COMMUNICATIONS AND SOCIAL MARKETING

Data Entry and Analysis for HUD Homelessness Programs
Cloudburst has been awarded a three-year contract to provide data entry, analysis, and support services to HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development. This contract will provide data entry and analysis services on critical data management efforts to support the office of Special Needs Assistance Programs for the Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Grants. This program is one of HUD’s largest grant programs in terms of number of applications processed and dollars. Data management services will support ongoing analysis of Annual Progress Report (APR) data and support of the e-snaps grants management lifecycle online application. The information entered in the e-snaps system becomes a basis for assessing collective regional and national homeless needs.

Technical Assistance for HUD Neighborhood Stabilization Program
Cloudburst was recently awarded $4.1 million in technical assistance funds for HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Cloudburst will provide expert assistance to communities nationwide to help stabilize and revitalize neighborhoods adversely impacted by foreclosed and abandoned property. Cloudburst will use a technical assistance plan that relies upon cost-effective methods of deploying technical assistance (TA), including increased use of virtual technology to address the needs of NSP grantees and their community partners. Cloudburst will help NSP grantees and communities navigate non-traditional tasks and relationships, ramp up quickly to handle increased work demand for existing grantee staff, and more fully leverage NSP program funds to affect positive change to these impacted neighborhoods. Designed to be implemented in conjunction with the CDBG program, NSP will require a wide range of activities that may be unfamiliar to grantees. Integrating NSP into a community development program can be especially daunting given the urgency of stabilizing neighborhoods and ambitious deadlines for commitment and expenditure of funds. Specifically, our services will be used to build local capacity to effectively manage and administer local strategies to purchase, rehabilitate, and renovate properties in neighborhoods significantly impacted by home foreclosures and abandonment. Funding for this assistance is provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

CDC Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant Health Communications and Marketing Project. Cloudburst was awarded a task order to provide support to the grantees of the Preventive Health and Health Services (PHHS) Block Grant Program in the developing and marketing of programmatic success stories, along with the development of communications projects, technical assistance, and consultation work. Cloudburst staff provide technical assistance to the grantees of the PHHS Block in the development and marketing of programmatic success stories through the use of the PHHS Block Grant Success Story tool. This includes developing a marketing and dissemination plan, providing training on communication for grantees, and developing marketing materials for the PHHS Block Grant Program.

Translating the National Physical Activity Guidelines for Decision-makers and Practitioners in the Workplace Setting. The National Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans are the first-ever comprehensive physical activity guidelines published by the Federal Government. The release of these guidelines provide information for the first time that specifically ties physical activity levels to the prevention, delay, and better management of chronic diseases. Because of this new information, there is an opportunity to impact healthcare costs by working with employers to create worksites that promote physical activity and provide opportunities to employees to be physically active. The purpose of this project is to support CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity to: 1) conduct an environmental scan to identify promising practices and tools for promoting physical activity in the worksite; 2) work with key informants (CEO’s / high-level persons in the business community) to determine what employers need to create worksite cultures that promote physical activity among employees; 3) develop recommendations based on scan and key informant interviews for making the business case for physical activity to employers; and 4) enhance the translation and dissemination of the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and increase the effectiveness of these guidelines through development and evaluation of appropriate materials for employers. Carla Linkous will lead this two-year project as Project Manager, with support from our teaming partner, Strategic Health Concepts.

Strategic Communications Support and Media Training. For the Girl Scouts of the USA, Cloudburst provided strategic communications support and media training workshops for senior Washington-based staff. The strategic support and training was provided just prior to the annual Girl Scout Day on Capitol Hill, where individual troop leaders and other Girl Scout officials visit with members of Congress to advocate for legislation that will be beneficial to teenage girls. In 2007, the Girl Scouts conducted a nationwide poll of teenage girls which found that this age group wants policy makers to adopt a holistic approach to supporting their health, rather than focus on one issue such as weight control, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, or prevention of early pregnancies. Cloudburst helped the Girl Scouts formulate and deliver key messages to deliver these findings to influential members of Congress. Cloudburst also provided Girl Scout staff members with presentation training and speaker training, and provided videotaped role play to help them succinctly and effectively deliver their key messages. Training was provided adhering to the Cloudburst Continuum, which includes both didactic instructions and presentation practice to ensure that trainees internalize the skills they are taught.

Strategic Communications Planning. As part of an ongoing technical assistance and communications contract, Cloudburst provided tactical and strategic communications support to the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP), the 30,000 member national professional association that represents pharmacists who practice in hospitals, health maintenance organizations, long-term care facilities, home care, and other components of health care systems. Cloudburst worked with ASHP to help formulate a strategy to reach current pharmacy students, and encourage them both to choose a career in health system pharmacy (as opposed to retail pharmacy) and to pursue a residency in pharmacy in a health system setting. Cloudburst formulated key messages to reach this group, and produced two videos incorporating the target messages. Cloudburst staff conducted extensive videotaped interviews with pharmacist residents and preceptors at hospitals in Charleston, South Carolina; Tampa, Florida; and Kansas City, Missouri. Based on these interviews, Cloudburst scripted two video products, oversaw the production and consulted with ASHP regarding distribution plans for these products. Cloudburst also conducted media training for the incoming President of ASHP. This effort included generation of key messages targeted to ASHP members and the general public, as well as a didactic session and on-camera role play and critique. This effort was designed to prepare for media outreach interviews with both the pharmacy trade media and broader consumer media outlets.

Social Marketing and Health Communications. Redistribution of Television PSA’s Paremos el VIH. Empieza Tu – Stop HIV. It Starts with You. (NCHHSTP/CDC). The National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) leadership deemed efforts to increase awareness of HIV testing among disproportionally affected populations as a high priority. In addition, efforts traditionally occur around National HIV Testing Day to increase the visibility of CDC HIV testing messages and resources through social marketing and health communication efforts. Cloudburst is assisting NCHHSTP with wide distribution and airplay of public service announcements (PSA’s) in English and Spanish.