. This doesn't have to be an expensive series of ads on TV, but can be accomplished with press releases and press conferences, public demonstrations, Public Service Announcements (PSA's), letters to the editor, social media, and other free or low-cost publicity opportunities.
• Mobilize those affected by or involved in the issue to call, write to, and visit the appropriate policy makers with a coherent and consistent message.

Follow up. Once there are laws or regulations that address the issue, it is clearly part of the local agenda. Don't forget to follow up as needed. If your goal is simply to bring the issue to public notice, use that notice to move to the next step in the process. If a law has been passed, maintain contact with policy makers and the public to keep attention on the issue and on how the policy is being carried out. Getting and keeping issues on the local agenda is not a temporary job: it takes ongoing effort.

In Summary

While the ultimate goal of getting an issue on the local agenda may be to change official policy through laws or regulations, reaching that point takes a plan for educating the community about the existence and importance of the issue. You have to address not only official policy, but also public opinion and unofficial policy.

The likelihood of success can be increased by paying attention to two key factors: the timing of the effort and the inclusiveness of the planning process. Timing includes taking advantage of a political situation, a crisis that must be dealt with, or a situation where new information or media attention has brought the issue into focus. Involve stakeholders and a broad range of community sectors to encourage meaningful participation and shared ownership of the plan and the issue.

The actual planning process itself includes careful selection of a planning group and defining the issue; planning for a long-term campaign; and addressing public opinion, unofficial and official policy, to bring about change. There should be a plan for follow-up once change has been accomplished, so that gains can be maintained.

What do we mean by getting community health and development issues on the local agenda?

You understand that getting the issue on the local agenda involves:

___Educating people about the existence of issue.

___Making sure people understand the issue and its importance.

___Demonstrating the relevance of the issue to themselves and the community.

___Actually getting the issue on the official local agenda (laws and regulations) by addressing:

• Public opinion
• Unofficial official policy
• Individual responsibility

When is the best time to try to get community health and development issues on the local agenda?

___You work to get an issue on the local agenda when an important issue surfaces that needs to be dealt with immediately.

___You work to get an issue on the local agenda when an already-troublesome issue reaches critical proportions.

___You work to get an issue on the local agenda when an external source calls attention to your issue.

___You work to get an issue on the local agenda when new information reveals or underlines a serious issue.

___You work to get an issue on the local agenda when political conditions make it easy or appropriate.

Who should plan for getting community health and development issues on the local agenda?

___You involve in your planning stakeholders, including those directly affected or involved in the issue, and those who have to deal with the issue.

___You involve in your planning those indirectly affected.

___You involve in your planning policymakers, including those who make formal policy, those who make informal policy, and funders.

___You involve in your planning influential people and other interested citizens.

How do you develop a plan for getting community health and development issues on the local agenda?

___You identify and recruit a planning group.

___You pick and define your issue carefully.

___You plan for a communication campaign, not just for a one-time barrage of information or persuasion.

• You're aware of the level of commitment you can expect from the planning group.
• You've found out how much the community already knows and cares about the issue.
• You plan a campaign that focuses on where the community is now, but plan for the next steps as well.
• You find "hooks" to pull people into your issue.

___You address public opinion.

• You contact the public directly.
• You use the media.
• You go through trusted intermediaries.

___You address unofficial policy.

___You address individual responsibility.

• You let people know there are things they can do.
• You create policy sticks and carrots.
• You use the media.
• You show people there's something in it for them.
• You appeal to deeply held values.

___You address public policy.

• You find a champion among legislators, public officials, or policymakers.
• You advocate with those who control official policy.
• You run a media and publicity campaign to get public opinion behind you.
• You mobilize those affected by or involved in the issue.

___You follow up.

Tool 1: Communication Basics for Advancing Your Issue

In any plan to get a community health or development issue on the local agenda, effective communication is a must. We recap here some basic principles.

1. Learn and follow the rules of communication. The material in the box below is taken from Promoting Awareness and Interest Through Communication, which paints a complete picture of a communication campaign.

Communication is a two-way street. You have to be sure that what your audience understands is the message that you meant to send. There are several issues that can provide difficulties here.

• Language. Is the message in a language that people can understand? Effective communication may require putting your message in a language other than English if that's the language of the target community, or it may mean making sure that your message is in clear, simple English.
• Non-verbal communication. Your body language, tone and pitch of voice, and clothing all send powerful messages of their own about whom you intend to reach. If you're using images - in photographs, music, video, or film - will your audience immediately recognize and identify with them?
• Culture. Different cultures communicate in different ways, so you have to understand the culture of your target audience to communicate effectively. Looking toward and away from people have different meanings in different cultures, for instance. It's important to be culturally sensitive in order both to be understood and not to offend.

Communication has to be accessible. No matter how creative and potentially effective your message is, it can't do much good if your audience isn't exposed to it. You have to put it where they can't miss it.
Communication has to be noticeable. Even after the message is placed in the right channels, it has to have some characteristics that will help it to break through the barrage of messages that bombards everyone every day. People not only have to be exposed to it, but they have to pay attention to it for it to have any effect.

2. Use the four elements of effective messages:

Channels. You have to put your message where people will see or hear it. That means using the places, media outlets, businesses, agencies, reading matter, and people that members of the community frequent or pay attention to. In a Hispanic community, for instance, you may want to place your message on the Spanish-language radio station, in the monthly neighborhood Spanish-language newsletter, in Hispanic markets, in churches, in Hispanic clubs and institutions, etc.
Design. Your message, whether it's meant to be seen, heard, or delivered in person, should be designed to catch the attention of the audience, to be appropriate to the topic, to tell them exactly what you want them to know, and to stay with them afterward. That may mean bright colors or photographs on a poster, an unusual or arresting image, a radio message accompanied by catchy music, humor, a clever phrase...any or all of these might serve to make your message memorable.

Beware being too clever. Some TV ads - those shown during the Olympic Games seem particularly susceptible - are clever, fun to watch, moving, memorable...and don't really tell you what they're ads for. You may remember the ad for years, and have no idea what product or service it was trying to convince you to use.

Spokespersons. If you're using radio or TV ads, or if you're asking people in the community to make public statements or presentations about your issue, make sure that the people speaking for the issue are respected by the intended audience and believable in relation to the issue itself. The fire chief may be a great guy, but that doesn't make him an authority on teen pregnancy unless he's had - and is willing to talk about - a firsthand experience with it. A recovering addict may have more credibility on drug issues than a business leader in a suit.
Familiar themes and values. Try to couch your message in terms that people are familiar with, especially if the issue you're discussing is unfamiliar to them. Starting a message about teen violence with a statement of a value that most parents would claim ("We all want our kids to grow up safe and healthy.") is a way to get people 's attention and make them sympathetic to what follows. Using a universally recognized setting ("School is for learning...") is another way to accomplish the same goals.

3. Be aware of, and plan to counter, the four most common barriers to an effective communication campaign:

• Ignorance. People have never heard of, or know nothing about, the issue, and therefore can't really respond to your message.
• Selective inattention. People are bombarded with so many messages - signs, radio and TV ads, posters, etc. - that they screen out any that aren't of immediate interest to them, or that don't grab them in some other way.
• Selective inexposure. People simply avoid the channels or messages that they see as "not for them" or disturbing. People who dislike classical music probably don't listen to public radio, for instance. People upset by the sight of blood don't go out of their way to witness surgical procedures, or even to read the New England Journal of Medicine.
• Cultural, religious, or moral reservations. If your message conflicts with people's world view, you'll have a difficult time convincing them of its importance. Many people object to sex education on religious or moral grounds, for instance, even though research has shown again and again that such education reduces, rather than encourages, pregnancy and sexual activity among teens.

Example: H.E.A.T. Report Solutions: Making a difference in local government, and at a policy level - Wyandotte County, Kansas

"Having the local government be intimately involved in trying to improve the health outcomes has really been game changing in terms of bringing people to the table."

