Communications Support for Health Centers

Learn How to Engage, Inform the Public Through Local Media

Developing and nurturing a healthy relationship with the local community depends on how well a health center shares news and information.

That should involve a strong relationship with local news media — newspapers, radio and TV stations — as well as Internet service providers, social service agencies, government and key community service groups.

But what should you be communicating, and how should you do it? To answer those questions, it’s important to develop a media plan, and follow it. A link below will help you create such a plan.

Creating and repeating the message helps it stick in the public’s mind. Public awareness and respect depends on a health center’s ability to clearly and consistently reach people it serves, and also to reach people on whom it depends for local support.

One link below provides language health centers can use to describe what they do. Because health centers may not have a professional community relations person or the ability to hire one, they can use the links below to get sample documents and modify them to their purposes.

• Media Strategy Plan
• Model Descriptions of CHCs
• Sample Media Editorials About Health Centers
• Template Press Materials

12-01-2007		Letter to Member of Congress (template) (27kb)
12-01-2007		Post Election Press Release Sample (template) (34kb)
12-01-2007		Post Election Letter to the Editor (from patient) (25kb)
12-01-2007		Post Election Letter to the Editor (from staff) (23kb)