Community Outreachand the Community Health Worker

What is Outreach?Why is it important?

Outreach is an effort by individuals in an organization or group to connect its ideas or practices to the efforts of other organizations, groups, specific audiences or the general public. Unlike marketing, outreach does not inherently revolve around a product or strategies to increase market share. Typically non-profits, civic groups, and churches engage in outreach.

Outreach often takes on an educational component (i.e., the dissemination of ideas), but it is increasingly common for organizations to conceive of their outreach strategy as a two-way street in which outreach is framed as engagement rather than solely dissemination or education.

Outreach strategies are linked to the organization's mission, and define targets, goals, and milestones. – Wikipedia

Outreach Workers are often . . .

• Hired because they represent or reflect the community that is being targeted by the agency,

• Are often times undervalued and under-resourced by their agencies,

• Not formally trained because it is assumed that because they are part of the community that they will automatically know how to connect with their peers.

*Outreach is a skill that is developed and despite popular opinion, you don’t have to be of a community to work effectively with a community.

Outreach Methods

• Street Outreach • Door to Door• Home Visits• Group Presentations• Health Fairs and Community Events• Community/Business Drop-Offs• Drop-in Centers• Media• Others?

Individual

“Meeting People Where They Are…”

Health

Social Service

Time

Habits

Place (urban, rural)

Language

Culture

Emotional Needs

Social Needs/Practices

Life Skills

COEC: Outreach Education I

Spiritual Needs

Keys to SuccessWe know that Outreach is similar to advertising

in that the more the people that you target see themselves reflected in your strategy, the more likely they are to respond to your health message.

This is why we see Black people in McDonald’s commercials and burly men or sexy women in car commercials etc.

Challenge!

You’ve been asked to conduct outreach to a huge and diverse population (like Latinos living in specific neighborhoods, high risk youth, GLBT communities, Blacks at risk for diabetes etc). How do you do create a message and strategy that speaks to EVERYONE effectively?

Answer: YOU DON’T!!!!

Narrow your Targets

We narrow our targets because we recognize the diversity of the populations with whom we work.

If we tried to create a message that spoke to everyone, we would reach no one.

We narrow, understanding that we won’t leave people out, but will create specific strategies for each sub-group in hopes of maximizing efficacy.

Possible Categories for Narrowing Targets

• Gender• Neighborhood• **Age• Race/Ethnicity• Family Structure• Income• Health Issue• Activities/Likes/Interests• Subcultures of the larger

group

• Situational• Immigration Status• Status among their Peers

(Opinion Leaders)• Past or Current Experience

with a health issue (Sexual Abuse Survivors)

• Behavior-based (sexually active youth)

• What Else????

*Be careful not to narrow so much that there are only 3 people in your pool.

Narrowing By Age

Many programs make a huge mistake by keeping the age range too wide.

The younger the individuals you’re targeting, the closer the age range should be when thinking about your outreach strategy. The older the people you’re targeting, the wider the range can be.

Elements of Effective Outreach Strategies

WHO

*AGE *Cultural Background

Gender

Language

Socio-Economics

Elements of Effective Outreach Strategies

WHAT

Health Issue ***Health Message

Outcomes

Goals Objectives

Elements of Effective Outreach Strategies

HOW

Method Time, Place, Setting

Message(What Form)

Effective Health Messages Should Be . . .

• Clear• Concise• Not sacrifice clarity for flash or gimmick• Should explicitly say what you want folks to do• Should be presented in more than one form

(spoken and written) and should be repeated as much as possible without being obnoxious