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

Your voice is one of the most powerful tools you possess. Regardless of the language you speak, sign, or write, what you communicate to others and the way you express your ideas is a reflection of your work, your dreams, and yourself. Clear, persuasive communication is vital to your success. What you say gives community members the knowledge to understand and work toward common goals. Strong communication skills can help move people from awareness to support to action. They are among the first tools you need to improve your community.

First, let's define some key terms:

Health is a state of well-being that includes the physical, mental, and social aspects of life. Health is not simply the absence of illness, and it is not limited to the individual; the concept of health extends to the community as a whole. Those in the field of community health and development work both to build the resilience and organizational capacities of people and to address community-level health concerns.

Consequences of community health and development issues can be divided into primary and secondary types. The differences between primary and secondary consequences can be understood according to how directly the issue affects people. Primary consequences affect people directly. For example, if an adolescent becomes pregnant, primary consequences include the outcome of the pregnancy and its effects on their future. Secondary consequences affect people less directly. In the pregnancy example, one secondary consequence could be the impact on the adolescent's friends, who may react differently to the situation.

Why is communicating the consequences of health and community development issues important?

To raise community awareness

Often, people are not aware of the extent of community problems. For instance, they might believe that their town water supply is safe, when in reality it contains an unacceptable level of contaminants. Residents cannot gather together to have an impact on an issue unless they understand it. This can actually be more complicated than it seems, because people often receive conflicting messages. For example, in the case of smoking, an individual may be told to cut back, try nicotine gum or patches, quit for the sake of their children, or simply take smoking outside. All of these messages can quickly become confusing and discouraging for someone unsure about the best path to take, decreasing the likelihood that any action will be taken at all. So, it is important for your organization to have a concise message that conveys the problem, shows how it affects people in the community, and describes useful actions to take.

To influence public opinion

Presenting a strong case for your position on an issue can move public opinion closer to your viewpoint. When it becomes clear that a problem is important, that it is not currently being addressed adequately, and that workable solutions are available, people may become more supportive of action. Some ways to do this are to establish your organization as a credible source of information, communicate the consequences of the issue you are focused on, and use the media.

To mobilize support and generate action

Once people understand the issue and how it affects them and their community, it is much easier to build support. If a large organization decided to tear down homes adjacent to its headquarters for parking lots, only those homeowners might initially be aware of the consequences unless an effort was made to inform the broader community. Once word spread, concerned community members from neighborhoods throughout the area could sign petitions and attend rallies. If communication reaches people in both rational and emotional ways, they may be more willing to become involved. Thus, an accurate and convincing portrayal of a community health issue can help generate the support necessary to create positive change.

To whom do I want to communicate?

Just about everyone may benefit from hearing your message, but unfortunately few organizations have the time or resources to reach every member of a community individually. Therefore, it makes sense to concentrate your efforts where they will have the greatest impact or, to use a cliché, to get the most bang for your buck. Some of the groups you might want to consider include:

Those most directly affected by the issue

With any health or community issue, some people are more significantly affected than others. Pregnancy among adolescents, for example, directly affects sexually active adolescents and those who may become pregnant. To reach this group, your message should be directed at adolescents specifically and tailored to the points they find most important on the topic. It is important to support this group in taking part in solutions within their own community. Often, community development messages are less successful when the people most affected by the problem do not feel that they have meaningful opportunities to influence their circumstances. A direct, empowering message to this group can make a real difference in a community development initiative.

Leaders of institutions

Almost all communities have core institutions, including schools, faith communities, businesses, service organizations, government, and the media. These institutions often hold considerable community influence. So with very few exceptions, it is a good idea to enlist the support of institutional leaders. Leaders from each of these sectors can help your organization advance its plan for community change, providing volunteers, time, resources, and ideas. The basic principle is that institutional leaders can help mobilize their constituencies through both formal and informal influence. Any institution that agrees to become involved in your work can become a tremendous asset. For example, if you are working to reduce substance use in high school, school leaders are a crucial component of your success. By allowing you to come in and educate students or conduct a survey on substance use, they can help your group reach its target audience.

Other community leaders

These people can be vital to creating significant change in the community because they often have strong relationships and influence within particular groups or neighborhoods. Community leaders can be found leading Sunday school at a local church, coaching a sports team, leading a neighborhood watch, running a local business, or taking action on a neighborhood issue. Bringing community leaders on board and helping them understand the importance of your issue increases the chance of support from the groups they represent. It also gives you a connection to the media, government, faith communities, businesses, schools, or whatever other institutions the leaders are linked to. It is striking how rapidly an effort can gain momentum at school once a respected student leader gets behind it. Community leaders should be considered an important part of efforts to spread a message through the community.

The community at large

Community problems can have widespread consequences for the neighborhoods and communities experiencing them. Even people who have never directly experienced a problem can benefit from understanding its consequences, both for those directly affected and for the community as a whole.

Another advantage of the entire community being aware of a problem is that this can mobilize support from sources that the catalyst organization may not think to contact directly. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) provides a good example. At one point, a chapter of MADD sent a mailing to an entire community that discussed the dangers of driving under the influence and encouraged people to designate a driver if someone in the group was drinking. They also distributed fliers and red ribbons at a professional football game. These were useful activities because they increased awareness among people in the area about what MADD does and brought greater attention to the issue of drinking and driving. MADD became a widely recognized name, demonstrating in part the power of including the broader community in awareness and advocacy efforts.

How do I go about it?

Obtain information about the priority populations

Before launching into a campaign to inform a community, it is crucial to understand how members within it view your issue. Much of the information you want to obtain about your community may be available in previously collected data, such as demographic information, political views, attitudes about a specific issue, and possible obstacles to your initiative's success. To efficiently obtain pre-existing information and collect your own data, it is important to create a plan for gathering it.

After reviewing existing sources, interviewing key informants is an effective way to gain knowledge about the community. If you are more interested in the perspectives that emerge when a small group of individuals gathers to discuss the issue, a focus group may be an appropriate research method.

Customize your message to each priority group

After learning about the level of knowledge, demographics, and opinions of the community members you would like to address, you may find that there are several specific groups you want to reach rather than one large audience. It is important to customize your message to each group to increase its effectiveness. For example, with pregnancy among adolescents, it may be important to include adolescent boys, adolescent girls, parents, teachers, and members of faith communities in an initiative designed to influence attitudes and behavior. Each group may require a somewhat different message focused on what that particular audience can do to reduce pregnancies among adolescents. Defining the different audiences you want to address and tailoring your campaign to each group are important steps before delivering your message to the community.

Get the message out

There are lots of ways to communicate information about the consequences of issues, many of which you are already familiar with. Some methods, such as word-of-mouth, are used every day. This approach can be extremely important for getting the message out because it is personal and can be tailored to the person receiving it. Often, a more formal method is also required to get the word out.

In any effort to communicate the consequences of health and development, the media can be a powerful tool, specifically media advocacy. Media advocacy is the use of media to help promote an organization's objectives. Using the media can be helpful for many reasons. Having your perspectives published, broadcast, or otherwise shared through local media can help establish your organization as a source of information on the issue. It can also bring the issue you are focusing on to greater public attention, which is important for any widespread effort. Trusted media sources can also help shape how people understand and discuss an issue, influencing the broader community debate.

Evaluate your efforts

After you have begun communicating information on your issue to the public, you should evaluate how effective your campaign has been and how it can improve in the future. By gathering information from influential community members, people directly affected by the issue, and different groups associated with the effort, you will be able to better inform the public and develop an improved campaign for the next major phase of your initiative.

In Summary

Communicating information on the consequences of the issues you are working on is vital to the success of your organization. Without a clear message to send, people may not know how they can help or what actions they can take to improve their community. You will find the Community Tool Box has devoted several sections to the pieces of the communication puzzle, taking you step by step through the processes you need to effectively get your message out.

