Goal 1 : Increase public awareness about the importance of prenatal care and early childhood development
Anticipated Impact
Increased awareness of the importance of gestation through age 2 ( First 1,000 Days ) to a wide audience of parents , caregivers , healthcare providers , early care and education providers , and community partners . The significant impact created by increased awareness is the recognition that supports and services are both available and needed to support healthy pregnancies and care giving of infants , babies and young children . This can lead to the ultimate goal of reducing prematurity and toxic stress .
Strategy 1.1
Create universal awareness through public engagement and a shared messaging campaign .
Tactic : Message Development
Unlike other public health campaigns that aim to change one specific behavior , such as smoking or shaking a baby , this campaign is intended to broadly enhance and support parenting and caregiving skills and to reduce childhood exposure to adverse experiences . Children ’ s Colorado will therefore need to invest significant time and resources in creating a compelling message . Additionally Children ’ s Colorado should collaborate with other groups interested in pooling resources , increasing overall exposure and aligning messages for maximum impact and exposure . Ideally , the messages would include research-based frames developed by those with experience in early childhood development .
Tactic : Media Campaign
Paid Media - While paid media is an expensive medium for distributing public awareness messages , it can also be very effective . Ideally , a paid media campaign will include a mix of TV , radio and targeted social media buys to reach a broad audience .
Earned Media - Children ’ s Colorado should find ample opportunity to work with both traditional media outlets and online media to tell the story of the importance of gestation through age 2 . Key steps include identifying key influencers , developing press materials and pitching stories , and monitoring responses .
Owned Media – The second highest-rated tactic identified in the First 1,000 Days strategic planning process was to create a content-rich area of the Children ’ s Colorado website with information about pregnancy , prematurity , early childhood development , toxic stress and positive parenting . Children ’ s Colorado should utilize existing owned media to promote key messages identified in the message development process . This should extent to text-based ‘ push ’ messaging to capture audiences that use digital sources of information for guidance and support , as well as develop a comprehensive social media strategy .
Community Health Action Plan 39