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Healthy Steps for Young Children
Since 1994 ICF International has supported a consortium
of 100 national and community foundations and
health care providers, including the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation and The Commonwealth Fund,
to develop, launch, and sustain the Healthy Steps
for Young Children Program, a national initiative
to redesign primary health care for young children
by providing a patient-responsive, developmentally-oriented
approach to pediatric primary care. ICF International
serves as the National Program Office for the
$35 million program. ICF International is responsible
for overall project management, including budget
management; liaison and organization of symposium
with distinguished national Advisory Committee;
design and implementation of data collection
and analytic studies; site selection, monitoring,
and technical assistance activities; and development,
maintenance, and updating of a Web site—http://www.healthysteps.org—that
(a) provides program information to all interested
parties and, during the evaluation phase of the
initiative, (b) contained a private section for
operating sites to communicate with each other
and program offices.
The project also provides strategic outreach
and program support activities to promote sustainability
and diffusion of Healthy Steps. For example,
ICF International developed a communications plan
to outline strategies for raising awareness with
key target audiences, including health care providers,
foundations, insurers, and parents. ICF International
also has developed fact sheets, a video, and
an on-line newsletter. We have written numerous
articles for placement in industry publications
including the Grantmakers in Health newsletter
and Behavioral Development. ICF International
also oversaw a major national evaluation of 15
site to identify the impacts of Healthy Steps
on outcomes for children, parents, and practices,
as well as to determine the costs of the program
and relate those costs to outcomes. ICF International
developed a method to measure overall site quality.
The paper describing the method was published
in The American Journal of Evaluation,
Spring 2004. We developed a media toolkit for
use by local Healthy Steps sites to announce
the recent evaluation results
Safe Handling and Exposure
Reduction Communications
ICF International helps EPA's Significant New Alternatives
Policy (SNAP) Program communicate health risk
factors and safe handling and exposure reduction
tactics to users of N-Propyl Bromide, a chemical
used in solvents and adhesives. We are developing
materials for the Agency's rulemaking process
that includes details about its proposed regulation
and instructions for providing comments, as well
as preparing brochures about the health risks,
recommended exposure levels, safe handling, and
exposure reduction tips.
U.S. Office of Children's
Health Protection (OCHP) Communications Support
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
established OCHP to support and facilitate agency
efforts to protect children and older adults
from environmental risks. Since January 2002,
ICF International has provided communications
support to OCHP to both raise awareness of
the link between children's health and the environment
and to encourage positive actions that improve
children's environmental health. Target audiences
of these efforts include the general public,
communities, organizations, corporations, and
the government. ICF International developed a general
brochure, international brochure, and Tips and
Growth Chart giveaway, and created a variety
of materials for distribution during Children's
Health Month.
EPA and twelve partnering federal agencies planned
activities to promote efforts underway at each
agency. ICF International helped this group convey
the unifying theme of its efforts—to protect
children—by developing a Web site, print
collateral, and a giveaway. The materials were
used to inform parents and caregivers, teachers,
government agencies, organizations, the media,
and others of activities underway within the
participating agencies, and steps parents and
caregivers can take to protect children. Other
efforts included designing the first OCHP booth,
stickers with environmental messages for teachers
to hand out to elementary school children, and
writing a youth book to build environmental health
awareness among adolescents. Moreover, ICF International
managed the development and implementation of
the first Annual Children's Health Environmental
Health Awards Program. Support included developing
an awards self-mailer, an awards program for
the awards ceremony, a tailored Press Kit for
award winners, initial screening of applications,
and handling all logistical support for the awards
ceremony including securing event venue. |
Lead Awareness Program
Public Service Advertising/
Media
ICF International has developed public service advertising,
designed collateral materials, and conducted campaign
research and evaluation.
 We
created the program's "Runs Better Unleaded"
advertising campaign that was used throughout
the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland,
transit systems; as cinema advertising in Baltimore;
and in doctors' offices and clinics around the
country. This successful campaign has garnered
multiple
industry awards, including the CIPRA, the
MOBIUS, the Mercury award, and awards from the
IABC and the Public Relations Society of America
(PRSA). ICF International also developed a media
plan for Lead Awareness Week that included editorial
outreach and the production of a media toolkit
for use by EPA and its local partners. This outreach
resulted in numerous media hits in regional and
national publications, including American Baby
and Parenting.
Women, Infants, and Children
Program Outreach
 ICF International wrote, designed, and produced a suite
of materials targeted toward recipients of the
Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC). This
kit consists of several elements including a nine-panel,
barrel-fold brochure; information sheets; and
a materials order form. The goal of this campaign
is to educate WIC recipients of the importance
of a healthy diet and its ability to reduce the
effects of lead poisoning.
Head Start
 ICF International has worked closely with EPA and Head
Start to create a suite of materials targeted
toward parents of children in Head Start Programs
across the country. ICF International first facilitated
focus groups with Head Start staff to identify
key messages and the appropriate vehicles to reach
target audiences.
We then developed a suite of materials with a
common look and feel to speak to the target audiences.
We designed a brochure to appeal to parents and
developed fact sheets for staff members to use
in reinforcing the message with parents and to
encourage blood tests to check lead levels in
at-risk children. All materials were co-branded
by EPA and the National Head Start Association
and were provided on their Web site as well as
in hard copy. Final materials also were tested
through focus groups held with local Head Start
parents. This campaign is being implemented now,
and a full evaluation of its effects is being
conducted.
ICF International and the EPA received a Silver
Inkwell Award of Merit in 2005 for Head Start's "Lead
Poisoning Prevention Campaign." |