___You have decided that you want to communicate information about health and community development issues

___You have decided which populations you want to communicate with

___You have obtained information about the target population

___The data you collected can come from previously collected reports

___Interviews with key informants have been done if it is necessary to collect more information

___You have determined if a focus group is appropriate for your goal

___You have customized your message to each target group

___You have gotten the message out through various types of communication

___The appropriateness of media has been evaluated

___After you have started, you have evaluated your efforts

Example 1: Cowley County’s Data Walk: Mobilizing Community Members to Improve Health

Improving health and well-being is a top priority for communities across Kansas. One innovative example of how Kansas counties can mobilize community members to improve health comes from Cowley County.

On November 29, 2022, Legacy, A Regional Community Foundation in Cowley County, in collaboration with RISE Cowley and USD 470 Early Literacy Initiative, hosted an innovative and groundbreaking Data Walk event to engage community partners, including frontline service providers, nonprofit directors, city/county/state officials, school district officials, private philanthropies and passionate community leaders, in a meaningful conversation about improving the health of children in their community.

Read more about Cowley County’s Data Walk, or learn more about organizing Data Walks by visiting: Data Walks: An Innovative Way to Share Data with Communities, a resource from the Urban Institute.

Example 2: Reading Summit Mobilizes Community Members Around Childhood Literacy

In Kansas, 7 in 10 4th graders read below a proficient level on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standardized tests. To raise awareness and mobilize action toward improving childhood literacy in Kansas, a Reading Summit was held in Andover on June 11, 2024. Approximately 70 educators, community leaders, elected officials and other stakeholders attended the event, where they viewed and discussed seven data posters that spotlighted literacy in Kansas. 

Many factors shape health, including education, economic status, employment and access to essential goods and services. Improving these factors often requires a multifaceted approach that begins with mobilizing the community to act. During the Reading Summit, participants met with other community members and offered new and challenging interpretations of the data as well as unique ideas to get at the root causes of difficulties with reading.

Read the full article at the Kansas Health Institutes website to see the work down by Kansas educators and to see the informational posters presented at the Reading Summit.

Example #3: Data Walk: Strategizing to Advance Kansans' Health

In February 2025, key stakeholders from across Kansas convened for the Kansas Health Foundation's FuseKS event. The event focused on hunger, food insecurity, and poverty across the state. Attendees participated in a Data Walk and were encouraged to interpret the data collaboratively and identify potential policy actions to improve health outcomes in Kansas.

Read more about this information at the Kansas Health Institute website.

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

• What do we mean by gaining public support for addressing community health and development issues?

• Why do you need public support for addressing these issues?

• Whose support do you need?

• When should you try to gain support?

• How do you gain public support for addressing community health and development issues?

Public support is often a crucial factor in bringing about changes in local conditions. For many issues, the weight of public approval plays a large role in community improvements. This section is about how to gain public support in order to increase the likelihood that an issue is addressed. Additionally, this section discusses how to get issues onto the public agenda, where policy change can occur.

What do we mean by gaining public support for addressing community health and development issues?

Real public support is more than people understanding the issue, or even than a number of people being willing to show up and be vocal at a rally or public meeting. You'll know you have strong public support when people widely recognize that the issue deserves attention and ask, "What can we do about it?"

To get to that point, you have to do your groundwork, the work outlined in other sections of this chapter:

• You have to make sure that the community knows the issue exists.
• You have to educate community members about the issue, and help them understand its importance.

Once you've accomplished these goals, you're ready to convince people of the issue's relevance to them and the community, so that they'll understand that addressing it involves shared responsibility across the community. When people accept that responsibility and are willing to support action, that's what we mean by public support.

Why should you gain public support for addressing community health and development issues?

This may seem like an unnecessary question, but it's remarkable how often gaining public support is ignored. Many initiatives or organizations seem to feel that their cause is so obviously just and logical that people will support it automatically. They don't see the need to cultivate that support, and as a result, they often don't get it. Then, when they fail to reach their goals, they may not understand why.

Public support is important for a number of reasons:

• Public support lends credibility to your campaign for community change. It's not just your organization or initiative that believes your issue needs to be addressed; a broader part of the community supports action as well.
• As support grows, it can help attract still more support. Everett Rogers describes how new ideas often spread through communities as increasing numbers of people adopt them. Once an issue is widely accepted as a community priority, people may begin to see addressing it as a normal and expected part of community life – as one perceptive human service provider used to say, "like the fire department."
• You need support for many forms of action you take. The more public support you have, the more your action may be viewed as reasonable and appropriate.
• If you're striving for a political goal – i.e., a change in law or policy – strength in numbers can matter. Public support can give you greater influence with politicians and officials and demonstrate that the issue matters to a broad range of constituents.
• Public support can help the community develop a sense of ownership of the issue, making it more likely not only that it will be addressed, but that attention to it will continue over the long term.

Whose support do you need?

When we refer to "public support," just whose support are we talking about? The ideal, of course, is broad support across the community, but there are some particular individuals and groups to consider.

The better you know your community and your issue, the more effectively you can reach the people and organizations whose support is important to your effort. In the book Agenda-Setting (1996), Everett Rogers and James Dearing discussed the powerful agenda-setting roles that high-profile political leaders and major news organizations could play at the national level. On the local level, the equivalent might be attention from a mayor or city council, local journalists, or other trusted local information sources.

Conversely, lack of attention from key people or media may make it harder for an issue to gain public recognition. Dearing and Rogers, for example, argued that limited presidential attention to AIDS during part of the 1980s contributed to delays in its rise on the national media agenda.

So in your work to gain public support, pay special attention to the following:

• Community leaders and other influential individuals. Clergy, business leaders, people known for service to the community, local sports figures or media personalities, and community members with high levels of community credibility all fall into this category. Their involvement can help bring others into the effort.
• Media representatives. The media can help bring your issue to broader public attention. If you can build productive relationships with journalists or other media professionals, they may help the public better understand the issue.
• People most affected by the issue. Their support strengthens the credibility of your effort and, when they choose to share them, their firsthand experiences can help the public understand the issue more fully.
• Policymakers. Whether or not you're trying to influence legislation or regulations, it's useful to have those who make or influence policy understand your issue. They can help keep it in the public eye and may bring additional supporters into the conversation.
• Activists. Those who involve themselves in community issues often have established relationships and experience making their voices heard.
• Opinion leaders. In Diffusion of Innovations, Everett Rogers describes people whose views and behavior can influence whether others adopt new ideas or practices. Reaching respected opinion leaders can help build broader support.

When should you try to gain support?

Gaining public support for your issue is an ongoing process, but there are times and circumstances when a push to gain support can be particularly productive.

When there's a crisis involving the issue. A historic landmark is about to be torn down; the funding for a desperately-needed community health clinic has just been discontinued; logging has begun in a threatened old-growth forest. Situations like these may create opportunities for gathering public support.

When the issue has reached a point where it can't be ignored. When people experiencing homelessness are freezing to death because adequate shelter is unavailable, or when the number of HIV cases rises sharply, people may become more willing to support efforts to address the issues involved.

When the number of people affected by the issue becomes difficult for the community to overlook. When many people know, or know about, someone affected by an issue, they may be more ready to support efforts to address it.

When new information calls attention to the issue. A university study showing a local increase in a particular condition or disease, or the publication of an Environmental Protection Agency report uncovering the dumping of pollutants into local waterways, can strengthen support for action.

When a publication, or a media story not initiated by you, highlights the issue. A new book or an investigative report can raise public consciousness about your issue and bring additional attention to your work.

In 1962, The Other America: Poverty in the United States, by Michael Harrington, drew widespread attention to poverty in the United States and helped shape the political climate in which Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs were later developed. Harrington brought greater public attention to an issue that many people had ignored or been unaware of.

When a crucial event makes your issue more visible. An event that is not directly related to the issue may nonetheless provide an opportunity for building public support.

With the formation of the European Union came international workplace and product standards. Some American manufacturers realized that they might not be able to compete in the international marketplace unless they addressed the education and skill development needs of their workers. Adult literacy advocates seized the opportunity to gain backing for workplace education.

As a result, many manufacturers formed collaborations with adult literacy organizations or others to provide workplace classes in English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) and reading, writing, and math to workers. The classes benefited workers individually, but also benefited employers by helping workers understand and maintain safety and product standards and adapt to changing workplace demands.

