Process and Challenges with Developing a Multifaceted Communications Program for High-Risk, Urban Youth

Background:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention is developing a communications program, i2i: What are You Looking For?, to promote respectful, nonviolent dating relationships for 11- to 14-year-old youth in high-risk urban communities (YHRUC) as part of Dating Matters, a comprehensive teen dating violence (TDV) prevention initiative.  Due to concentrated poverty, lack of resources, and exposure to community violence, this audience may be at an increased risk of TDV. In addition, few health communication programs have been effective in reaching this target audience and have focused on the specific topic area of TDV.

Program background:  The communications program, i2i: What are You Looking For?, will be implemented by health departments  in multiple urban communities for a specific, hard-to-reach audience, and includes three key components: a brand ambassador program, a toolkit and digital media . Thus, it is critical that i2i is designed to be authentic to the teen voice; appropriate to both the life-experiences and literacy-level of the teens; and addresses the audience’s unique needs and influences, while taking into consideration the regulations and challenges with reaching this age group and specific demographic.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  The program design is based on best practices as well as primary and secondary research, including formative research with youth and parents, message and concept testing with youth, community capabilities surveys conducted with health departments, community audits, a youth audience analysis, and literature reviews on communication programs targeting similar audiences on sensitive topics and key influencers of YHRUC . A program for YHRUC needs to take into account differences in engagement in organized groups and programs and increased influence from older peers; access to the Internet mostly through school computers or mobile phones subject to regulations (e.g., Children's Online Privacy Protection Act); and the potential for lower literacy and comprehension levels.

Conclusions:  The presentation will discuss how each process and challenge was translated into the final program design. For example, the program will implement a brand ambassador program, using slightly older youth (15- to 18-year-olds) to disseminate messages and materials, because of their high-influence over the primary audience and to provide an authentic voice to the program. To address the way YHRUC access the Internet, each community will have a branded Facebook page and implement an SMS program, which allow the program to meet the teens where they’re getting information online. The Facebook page will be moderated by brand ambassadors to insure the content is relevant and relatable. The SMS program provides an additional touch point for reaching youth through a medium they frequently use. The materials will address their literal interpretation through tone, graphics, and images over lengthy text.

Implications for research and/or practice:  We will share the learnings from these processes and challenges to help other programs in designing a communications program for YHRUC to increase awareness of healthy dating relationship messages and ultimately change related attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and norms.