Youth Violence Prevention Social Marketing Campaign

Raise Your Standards, Not Your Fists

Elihu Brayboy

Wendy Loomas

Pinellas County Health Department

Violence Prevention Office

Wendy_Loomas@doh.state.fl.us - 727.824.6979

Elihu_Brayboy@doh.state.fl.us - 727.824.6962

Pinellas County Demographics

Pinellas County is the most densely populated county in Florida

The county is completely urban Population is just under 1 million Racial make-up is approximately 88% white, 10%

Black (African-American primarily), 2% Asian About 3.5% Hispanic Includes 18 municipalities; largest cities are St.

Petersburg, Clearwater, Pinellas Park, and Largo School district is 7th largest in Florida serving 113,000

students in 144 schools

Pinellas County Health Department

Five major clinic sites with ~600 employees Just under 200 staff in home visiting programs Healthy Start and

Healthy Families Clinic sites primarily provide women’s health services, STD and

HIV testing and services, children’s and adult immunizations, and WIC; recent new division formed around wellness grant

Pinellas CHD has a strong reputation for partnering (e.g. ~80 home visiting staff are contracted through other agencies)

Pinellas CHD administration is committed to a grant philosophy that is non-competitive in nature – basically, we will be the lead if asked and no other local agency can or wishes to

History of Violence Prevention Office within Pinellas CHD

1997 NACCHO Conference June, 1998, Board of County Commissioners

proposed a $200,000 annual increase for CHD The Violence Prevention and Car Seat Safety

programs were created with 1 coordinator and 1 clerical staff each, October 1, 1998

The initial 2 projects for the VPO were to improve the Health Department’s response to domestic violence and to be involved with the Partnerships for Preventing Violence

VPO Projects – 1998-2003

Seeded a community mediation program following civil unrest in south St Petersburg

Created model form and policy for routine screening for domestic violence in CHD; statewide implementation occurred Spring, 2003

Partnered with 4 local agencies to implement Safe Start Partnership which improves the system response to young children who witness violence

Initiated workplace violence prevention policy and staff training throughout CHD

Partnered with school district to receive and implement 3-year Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant

Safe Schools/Healthy Students

Pinellas was in the first group of 54 school districts to receive this award

Pinellas was the only site that included a social marketing component in its application

Subcontract for CHD began in Dec, 1999 (~$100,000/year for 3 years)

CHD/VPO hired FT coordinator with private sector marketing experience

Coordinator subcontracted with local university for market research, and with local youth group to lead design of campaign

Social Marketing Model

Initial research indicated middle school was best focus audience

Subsequent research focused on how 11-14 year olds are most influenced

Meanwhile, high school-aged youth were trained in basic social marketing principles and worked with ad agency and university researcher to create and test market brand (slogan, logo/graphic, and tagline)

Youth also developed 6-session curriculum for 3 middle schools, designed for a team of high school youth to lead each middle school (ignoring the results of our own research!)

Product Roll Out

June, 2001, the Raise Your Standards, Not Your Fists graphic was unveiled at a press conference, followed by 50 billboards countywide for one year

October, 2001, skill-building workshops began in 3 middle schools; participants received campaign t-shirts, lanyards, stress balls, posters, pens; schools received mouse pads for all computer labs, more posters for hallways, and coffee mugs for staff

May, 2002 (end of school), 2 of the middle schools held peace rallies for all 6th graders

You’ve Got the Power to Stop the Violence

www.youvegotthepower.net

Campaign Message

Early Challenges

School system is not used to partnering, and did not assist in gaining entrée into schools

Initial grant recipients did not understand social marketing and expected us to create the brochures and advertising for their existing programs

Evaluator did not see the need to evaluate this component, so evaluation data is primarily narrative and anecdotal

Youth-led workshops did not work well, primarily because the youth had little experience/knowledge of the subject matter (nonviolence) and they were not an age group influential with 6th graders

3 years of funding, even with one year extension, was not sufficient to create both brand recognition among the focus audience and see meaningful results of skill-building workshops

Early Successes

About half way through, we discovered we were unknowingly following a Best Practice from the Surgeon General’s report on Youth Violence, and have continued to do so

A principal from one of the first middle schools to be part of the campaign named it in the newspaper as one of the key reasons his school received an “A” grade from the Governor

Middle school students throughout the county recognize the slogan, and most middle schools have at least posters

Due to staff turnover and vacancies, there were enough funds to continue an extra year

The Current Campaign

To improve effectiveness of workshops, we partnered with Alternatives to Violence Project to implement HIPP (Help Increase the Peace Program) using CHD and AVP staff as co-facilitators

Since Jan, 2002, conducted HIPP workshops in 3 middle schools and expanded to 5 alternative and drop out prevention sites (primarily girls-only)

Billboards are continuing and promotional items are constantly changing to respond to youth interests (e.g. black t-shirts, gel pens, sweatbands)

Just started in 4 elementary schools, Oct, 2003

Supplemental Activities

Sports-related youth summit African-American youth summit in

neighborhood center Work with staff and youth following homicide

on-site during event WIC staff retreat Urban League parent presentation

Funding Issues

Safe Schools funding ended Sept 30, 2003 VPO clerical staff changed positions, leaving salary dollars

behind, so we can temporarily fund the youth position CHD provided one-time funds for AVP co-facilitator, new t-

shirts, and billboards for this semester, ending Dec, 2003 Local domestic violence task force just received a CDC grant for

primary prevention, and they are considering funding the coordinator position through the CHD, and focusing the campaign on young boys and men; this may mean some campaign materials can be used in this campaign as well

The position recently became a permanent one, showing a commitment on the part of the CHD to continue this program

Benefits for CHD/Community

CHD staff has benefited by having on-site resources in domestic violence, child abuse, workplace violence, and youth violence

CHD clients have benefited by coming in contact with a more informed staff, and by having access to brochures, posters, etc on related topics

CHD has a strong presence, thanks to VPO staff, on committees and projects that were never before seen as public health issues

Statewide Injury and Violence Prevention efforts have increased, and Pinellas CHD is a key player in planning

Violence Prevention efforts in the county can now access public health resources in data collection and analysis through VPO staff