Let's Do This King County: A campaign to create healthier places to live

Public Health - Seattle & King County is one of 55 sites funded through Communities Putting Prevention to Work to tackle obesity and tobacco use through policy, systems and environment changes. In King County, media and communications activities were central to this work--engaging communities, the public and decision-makers and building support for the place-based improvements.

Informed by local research and polling that assessed the role of government, resident values and support for policies, King County created an education and mobilization campaign, called Let's Do This.

Unlike traditional public health education campaigns that target individual, personal behavior change, the goal of "Let's Do This" was to raise awareness about how neighborhoods and environments determine health, and to move community members and decision-makers to work together to improve their community's health. The campaign featured TV, radio, billboards and other kinds of PSAs in multiple languages. Let's Do This mass media was complemented by ongoing work and media products of community partners.

The APHA presentation will include: „X the pre-campaign research that gauged important issues and values of residents „X the multiple strategies and creative products in Let's Do This „X communications tools to engage partners' support for policy and environment changes „X tactics to mobilize the public, community members and decision-makers „X post-campaign survey results about the effectiveness of the campaign „X challenges and lessons learned in developing and executing this campaign