Mind the (Funding) Gap: YR2 of Successfully Mobilizing Service-Learning to Sustain Ehealth Outreach to African American Teen Moms

Background:  Although social media outreach is a rapidly expanding area of public health, the expense of sustaining eHealth projects once funding has ended can be a critical challenge.

Program background:  To our knowledge, eBaby4u is the onlyonline resource specifically aimed at improving breastfeeding and other infant feeding outcomes among African American (AA) teen mothers. With USDA NIFA funding we conducted eBaby4u Phase I, whose deliverables included development and launch of the eBaby4u smartphone-enabled website, YouTube channel, and nine videos to provide accurate, accessible, and culturally relevant breastfeeding/infant feeding information to AA teen mothers. With internal funding we conducted eBaby4u Phase II, whose deliverables included collecting and analyzing data from surveys and in-depth interviews among minority teen/young mothers to explore participants’ perceived barriers to breastfeeding (e.g., supportive boyfriend/partner) and preferred sources for infant feeding/health information (e.g., healthcare providers, WebMD). Once funding had ended, we faced the challenge of sustaining our social media outreach to AA teen mothers, given that online content targeting hard-to-reach teens should be updated and tweaked regularly to retain visitors and expand the target audience. We discuss YR2 of mobilizing service-learning in the university classroom to sustain eBaby4u.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Using Borchers’ Persuasion in the Media Age (2013) as the theoretical framework, Communication students produced: 1) eBaby4u Persuasive Context Reports, 2) eBaby4u Slogan/Branding Proposals, 3) eBaby4u Ethos Analysis Reports, and 4) eBaby4u Social Media Content Banks. The eBaby4u Persuasive Context Reports provided the “client” (i.e., the eBaby research team) with insights into eBaby4u’s persuasive environment, analyzing five comparable eHealth campaigns. The eBaby4u Slogan/Branding Proposals produced new slogans to enhance eBaby4u as a branddesigned to resonate with our target audience of AA teen mothers. The eBaby4u Ethos Analysis Reports evaluated the persuasive credibility of one of the five eHealth campaigns students had earlier profiled. The eBaby4u Social Media Content Banks provided a variety of sample messages appropriate for distribution over different social media platforms popular among teens (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit). We convened a panel of experts in eHealth/social media, branding/marketing, and in providing services to resource-limited teen/young mothers to evaluate the YR2 presentations and select a winning entry to be implemented to sustain eBaby4u.  

Conclusions:  Designing creative and economically feasible ways to sustain social media outreach after an eHealth project’s funding has ended is an important—yet often overlooked—challenge in the rapidly expanding arena of online public health communication. Our systematic Communication Theory-driven model of mobilizing service-learning in the university classroom to sustain the eBaby4u project 1) proved economically effective and 2) provided students with an experiential education opportunity that purposefully engaged them in a hands-on, skill-building project with a real-world eHealth client. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  Our project serves as an example of an innovative way that an eHealth project can expand sustainability beyond the funded project period through utilization of the expertise of university students. Regardless of whether an eHealth project is university-based or community-based, university students can serve as a source of untapped resources.