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Motivate and Educate
Here are some ideas for some things you can do and/or
how you can help get others involved in your community.
Strategies are provided for a variety of settings including
the community, the classroom, at work, in colleges and
universities, in faith communities, government and health
care settings. Some of these items are reflective of
injury prevention or asthma, but the ideas can be applied
to any topic or issue that you are interested in.
In the Community
In the Classroom
At Work
In Schools, Colleges and Universities
In Faith Communities
In Government
In Health Care Settings
In the Community
- Work with state and local health departments to
involve your community in local and town programs.
- Organize community panels to provide resources and
answer questions about strategies for your community.
- Distribute fact sheets from ACT for Health’s
web-page for use in community education.
- Develop a list of resources in your community. If
resources for your area of interest do not exist, work
with local officials to initiate this service.
- Organize a walk or dance to spread awareness of
the importance of your issue or topic.
- Encourage the use of sidewalks to prevent pedestrian
injuries; help to clean them up if they are disrepair
and work with the city to keep them walker-friendly.
- Hold a bicycle helmet drive to distribute new or
used helmets to those in need.
- Provide information to the media about all your
events and encourage them to run stories on your issue.
(Link to file=Web Page 9c-3 Working with the Media)
- Identify places with a high potential for problems
related to your issue – for example, pools or
ponds with no signs or broken concrete where kids skateboard
-- and alert local officials. Encourage others in your
community to do the same.
- Establish standards that define a “safe community” and
start a program to recognize communities in your area
that meet the criteria.
- Try to reach as many populations as possible by
using non-traditional routes, i.e. the faith community,
trade unions, farm associations, or whatever is relevant
in your community.
In the Classroom
- Educate students about the importance of your issue
and raise awareness.
- Start a program at your school raising awareness
and providing knowledge about your issue, such as the
importance of seat belts. Provide students with strategies
to keep them safe.
- Incorporate awareness of your issue into the K-12
curriculum.
- Invite a person to speak about your issue.
- Encourage students to brainstorm different strategies
they could try in order to prevent injuries in their
daily lives, and invite them to report back to their
fellow students with their ideas.
- Strive to create an atmosphere where students feel
that they can come forward if they are experiencing
feelings of suicidal ideation.
- Encourage students to go home and test their smoke
alarms with their parents. If their home does not have
a smoke alarm, encourage the parents to purchase one.
- Try to be aware of violent acts that may be occurring
at your school.
- Talk with your children about violence at school.
- Ask if your child’s school has an appropriate
number of trained counselors on staff.
- Volunteer at your child’s school to help teachers
raise awareness about injuries or violence.
- Increase cultural competency of teachers so that
they may tailor programs to successfully educate young
people of a variety of populations.
- Promote youth mentoring programs in the schools.
- Work with school nurses to track certain types of
injuries.
At Work
- Put up signs at work describing health promotion
and disease prevention strategies employees can try
at home.
- Initiate a program to have health promotion and
disease prevention messages inserted into paycheck
envelopes.
- Hold a family health fair in conjunction with the
employee insurance plan.
- Create an incentive program for employees that health
promotion, disease and injury prevention at home, i.e.
lunch certificates for testing a fire alarm, etc.
- Communicate local safety events to employees and
encourage their attendance.
- Encourage employee participation in youth mentoring
programs for health promotion and disease prevention.
In Schools, Colleges and Universities
- Educate students about the importance of health
promotion, disease and injury prevention.
- Create tabletop displays with health promotion,
disease and injury prevention information that can
be placed in libraries, student centers, and dining
halls.
- Encourage resident advisors to provide students
with health promotion, disease and injury prevention
information.
- Collaborate with the university health center to
provide informational presentations or hold a health
fair with booths talking about different injury health
promotion, disease and injury prevention ideas.
- Coordinate with local bars or popular restaurants
to display health promotion and disease, and injury
prevention information.
- Work with student organizations to plan events that
do not involve drinking alcohol or using drugs.
In Faith Communities
- Create health promotion, disease and injury prevention
display at your place of worship.
- Conduct fairs and workshops on the importance of
health promotion, disease and injury prevention.
- Send information to your members about health promotion,
disease and injury prevention strategies for their
homes.
In Government
- Sponsor a health promotion, disease or injury prevention
session and invite local government officials, as well
as school and community leadership.
- Invite speakers to you state capitol or city to
discuss the importance of health promotion, disease
and injury prevention.
- Advocate for local, state, and national policies
that would promote health promotion, disease and injury
prevention.
- Perform a needs assessment in your community and
develop policies that address unmet needs, especially
in underserved populations.
- Work with school districts and communities to ensure
that health promotion, disease and injury prevention
programs are implemented.
- Promote policies/laws such as mandatory bike helmets/seat
belts and aggressive driving laws.
In Health Care Settings
- Ask patients questions that will help assess their
risk for preventable illnesses and injuries, and counsel
them on prevention strategies.
- Post signs or posters in your waiting room depicting
prevention strategies.
- Incorporate health promotion and injury prevention
into clinical practice, and ask patients if they have
any questions or concerns regarding prevention.
- Distribute fact sheets from ACT for Health’s
web-page to patients.
- Help support public awareness efforts to inform
the public about issues surrounding asthma, injures
and other topics related to the Healthy People
2010 national goals
- Work with your hospital to implement emergency department
surveillance and discharge surveillance systems to
collect data on the external causes of injury
- Increase cultural competency of staff so that they
may be better able to identify and treat injury issues
as well as prevent risk of injury.
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Adolescent
& Child Targets for Health Foundation, Inc. 
