For decades, Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) have sustained a valuable relationship removing barriers to communities who historically have not been able to get care. How do organizations like MCN and NACHC overcome barriers to successfully get health messages out to the communities who need it? 

Sarah Price, MSN-Ed, RN, Director of Public Health Integration at NACHC, and a NACHC program director for recent projects with MCN, stresses that to create health messaging that works, you need to think of your audience and ask yourself, "What rings true to them in the way that they can hear it, in the way that they can absorb it, in the way that they can repeat it back out and tell it to others?” While Price emphasizes that there isn’t one way to do that, and there certainly isn’t one message that will fit every audience’s needs, a key in making this process a success is that the messages and strategies for health communication are created during a co-design process with the community of interest. This ideology has been at the root of MCN's methodologies for decades – that successful messaging is messaging that is developed and promoted with or by the community for whom it is intended.

Alma Galván, MHC, MCN’s Director of Community Engagement and Worker Training, has used this co-creation method for countless projects, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, and other immunization projects with NACHC and other funders. "The co-design of materials is something very, very, important and takes into account the needs, the situation, the health literacy, the education, and all the different aspects of somebody or some community,” shared Galván. These factors that co-design considers are often barriers that prevent health messaging from reaching or relating to audiences. For example, when a different language or culture is involved, sometimes, Galván explains, a message concept cannot be translated from one language to another. This is why the co-creation and co-design of messages are critical, she urges. Galván emphasizes that health campaign managers must be aware of the concepts they are trying to communicate, but also how to transform that message to “something that will be significant for that person and that they can really use.”

“I think it’s an art and a science,” Galván added – a skill that health promoters must work on over time, and that is grounded in good data that messaging from and relevant to the  communities is more effective.

Just as good message design has the ability to strengthen ties with communities, ineffective messaging has the ability to harm relationships with communities and create barriers to future health initiatives. Price notes that going into communities and telling them that the resources being offered had been tested with only one other community or specific population and concluding that it should also work for the community the messaging is being used for, does “not land well” with the community. 

"I think it causes mistrust and distrust and misinformation,” says Price. Price recalled a project NACHC worked on with a partner during the COVID-19 pandemic. To find out why a specific community was not getting the COVID-19 vaccine, NACHC’s partners did a thorough in-depth analysis with community members. The findings showed that there wasn’t one reason why community members weren’t getting vaccinated, Price recalled: “It was 10 to12 different reasons!” Such information can inform campaigns to be more effective; not getting to know the community can lead to missed opportunities for the creation of relevant campaigns.

These kinds of strategies supporting the co-creation of both the development and promotion of health messaging have been used over the timespan of much of MCN’s work. While they have proven to be effective in providing education and resources to communities historically facing barriers, most importantly, they can continue to serve as best practices for the issues we face today. NACHC has supported MCN’s approach to working with communities, and has created opportunities not only for MCN, but for other partners to use this methodology -- using it as an important template for projects supporting general adult immunization, for example. According to Price, rather than simply product-focused projects, NACHC has often prioritized supporting partners in building partnerships with their communities, sometimes focusing projects solely on these endeavors. If you want to start fully engaging with your community to create more engaging health messaging, Price recommends watching a NACHC webinar or training, reaching out to your local health center, and to “just start small. Find those partnerships in that community -- I think there’s such magic in that."

Resources

• Listen to Sarah Price talk more about this topic on MCN’s podcast: Building Community Empowerment through Open-Minded Partnerships, with MCN and NACHC | Migrant Clinicians Network
   
• National Association of Community Health Centers website: https://www.nachc.org/