Conducting Focus Groups
The Community Toolbox, developed by the Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS, provides comprehensive tools that include step-by-step processes, sample questions, and additional resources.
Serving Individuals With Limited English
Supporting Limited English Communities, a guide from CCDO, includes descriptions of innovative practices used in Weed and Seed communities, questions to consider, and tips for identifying existing resources that can help you to better communicate and provide services to persons of LEP.
Locating Professional Services
To locate professional translators to help with your bilingual campaign, contact the American Translators Association, Translatorsbase.com, and Translation Services USA.
To locate professionals who can help with your communications campaign, contact your local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators.
Working With Faith-Based Organizations
Working with Religious Congregations: A Guide for Health Professionals provides tips for contacting and recruiting congregation members, training volunteer teams within congregations, implementing effective prevention programs, sustaining momentum for continued activity, and monitoring and evaluating congregation-based programs.
Obtaining Earned Media
The Practical Guide to Media Outreach for Project Safe Neighborhoods, from the Academy for Educational Development, concentrates primarily on ways to obtain free media coverage. It offers a variety of tools, proven resources, models, and templates to help enhance your current activities and maximize local impact.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2001). Working with Creative Teams Web-based Training.
Friedland, L. and Morimoto, S. (2005). "The Changing Lifeworld of Young People: Risk, Resume-Padding, and Civic Engagement." CIRCLE Working Paper 40. College Park, MD: Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).
National Cancer Institute. (2001). Making Health Communication Programs Work.
Roman, K. and Maas, J. (2005). How to Advertise. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.
Tuggle, M. (2000). It Is Well With My Soul: Churches and Institutions Collaborating for Public Health. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. (2000). Media Toolkit for Anti-Drug Action. Washington, DC: Office of National Drug Control Policy.
BEHAVE framework – A worksheet developed by the Academy for Educational Development that will help guide you through essential questions to help define your audience, what influences their behavior, and how to affect change with your marketing strategy.
Communications asset – An available resource to convey knowledge or information.
Communications channel – A path along which information passes.
Communications vehicles – Print, broadcast, and electronic media that are used to carry your message to its intended audience.
Community channels – Information transfer between individuals with common interests living in a particular area.
Cultural nuance or code – A systematic statement of a set of shared values, attitudes, goals, and practices.
Earned media – Media coverage or exposure provided at no cost.
Focus group – A random group of individuals gathered for the purpose of testing, reviewing, and evaluating a product and providing feedback.
Interpersonal communication – Direct, face-to-face communication between two individuals or in small groups.
Limited English proficiency (LEP) – Persons of LEP are those who do not speak English as their primary language and/or who have a limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English.
Literature review – A look at all the previous research about a given subject.
Qualitative research – Research gathered with less structure than quantitative research (see definition below) that allows you to determine audience behavior, attitudes, and motivation. The most common techniques include focus groups, pilot studies, and indepth interviews. Qualitative work helps you explore ideas, try out vocabulary or messages, and listen to members of your target audience in their own words. Results are based on smaller sample sizes and are often not representative of the population. Analysis of qualitative research is subjective.
Quantitative research – Research gathered in a structured, analytical approach using proven research instruments such as surveys, observation, and experimentation, which are best constructed after some qualitative research (see definition above) has been done. Results are based on larger sample sizes that are representative of the population. Analysis of quantitative research is objective.
Segmentation – Breaking an audience down into groups comprising people with common characteristics.
Social marketing – The utilization of marketing theories and techniques to influence behavior for a social end.
Source research – Information gathered from previous studies used to begin your research process.