Training Community Health Students to Develop Community-Requested Social Marketing Campaigns: An Innovative Partnership

Background: This paper describes a sustained partnership between a university community health program and local and regional community health agencies. As a key component of the Health Communication and Social Marketing course, the partnership involves undergraduate community health students working for and with community agencies and community members to design social marketing campaigns based on community-identified health needs.

Objectives: The goals of the course are to (1) provide students with the opportunity to work within the community to apply their skills in program planning, evaluation, and communication and (2) provide community agencies with a tailored campaign that can be implemented in their communities.

Methods: Throughout the 10-week quarter, teams of students follow the principles of community participation in planning a social marketing campaign. These include (1) audience segmentation and formative assessment with the intended audience to determine campaign content and strategies and (2) pretesting and revisions of campaign messages and materials based on community feedback.

Conclusion: This partnership contributes to the promotion of health in the local community and it builds the skills and competencies of future health educators. It demonstrates a successful and sustainable combination of community-based participatory research and experiential learning. From 2005 to 2011, 35 campaigns have been developed, many which have been implemented.