Strategic communication to create environments that support health
BMSG worked for two years with the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, which seeks to improve environments in and around Cleveland so that they better support healthy eating and physical activity. With funding from a REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) grant, coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cuyahoga team is working to communicate clearly with the public so that residents understand the relationship between the environment and health, the root causes of racial and ethnic health inequities, and why policy change is needed.
To that end, BMSG assisted the Cuyahoga REACH team in developing a strategic communication plan, which outlines key messages and activities the group can use to garner support for policies that will increase access to healthy food and physical activity.
BMSG further supported Cuyahoga County by working closely with its Health Impact Partnership-Cuyahoga (HIP-C) team, helping the group to develop a policy agenda as well as assist with the development of strategic talking points that support the group’s main focus areas: chronic disease management, healthy eating and active living, building stronger relationships between public health and clinical care systems, and eliminating health inequities locally.