Using Success Stories to Motivate Behavior Change

Background:  The Community Guide is a curated source of data whose purpose is to provide evidence-based information and resources to support public health initiatives.  It was created by the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF), an unpaid panel of independent, nonfederal public health and prevention experts.  Information found in the Guide has been used in communities around the country to improve community health.  

Program background:  In order to encourage more wide-spread use of The Community Guide, Westat was contracted to develop a series of success stories to highlight how the Guide has been used in different communities around the U.S., and the different types of public health impact that can be achieved.  Most of these stories were produced in print format as a convenient one-page summary to highlight the various ways that public health audiences might apply, and benefit from, the evidence-based recommendations of the CPSTF.  The video stories were created to promote interest in the print stories and The Community Guide itself by taking advantage of the ability of video to draw users to a website.

Evaluation Methods and Results: n/a

Conclusions: n/a

Implications for research and/or practice: Storytelling can provide an effective way to showcase how communities are using evidence-based findings and recommendations to create programs.