When the political time is right. An approaching election, pressure on politicians or officials to address the issue, or a referendum all might make it a good time to build public support.

How do you gain public support for addressing community health and development issues?

If you've been following the suggestions in this chapter, you've been running a communication and public education campaign to ensure that the community is aware of and understands the issue. Maybe you've found a memorable slogan or an eye-catching logo that people identify with your effort. Perhaps you've also been discussing possible actions that could be taken to address the issue.

Now you're at the stage where it's important to encourage the public to see both personal and shared community roles in addressing the issue. That can support policy change, organizational action, and, where appropriate, changes in individual behavior.

Two types of change

Most changes in the community require a change in official or unofficial policy; others require individual change; and some require both.

Changes in policy are needed where voluntary action alone is not enough to protect public well-being or community resources. Some corporations, developers, and other organizations take environmental considerations seriously because they see environmental responsibility as part of their responsibility to the community. In other circumstances, laws or regulations may be necessary to establish consistent standards and safeguards.

Individual behavior change can contribute to community change when individuals have meaningful control over the behavior in question and have the information and resources needed to act. Quitting smoking, adopting preventive health practices, and choosing how and where to purchase food are examples of actions individuals can take that may contribute to larger changes in the community.

Usually, however, it takes both policy change and individual or organizational change to create change in the community. Recycling won't work unless individuals participate in whatever sorting or collection practices are required. But it also needs community policies and systems that make recycling possible and convenient. When a child is being harmed by a caregiver, the caregiver may need support and intervention to change harmful behavior, while legal and protective systems must also act to keep the child safe.

Frame the issue effectively.

Framing the issue means defining both the problem and the context in which it occurs. The way an issue is framed influences how people understand it, whether they see it as relevant to their lives, and whether they are willing to support action. Effective framing helps people connect with the issue and recognize why it matters.

• Frame the issue in ways that are understandable, relevant, and broadly relatable. Define it clearly and focus on shared values and concerns.

Political battles about issues are often also battles over how the issues are framed. Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 U.S. Presidential election in a campaign where his opponent successfully framed major issues around a contrast between "Liberal" and "Conservative" positions and attached particular meanings to those labels. A different framing might have led voters to understand the issues differently.

• Avoid unsupported claims or positions that may seem extreme or disconnected from people’s experiences. Ground messages in credible evidence, shared goals, and community perspectives. When strong evidence challenges common beliefs, address those misconceptions clearly. For example, research supports comprehensive sexuality education as a more effective approach than abstinence-only or “just say no” messaging for promoting safer sexual behaviors and reducing unintended pregnancies among adolescents.

When misconceptions are widespread, it may be necessary to present clear evidence, reliable data, and findings from trusted research to help people reconsider what they think they know. Effective framing does not ignore facts to avoid controversy; rather, it communicates evidence in ways that are understandable, credible, and meaningful to the intended audience.

• Where possible, emphasize common ground and universal or near-universal values. "We all want our children to be healthy." "Everyone needs safe drinking water."

Enlist respected community members as representatives and spokespersons. The list of potential spokespersons is long, and similar to that of those whose support you need, given earlier, with a few additions:

• Clergy and other faith community leaders
• Business leaders
• Activists
• Local entertainment and sports figures
• Respected community members. These can include people who have no official position, but who are known for their wisdom, dedication to community service, or other valued qualities.
• Elected or appointed officials who are widely trusted within the community.
• Opinion leaders
• Those affected by the issue, either directly (young people who have experienced violence) or indirectly (emergency room physicians who treat young people who have experienced violence).
• Recognized authorities on the issue – researchers, academics, professionals, etc.

Make common cause with other groups. Try to draw in other groups that share your concerns about the issue, or that may see a connection between your goals and theirs.

• Coalitions.
• Communities of faith and clergy associations.
• Neighborhood organizations and other grassroots groups.
• Agencies or initiatives with purposes or goals similar to yours. A campaign to prevent youth violence, for instance, might find common ground with Big Brother/Big Sister, the schools, youth leadership organizations, and other groups concerned with child welfare.
• Professional organizations concerned with the issue.

Become a trusted source of information. Always do your homework, and be prepared to respond thoughtfully to arguments against your effort. You should know as much as possible about your issue, and should be able to demonstrate why addressing it is necessary and why particular approaches may be appropriate.

If you can't respond to strong arguments against your position, then it may be time to rethink part of it. Is some of your thinking inaccurate or incomplete? It's better to revise your position when the evidence calls for it than to defend a claim simply to avoid admitting that you were wrong.

Take advantage of opportunities. When those events that we discussed above in "When should you try to gain support?" come up, use them. Point out how they demonstrate the need to address the issue. Use your knowledge to explain what could be done to improve the situation. Be alert for appropriate opportunities to build support.

Use the media. By establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with local newspapers, radio, and TV, as well as local digital media, you can get your message out to the public and build a base of public support.

Use the Internet. A community website, online discussion forum, social media account, text or messaging group, or e-mail list can all be effective tools for building community support and keeping people informed. They also provide fast ways to organize supporters for action.

Gain support one individual and organization at a time. Often, public support gets built through many personal contacts over time.

Once you have an individual on board, perhaps you can encourage them to host a small gathering of friends and acquaintances to discuss the issue, or to participate in a community presentation. Perhaps they'll simply discuss the issue with people they know, who may then discuss it with others. You can reach a lot of people that way.

People often place considerable trust in those they know personally. You can gain an enormous amount of support, especially in a close neighborhood or small town, through word of mouth. Don't overlook the opportunity.

Ask people to do something, rather than just telling them about the issue. People may be more likely to support an effort when they have meaningful ways to contribute. Giving them an opportunity to influence how the issue is addressed can help build ownership of the process. Some things the public might do:

• Write, call, or e-mail politicians to advocate.
• Report situations involving abuse, drug dealing, child malnutrition, or other concerns to the appropriate authorities or services.
• Join a neighborhood watch or other active group.
• Change their behavior, even in a small way: try going without smoking for a day, get their blood pressure checked, or have a respectful conversation with a person experiencing homelessness.
• Go to a meeting or rally.
• Volunteer, either with a direct service organization, or for an initiative or coalition.
• Hold a small home-based or neighborhood meeting to discuss the issue.

Create activities or events that highlight the issue, and also involve the public. Examples include organizing the clean-up of a vacant lot with volunteer labor, and a "Take Back the Night" evening rally against street violence. Each of these events can also lead to follow-up: the first could result in turning the cleaned-up lot into a neighborhood playground or other community space; the second could evolve into additional community safety efforts or a campaign to make nighttime public spaces safer and more welcoming.

As your support grows, demonstrate it at appropriate opportunities. Showing that people from many parts of the community support the effort can encourage others to learn more and participate.

Recognize and give awards to community members who do things to affect the issue and demonstrate their support for your work.

• Politicians who support your cause and work to change policy accordingly.
• Community volunteers who work on your issue.
• Organizations – or their directors or staff members – that do an outstanding job on your issue.

When you give an award or hold a recognition ceremony, consider inviting the media so the community can learn about the contributions being recognized.

Celebrate accomplishments publicly.

Share or transfer leadership of the effort to the community, if that's feasible. A community may be more willing to support something that is genuinely rooted in local leadership and participation. You and your organization can remain involved without necessarily controlling the effort. Whether community leadership makes sense depends on the situation and what needs to be done.

Follow up and maintain support. Once you've gained public support, you have to keep it. Don't take the support of any individual or group for granted, but continue to maintain contact and relationships. Continue also to expand your base of support, adding new people and groups where appropriate. You may never have unanimous support, but sustained outreach can help build a broad and durable community base that keeps attention on the issue.

In Summary

Real public support for addressing issues is more than simply public knowledge of those issues. Rather, it means that a broad part of the community sees them as deserving attention and action.

Public support is crucial because it lends credibility to your efforts, helps you gain further support, provides strength for action or political advocacy, and creates community ownership of measures to address the issue. In order to build that public support, it can help to first engage key individuals and groups in the community – trusted figures from various walks of life, people directly affected by the issue, and others with relevant knowledge and credibility.

Building public support is an ongoing process – indeed, it should never stop – but can be especially effective when the issue is highlighted by a crisis, or by particular events or situations. New information or publications that draw attention to the issue can also be used to advantage, as can political opportunity. Any time the issue is before the public may be a good time to try to enlist community support for addressing it.

Actually obtaining community support requires attention to several concerns:

• Define the issue. This includes framing it effectively, recruiting appropriate people as representatives and spokespersons, making common cause with other organizations, and becoming a trusted source of information on the subject.
• Communicate with community members. Use appropriate opportunities – both those that present themselves by circumstance and those that you create – and a variety of avenues, including the media, the Internet, and person-to-person communication, to build public support.
• Ask people to do something that gives them a meaningful role in addressing the issue and encourages shared ownership of developing and carrying out solutions.
• Make your support and accomplishments visible. Stage activities and events, give awards, celebrate successes, and share information about the extent of community participation. Let the community know that the effort has a broad foundation.
• Share or transfer leadership of the effort to the community, if that's appropriate, thereby strengthening local ownership.
• Follow up and maintain your support over time.

It's difficult to address community health and development issues effectively without broad-based community support. If you can use the strategies suggested here to build and maintain that support, you'll be in a stronger position to address the health and development needs of your community.

What do we mean by gaining public support for addressing community health and development issues?

___You know that community support for addressing an issue means that most people in the community see resolution of the issue as extremely important to the well-being of the community, and want to accomplish it as quickly and effectively as possible.

Why do you need public support for addressing community health and development issues?

___You seek public support for community credibility.

___You seek public support in order to gain more support.

___You seek public support in order to take action on the issue.

___You seek public support in order to accomplish political goals concerning the issue.

___You seek public support to foster public ownership of solutions and their implementation.

Whose support do you need?

___You seek the support of community leaders and other influential individuals.

___You seek the support of representatives of the media.

___You seek the support of those most affected by the issue.

___You seek the support of policy makers.

___You seek the support of community activists.

___You seek the support of opinion leaders.

When should you try to gain support?

___You seek support when there's a crisis involving the issue.

___You seek support when the issue has reached a point where it can no longer be ignored.

___You seek support when a critical number of people have been affected by the issue.

___You seek support when new information calls attention to the issue.

___You seek support when a publication or media story calls attention to the issue.

___You seek support when a crucial event bring s the issue to the fore.

___You seek support when the political time is right.

How do you gain public support for addressing community health and development issues?

___You frame the issue carefully.

___You enlist respected leaders and other members of the community as representatives and spokespersons.

___You make common cause with other groups.

___You establish yourself as the authority on the issue.

___You take advantage of opportunities.

___You use the media.

___You use the Internet.

___You gain support one individual and group at a time.

___You ask people to do something specific.

___You create activities and events to highlight the issue.

___You demonstrate your broad base of support as often as possible.

___You recognize and reward community members for their efforts.

___You publicly celebrate your successes.

___You cede control to the community if possible.

___You follow up and maintain support.

Example: The Kids Who Killed an Incinerator

Destiny Watford was a high school senior, she learned that the country’s largest trash incinerator was going to be built less than a mile from her school and the house where she lived with her family. The proposed facility would be built on a 90-acre tract in her Baltimore neighborhood, and had the eager support of state and local political leaders, who praised it as a job-creating, green-power initiative. Watford, an introverted and diligent student, hadn’t thought much about environmental issues. But a facility that would burn an immense amount of garbage near her community, even with the promised sophisticated air filters, didn’t seem celebration worthy. So she partnered with a handful of her fellow classmates from Benjamin Franklin High School to learn as much as possible about the proposed incinerator. Watford and her classmates caused community activists in Baltimore to target over twenty government agencies that had contracts with the incinerator, ultimately leading to the demise of the incinerator project.

Read more about The Kids Who Killed an Incinerator.

Contributed by Lia Thompson, University of Kansas, Community Tool Box Intern.

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

As members of coalitions or agencies involved in health promotion or community development activities, one of our goals is often to help shift people's thinking about health from one of treating existing problems to preventing those problems from happening at all. To do so effectively, however, we can't just tell people to avoid a behavior or outcome -- we can't just say, for example, "Don't have a heart attack." Instead, we need to help people understand the factors that may increase or reduce risk and the actions that can support prevention.

After a problem has occurred, we've all heard someone say, "If only we had acted sooner, we could have prevented that." To be able to do that effectively, it is important to understand when and where we could have acted. To orient people to these appropriate places, we talk about risk and protective factors.

What are risk and protective factors?

Risk and protective factors are aspects of a person's circumstances, environment, relationships, or individual characteristics that may make it more likely (risk factors) or less likely (protective factors) that they will experience a given problem. Some risk and protective factors may appear to be related. For example, a family history of alcohol use disorder may be considered a risk factor for developing alcohol-related problems, while supportive family relationships and healthy norms around substance use may be protective. You should talk about these risk and protective factors when you are communicating information about your project and the issue it focuses on to community members.

Most of us are aware of the risk factors for heart disease -- including lack of exercise, some dietary patterns, and smoking -- because of the large educational campaigns that have been conducted. We may or may not have actually changed what we eat and what we do because of that knowledge, but without it, we wouldn't know where to begin.

Many community issues have risk and protective factors that can help us understand where prevention efforts may be useful. Some of them are well known and have been well documented in existing literature. Others are more difficult to identify or continue to be studied.

Some of the risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use, for example, include those identified by researchers David Hawkins and Richard Catalano:

• Economic hardship
• Availability of substances
• Family history of substance use problems
• Academic difficulties
• Having friends who use substances

Some of the protective factors they have found for substance use include:

• Bonding -- that is, having close relationships with people who do not use substances
• Skills training -- children are given age-appropriate responsibilities at home, and are also given enough support and training to carry out those responsibilities
• Healthy beliefs and clear standards -- that is, being surrounded by people who communicate clear expectations about substance use.

For Hawkins and Catalano, risk and protective factors are not simply flip sides of the same coin; instead, they are various important influences, both positive and negative, in a young person's life.

Why should you talk to community members about risk and protective factors?

There are a lot of good reasons to talk to community members about the risk and protective factors for your particular community issue, including the opportunity to shift attention toward productive approaches like those that follow.

Focus on prevention. By focusing on risk and protective factors, you help shift people's focus from a reactive approach to one that is preventive in nature. In the past, much of public health and community development focused on responding after problems had already occurred. If someone had a heart attack -- and survived it -- then afterwards, they might be urged to stop smoking or change their diet. Many programs have been set up to help people with alcohol or other substance use disorders begin and maintain recovery. All of this is important, of course, but alone, it's not enough. Responding to existing problems is only part of the story; whenever possible, we also want to prevent problems before they occur.

Focus on costs. There are both financial and social costs that prevention may help reduce. Consider the following examples:

• Substance use problems can create emotional, psychological, social, and financial costs for individuals and families. Effective prevention may reduce some of those costs before serious problems develop.
• Supporting a young person in completing high school and pursuing further education, training, or employment opportunities may reduce later economic hardship and the need for additional services.
• Providing young people with accurate information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, can help prevent infections and reduce the human and financial costs associated with illness and treatment.

Focus on benefits.  By focusing on risk and protective factors, you ask the public to consider what they can do to reduce the likelihood of heart disease, substance use problems, and other preventable conditions. It's an approach with a lot of potential benefits. When young people have opportunities and support to stay healthy, they are better positioned to pursue their goals and support their families, friends, and neighbors. Prevention can reduce human suffering and improve quality of life. Treatment for serious illness can be demanding, so when a condition can be prevented, prevention can spare people from some of those burdens.

Focus on awareness. By talking about risk and protective factors, you can increase the public's knowledge of your program and the issue with which you are concerned. If handled effectively, this information can also help raise broader awareness of the issue. Talking about risk and protective factors helps people understand that there may be things they can do, that prevention is possible, and that they can be part of the solution. Clinical treatment may require trained professionals, but many prevention strategies also depend on community involvement. You don't need specialized credentials to volunteer with children at your neighborhood school or participate in a youth organization. Activities like these may help strengthen protective relationships and supports in young people's lives.

How do you talk to community members about risk and protective factors?

So, how do you go about informing the public of these risk and protective factors? This information can often be incorporated into your existing media and communications plan. You should:

Know the important risk and protective factors for your issue. Write a list of the factors and consider which are most important to your effort. This list might be only for internal use in your agency to clarify the issues involved for yourself or your fellow staff members. It might also be something you'll want to make public, as we'll see later in this section.

Document each risk or protective factor for your issue. You should be prepared to answer the question, "How do we know that it's really a risk or protective factor?" Through published research, such as the example on adolescent substance use given above, or appropriate studies of your own, you should be able to provide credible evidence for the factors you discuss.

Decide what, exactly, you want to achieve by talking about risk and protective factors.

Do you want to raise awareness of the issue or of your organization?

Then you will want to speak (or write) clearly and concisely about the factors you are discussing. Explain clearly:

• What these terms mean. For many people outside the fields of public health and community development, the terms risk factor and protective factor may sound like technical jargon. Use clear, everyday language to explain them. Alternatively, you might want to avoid the technical terms altogether. A skilled communicator might start by listening to a group's concerns and asking what may be contributing to the problem, rather than immediately talking about risk factors. Instead of protective factors, they might talk about the conditions, relationships, or actions that can help reduce the problem.
• What the risk and protective factors (or whatever you have chosen to call them) are for your problem. Here, you can use the list of factors you developed in step one above.
• What the significance of the problem is for your community. Going barefoot may be a risk factor for contracting certain types of intestinal worms in some tropical areas, but if those worms aren't present in your community, it won't be a local concern. Show people why the problem is important for them and for their neighbors.
• What your organization is, and what you are doing to address the problem. Explain why your organization exists, its history, and the activities you are engaged in to address the problem. This is a good chance to increase understanding of your program and build additional support. The interest you generate may also bring in new volunteers.

Do you want people to take action?

Then you will want to give clear, feasible suggestions about what may be done. Do this soon after stating each risk or protective factor to emphasize that people have options for responding and to make sure the factor is still at the front of their minds. For example, if your goal is to encourage healthier eating patterns in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of cardiovascular disease, you might use something like the following in an article on health tips in your community newsletter.

Choose your focus. Talk about those factors that you have determined are important in your community and that your effort intends to address. Spending a lot of time on a risk factor you don't intend or have the capacity to address may distract from your goals. Therefore, you may not want to speak about every risk and protective factor you have uncovered. If your plan is to reduce pregnancies among adolescents by implementing sexuality education in schools, for example, you'll probably want to spend more time discussing the factors that your program is actually designed to address. That doesn't mean minimizing other important factors or ignoring them altogether. It simply means focusing your communication on the areas where your effort plans to act.

There are two exceptions to this: when you are talking to a very specific audience, such as grantmakers who are looking for a broader view of your problem and program, or when you are simply intending to give a brief overview of risk and protective factors. At both of these times, it may be appropriate to discuss the full range of well-supported factors related to your issue.

Know your audience, and tailor your message to those with whom you are communicating. For example, a local businessperson may not be able to directly change the fact that some young people have friends who use substances, but they might be able to offer mentoring, internships, or possible job opportunities to young people who could benefit from additional support.

Think about what else you're saying. When discussing a sensitive topic, a poorly planned turn of phrase can do a great deal of harm. You might have the best intentions when you send home a list of risk and protective factors for substance use, pregnancies among adolescents, or violence with a class of fourth graders. The student or parent reading the list, however, might understand it differently. If a student recognizes several risk factors in their own life, they may feel labeled or believe that a negative outcome is inevitable; a parent may feel judged or blamed. Those reactions can undermine trust and make shared goals harder to achieve. Make clear that risk factors indicate increased likelihood, not certainty, and that people and communities also have strengths and protective factors they can build upon.

Decide which form of communication is most appropriate and most feasible for you to use when discussing risk and protective factors.

• One-on-one discussion. You can always talk casually about risk and protective factors when you are discussing your issue with someone. This could take the form of an informal conversation that occurs at the grocery store with a neighbor who is concerned about a recent escalation in youth violence. This doesn't need to be a lengthy explanation; it can be as simple as: "You're right, it really has gotten worse. It's a shame we don't have more after-school activities [meaning, this is a protective factor] to give young people more safe and positive options. You don't have any ideas about what activities we could do, do you?" This discussion could also take the form of a more formal talk with another coalition leader. The important thing to remember is that conversations about risk and protective factors can happen in many settings.
• Brochure/Flier/Fact sheet. All of these are good ways to get information to a broad audience. Specifically, these are useful when you want to give an overview of risk and protective factors or suggest practical ways people can reduce risks or strengthen protective factors. They are less helpful when you want detailed feedback or are trying to mobilize people to take part directly in your coalition.
• Editorials or articles in the local paper or your newsletter. These have many of the same advantages and disadvantages as brochures, fliers, and fact sheets. Publishing through local newspapers, newsletters, websites, or other community media can help you reach a broad audience, but sensitive topics should be presented carefully and respectfully. Be sure to provide a way for people to contact you for feedback or more information.
• Presentations. A final way to communicate information about risk and protective factors is by giving presentations on them as they relate to the issue with which you are working. In addition to providing information, this gives you the added advantage of being able to answer questions people might have. Further, a good presentation can motivate people to act. You can provide a sign-up sheet, QR code, or another simple way for interested people to get involved before they leave. A possible disadvantage is that you may reach a smaller audience than you would through some written or digital communications.

Evaluate what you have done. Consider how you will determine if your communication has been a success. Does your audience have a clear understanding of risk and protective factors? Did you motivate them to act? Did your message avoid stigmatizing or blaming people affected by the issue? How will you assess these things and use what you learn to improve future communication?

In Summary

Talking about risk and protective factors, in short, is an excellent way to help people begin to think about prevention. Instead of focusing only on treatment and response after problems occur, more of our efforts can be directed toward preventing problems and strengthening the conditions that protect people and communities. Allow yourself to imagine, just for a second, the possibility of a world with far less of the problem you have been struggling to overcome. Maybe it's a world without child abuse; a world where alcohol use disorder no longer causes so much harm; or a world where people can safely walk through their communities at any hour of the day or night. This world -- where you've worked yourself out of a job! -- is one that's worth all of us giving our best efforts to achieve. To reach it, we need to focus our efforts at the places where they will do the most good.

___You understand that risk and protective factors are aspects of a person's environment that make it more likely (risk factors) or less likely (protective factors) that she will experience a given problem.

You understand that risk factors for adolescent substance use include:

___Economic deprivation

___Availability of substances

___Family history of drug abuse

___Academic failure

___Having friends who use drugs

You understand that protective factors for substance use include:

___Bonding with non-users

___Skills training

___Healthy beliefs and clear standards

You understand that you should talk about risk and protective factors with community members for the following reasons:

___To focus on prevention

___To focus on costs

___To focus on benefits

___To focus on awareness

You understand how to talk about risk and protective factors:

___You know the important risk and protective factors for your issue.

___You have documented each risk or protective factor.

___You have decided exactly what you want to achieve by talking about risk and protective factors (enhance knowledge or convince people to take action).

___You have chosen your battle.

___You know your audience, and have tailored your message to those with whom you are communicating.

___You have thought about what else you are saying.

___You have decided what form of communication is most appropriate and feasible.

___You have evaluated what you have done.

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.

What is a community presentation?

One very effective way to educate and involve people in your community is to make a presentation. A "community presentation" is a live presentation of your viewpoint to a local group. Community presentations can be done in many formats -- through public speeches, informal talks, town meetings, debates, workshops, seminars, or online presentations. This is just a partial list.

But all these presentation formats have qualities in common. First, their purpose is to discuss problems, issues, action plans, or goals for the community. And second, their success (and yours) will depend upon use of some basic principles of communication, which we plan to describe in this Tool Box section.

Have you ever fantasized about giving a presentation and receiving loud cheers and a standing ovation? In real life, you may not always be able to move people to their feet; but with preparation and practice, you can certainly become more skilled at moving their hearts and minds closer to your point of view.

Why should you make community presentations?

• To increase community awareness and understanding of your issues
• To increase community awareness and understanding of you and your group
• To increase community support for you and your group
• To encourage community involvement and action regarding your cause

When should you make community presentations?

So when should you make these presentations? Some situations will certainly be better than others. And among the best situations are when:

• Community awareness or knowledge about the issue is low
• You have new or important information about the issue to present
• The community is receptive to such information and open to considering different perspectives
• Action needs to be taken quickly

How do you make community presentations?

Think back, and you probably have some presentation experience, of one kind or another. You may have made presentations at work, for school, or for a community organization you have belonged to. So chances are you already know a few of the basics. But can you increase your current presentation ability, and move up to the next level of skill? We think so.

A successful community presentation has three key elements, or stages: the right background conditions, the right preparation, and the right delivery. Each of these stages has several steps within it. The stages, and the steps, are described below, in order:

Decide on the best communication format

Many different formats for getting your message across are available to you. Certainly, using advertising, local radio or television announcements, mailings, e-mail, social media, telephone calls, and personal invitations can all be important parts of your communication strategy. You may also want to consider holding town meetings, public forums, listening sessions, seminars, or workshops to discuss issues, goals, and action plans.

Check on who the audience will be

Ask yourself: "Who is likely to attend this presentation?" This is important, because you will want to address their particular needs and concerns. If you expect neighborhood activists, that's one type of audience. If you expect local businesspeople, that may be another situation entirely. What you say, and how you say it, may need to vary accordingly, sometimes by quite a bit.

If you were invited to speak by a particular group (the League of Women Voters, the interfaith association, the local hospital) that invitation will certainly give you a clue. If there's no specific sponsor, you can still make a best guess of your audience, based on your knowledge of the community and on attendance at past presentations. You can also ask other well-placed community members for their insights.

Here are some more specific questions you should ask yourself (and possibly others) about your prospective audience:

• What will be the audience's likely age range? Education level? Values? Cultural or ethnic background?
• How have you been described to them?
• How interested are they in your topic?
• What (and how much) do they already know about it?
• What does the audience expect of you?
• What do they expect from your presentation?

Recruit the audience members you want

Now, ask yourself: "Who do I want to be there?" over and above those who are likely to come. This is especially important, because you can try to recruit those people. You can do this indirectly, by publicizing your presentation to your desired priority groups. Or you (or your supporters) can do it directly by letter, e-mail, phone, or in person.

Are you talking about street safety?   Recruit neighborhood safety or watch leaders.

...about childhood diseases? Recruit school health nurses.

...about youth sports? Recruit youth leaders and coaches.

Know the presentation setting

In addition to information about your audience, you should also learn about the location and setting of your presentation. For example, how big is the room? How will the room be set up? What audio-visual equipment is available?

The right physical arrangements can go a long way toward helping your presentation succeed. Here is some specific advice:

• Visit the room well ahead of time. Check the seating arrangements, your own speaker's position, and anything else in the environment that will make a difference to you (such as electrical outlets, lighting controls, and ventilation). If you have recommendations for changes, don't be shy; make them; then do your best to see they get attended to.
• Make sure you have the audio-visual equipment you need. Learn how it works; make sure it is working. Try it out before your presentation and again shortly before the presentation itself to reduce the chance of equipment problems. If possible, have a backup plan in case the technology doesn't work.
• Find out who can help you with last-minute room arrangements or equipment adjustments. Try to make sure that person will be there before the presentation starts. More than one presentation has suffered because someone forgot the key to the room; don't let this happen to you!

The right preparation:

Now you are ready to plan the presentation.

Clarify your objectives

Before you present to the community, you need to be clear on exactly what you want to get across. What is the basic objective you want to achieve?

For example, you may be trying to gather support for a program to inspect older houses for lead paint. Your specific objective might be to convince the town to fund this program and begin it within six months. (Tip: It helps to write your objectives down.)

How can your presentation help reach this objective? You might decide to speak on lead poisoning of young children in your community. A well-done presentation here could convince others about inspections. In that case, you'll need to decide on the key points you want to make about lead poisoning. These should be directly related to the inspection program you are advocating.

Write down these points. This will help you focus your presentation outline, which is the next step coming up.

Develop an outline

Just as in other presentations you may have done, you will want to develop an outline covering your main points or issues. Your outline is the overall plan that will guide you through your presentation.

Presentation outlines often have a similar sequence, which commonly includes:

• A general overview
• A history or background of the issue
• A description of the current situation or problem
• Your proposed solutions -- often together with requests for action
• A summary

Will this sequence work for you? Very likely so. But if you think a different sequence would be better, then by all means try it out.

The content of your outline should be based on your objectives above, and include the main points you want to get across. For more, see Heading #10, "Bring them to their feet," below.

Select your materials

Now that you have an outline, you need to find and develop materials to include in the content of your presentation. You may want to collect things such as news articles, quotes, reports, data, stories, and anecdotes to support your key points. Even for a 10- or 15-minute presentation, having this material available will help you prepare and will serve as reference backing if audience members have questions for you.

Next, sort through this material and pick out the best items to use. What is most relevant here? What will best support and enhance your presentation?

Creating Visual Aids: Types and Tips

Visual aids can help hold your audience's attention and make important information easier to understand and remember. Good visual aids will be simple, clean, eye-appealing, and easy to see or read. Some types of visual aids you might use are:

• Chalkboards or whiteboards. These are especially useful in small groups and can help with participation and audience interaction.
• Flipcharts. You can prepare these in advance and use them as audience participation tools.
• Projected slides or digital presentations. These can display text, photographs, charts, and other graphics on a screen for audiences of many sizes.
• Photographs, graphics, or short video clips. These can help illustrate information that may be difficult to communicate through words alone. Make sure they directly support the point you are making.
• Handouts. Handouts should be short summaries of the key points and information in your presentation, together with contact information. You can distribute them either before your presentation, so people can look them over and follow technical information, or after your presentation is finished. Avoid handing them out at a point when they will distract people from what you are saying.
• Live demonstrations. These can be compelling if they are well-rehearsed and visible to the entire audience.

Whatever visual aids you decide upon, here are some basic rules and tips you can use to design them:

• Limit each slide, graphic, or poster to one main idea.
• Keep the amount of text on each visual limited.
• Use key phrases rather than long sentences. Use plain language. Avoid jargon.
• Use bulleted lists for key points.
• Leave enough space between lines and other elements so the visual does not look crowded.
• Use large, clear, easy-to-read fonts.
• Make sure the audience can read the text. (To check on this, look at the graphic from the back of the room.)
• As you present a graphic, explain and clarify it to your audience rather than assuming the visual speaks for itself.
• Only show information you plan to discuss.

• In designing graphics:

  * A horizontal bar chart helps compare categories.

  * A vertical bar chart can help show comparisons or changes over time.

  * A line graph can be used to show data across several time periods or trends.

  * A pie chart can show how parts make up a whole.

• Blank or pause the projector or display when you are not using a visual.
• Keep any visual aid before the audience only as long as it supports your oral presentation. And don't distract the audience with the next slide or visual aid before you are ready to talk about the material on it.

Practice!

The content of your presentation is very important, and well worth spending extra time on. But equally important is the upcoming delivery of the presentation itself. The key to this is simple: practice. The more you practice, the more comfortable you are likely to become with the material and with presenting it.

Tips to help you practice effectively

• Practice in front of a mirror -- you can see your facial expressions, gestures, and stance.
• Practice in front of others -- family, friends, colleagues, and anyone else who will listen. A live rehearsal is one of the best forms of practice. Ask your practice audience for constructive feedback you can use to improve your presentation.
• Practice using a phone, camera, or audio recorder -- you will be able to see and hear what you are doing well and what could be improved.
• Practice reading aloud -- and when you do, practice sounding relaxed and natural, not like you're reading from a script.
• Practice breathing and relaxing -- as simple as it may sound, nervousness can make your breathing shallow and make it harder to speak comfortably and think clearly.
• Practice with a clock -- do a practice run-through of your presentation for time, and see how close you are to the time available to you. You don't want your presentation to be either too long or too short.
• Practice maintaining eye contact with the audience. Don't keep your eyes locked on your notes or one side of the room. Look around the room regularly.
• Practice paying attention to how your words are delivered. Are you speaking clearly? Are you speaking too rapidly or too slowly? Are you speaking expressively, rather than in a monotone? Once again, feedback from live listeners or from a recording can help you here.

Another practice technique is visualization. Visualize yourself giving the actual presentation, with the real audience there. Visualize how you will bring home your ideas, both in your words and in your manner. Play that mental movie more than once. For some people, mentally rehearsing the presentation can help them feel more prepared for the real event.

Use your notes

Now comes the time to deliver your presentation. Your message is important, and you're comfortable with the facts. But you will need more than the facts; you will need to connect with and involve your audience as well. How can you educate, convince, and inspire them around your issues?

If you are an experienced public speaker, or have presented on the same issue many times over, it may be that all you need for your presentation is your basic outline, or even less.

But if you're like most of us, you will have a longer set of notes, or the written-out talk itself. Keep your notes organized and well-ordered, with each main topic clearly marked, with clear headings, large letters, and other visual cues to accentuate key points.

Your notes are the basic foundation of your presentation. They can help you stay focused and communicate your message clearly. Once you are under way, you can stray from your notes to a degree; but it's always good to have them there to return to!

"Bring them to their feet" (Convince your audience)

Speech-making is thousands of years old. There are a lot of tricks of the trade. Let's put them into a nutshell:

• Your opening sentences are key to grabbing your audience's attention. First impressions count! Your introduction should be memorable, brief, and to the point. Stories, quotes, and sometimes humor are all ways of getting people's attention and keeping it.
• Once you've gotten attention, let your audience know what to expect. State your purpose, and preview the rest of your talk.
• Make eye contact with your audience. Connect with them. Their expressions and posture may give you clues about how well you are reaching them. Be guided by that feedback and make adjustments if needed.
• In the middle of your presentation, present your key facts and ideas. Again, stories, examples, and evidence will help get your message across. But don't waste words, especially if time is short. Make every word count.
• Evidence is important. Cite facts and figures. Comparisons with other communities are often effective. But don't overwhelm your audience with too much information, because people may lose track of your main point. Keep it simple, relevant, and understandable. Printed or digital materials can provide additional details.
• Make sure to highlight your main points. Emphasize them verbally or through your visual aids. Repeating your main ideas in different phrasing can also reinforce them, up to a point.
• Speak with personal conviction about your topic. You have it; so show it. And you may have emotions as well as convictions. Use them, too -- which doesn't mean you should let every single feeling show. Generally speaking, draw upon your emotions while keeping them in the service of your presentation.
• Your goal may include action; so as you begin to close, show what action is necessary, and why. The desired actions should flow naturally from the evidence you have presented. Make any desired action steps very specific; and show very clearly how audience members might take them.
• Your closing is at least as important as your opening. Sum up your main points; repeat the need for action; show how your proposed actions are immediate and doable; appeal to the values and concerns you share; and do it with feeling. Aim for a lasting impression here, and end on a strong note.

Explain
The importance of the issue

Present
Facts

Sum up with
Conclusions

Show
Possible actions

Personalize the
Actions we can take

Questions and Answers

Your presentation has ended, and your audience has applauded. Congratulations on a job well done! But the event is not quite over. In many presentations, the audience will have questions. Your responses can clarify your message, address concerns, and help people better understand your point of view.

The best way to deal with questions? Prepare for them in advance. It's usually not hard to anticipate the questions you're most likely to receive. And if you can do that, you can also prepare general answers to them (once again, notes help), and be ready with them if the question arises. The greater your preparation, the more effective your answer is likely to be.

Some general tips:

• Listen carefully to each question.
• Paraphrase the question, to make sure you've heard it right, and for the benefit of those who might not have heard it. Then, respond to the question as asked.
• Show respect and appreciation for each questioner, even if you think the question is off the mark.
• Keep your answer relatively short and to the point. Sometimes a question will give you the chance to make an important point you omitted in your original presentation. In that case, make it briefly. But don't go on too long; other questioners are waiting.

And some specific situations that may arise:

• A questioner disagrees with you. This will happen. You can emphasize the areas you do agree upon, while acknowledging that on this particular point you may disagree. Restate the reasons for your position, show understanding of the other's viewpoint, and move on.
• The questioner becomes angry or hostile. The same principles apply. Stay calm, respond respectfully, and keep the discussion focused on the issue.
• You don't know the answer. Then say so. You can say that you will need to verify the information rather than guessing. If you have reliable factual materials with you, you may be able to check the answer on the spot.
• A questioner goes off on a tangent. Listen, show understanding of what is being said, and steer the discussion back to your main points. If the questioner persists, repeat the above, thank the questioner, and move on to the next question. Or look to the moderator or host of the event, if there is one, to get the questions back on course.

Follow up

When the question period is over, and especially if things have gone well, you have the chance to follow up. You may now have new supporters in the room, as well as people whose interest has grown during the presentation. Take advantage of this opportunity and build on the momentum you have generated.

How can you do this? You might have:

• A literature or information table in the back of the room
• A sign-up list, QR code, or other way for people to receive further information or join a mailing list
• An announcement of your next meeting
• A reminder to take local action (e.g., phone calling, voting, talking to friends)

And you can stay after the presentation to speak directly with others who would like to learn more or act.

The key point is to look for ways to harness the energy that's there. Do it while people are interested and engaged. Interest can fade quickly, so make it easy for people who want to stay involved to know what their next step can be.

___You understand that a community presentation is a live, face-to-face description of your viewpoint to a local group.

___You understand that a community presentation can be done in many formats, such as public speeches, informal talks, town meetings, debates, workshops, or seminars.

You understand the reasons to make community presentations:

___To increase community awareness and understanding

___To increase support

___To encourage community involvement and action

You understand when you should make presentations:

___When community awareness or understanding is low

___When you have new or important information about the issue

___When the community is receptive to such information

___When action needs to be taken quickly

You know how to make community presentations:

___You have decided on the best communication format.

___You know who your audience will be.

___You have recruited the audience members you want.

___You know the presentation setting.

___You have clarified your objectives.

___You have developed an outline.

___You have selected your materials.

___You have practiced.

___You have used your notes.

___You "brought them to their feet!"

___You are prepared for questions.

___You have followed up on your talk.

Example #1: Two success stories

• A citizen spoke to a public meeting about zoning. She was concerned that if a certain zoning change went through, the land across from her house and her neighbors' houses would become a parking lot. She was definitely not a professional speaker. She said she was simply a working mother, who had grown up in the town, who was trying to raise her kids, and who had had some hard times of her own.

But she spoke in everyday, colorful language, with some self-deprecating humor. And she got across the point that she and her neighbors were just ordinary people trying to make ends meet. More than that, she proposed some alternative solutions, and was willing to compromise. What happened was that she charmed the entire audience. The zoning change did not go through, and the parking lot never got built.

• At a neighborhood meeting, a town representative spoke about the costs of renovating the middle school. The renovations so far had gone over budget; the voters would have to approve more funds for work to continue. Nobody was happy about the situation. But the town representative spoke directly about the reasons why costs had risen. Soil conditions were different from those anticipated. One construction firm had simply quit.

The town rep laid out the facts. He didn't pull any punches. He said mistakes had been made, which would not be repeated. He took part of the blame. He seemed to answer questions honestly. But he also said the project had to go forward, and that the costs of stopping would be even greater. The voters listening believed him. Town-wide support was given for the renovations to continue.

A PowerPoint presentation summarizing the major points in the section.