Essential Element 6 Resources

Communication Channels

AudienceScapes – The InterMedia Knowledge Center Outlines information, communication and the media environment for 15 countries and plans to add more.
BBC Country Profiles Has a media section which describes common media channels used, popular print media, television and radio stations.
The DELTA Companion: Marketing Planning Made Easy DELTA is PSI’s strategic planning, management and alignment tool for social marketing and BCC programs.

Mass Media

How to Write a Radio Serial Drama for Social Development: A Script Writer’s Manual (1996)

Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. This book is a practical manual for script writers preparing radio serial dramas for development projects. The manual largely concentrates on the practical aspects of script writing.

HEART

Example using radio: Zambia

Example using radio: Liberia

Example using radio: Kenya

Example using radio: Nigeria

This webpage created by The Soul Beat provides a list of examples from around Africa of how community radio has been used to address health issues. Case studies are described from Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania.

Example using print. This program has successfully used the newspaper as one of its channels to reach young people with SRH information and messages. Each month, one of the leading national newspapers publishes “Straight Talk,” a four-page printed insert that covers SRH topics and a page of answers to letters from youth. The print run is 150,000 copies per issue and is inserted into the newspaper for general distribution, reaching out-of- school youth, and delivered to secondary schools for distribution to in-school youth. Many schools in Uganda have started Straight Talk Clubs, which bring young people together to read the articles and talk about SRH together. The clubs are then linked to youth- friendly services in the local community.

Example using websites: Kenya

Example using websites: South Africa

 

 

Community-based Approaches

Entertainment-Education for Better Health (2013)

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Managers of family planning/reproductive health programs and policy makers can use this report to become more knowledgeable advocates for entertainment education and better prepared to oversee entertainment education projects. Also, this report can help entertainment education managers with choosing formats and producing products.
Theatre-Based Techniques for Youth Peer Education: A Training Manual (2005) Youth Peer Education Network. This manual is intended for program managers and youth peer educators who are interested in adding a theatre component to their reproductive health and HIV prevention activities or in strengthening a theatre component that is already part of a program.
Participatory Theater for Conflict Transformation: Training Manual Searching for Common Ground. This is a manual developed in the Democratic Republic of Congo that brings together Forum Theater techniques and a ‘common ground’ approach aimed at seeking collaborative rather than adversarial solutions to conflict. While this resource is not focused on youth SRH, it may be useful for teaching basic elements of participatory theater.
Feel! Think! Act! A Guide to Interactive Drama for Sexual and Reproductive Health with Young People (2008) International HIV/AIDS Alliance. This toolkit provides guidance on how interactive drama can be used in work with young people to encourage them to think about and take action to improve SRH. The guide contains ideas for drama and discussion activities designed to help youth learn about sexual health issues and gain skills in facilitating and using interactive drama techniques. 
Young 4 Real: Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Information and Services Advocacy Training Handbook (2013) SAfAIDS. The handbook provides trainers with a comprehensive tool to train young people as sexual and reproductive health and rights champions in their communities. It is also a useful reference book for parents, service providers, teachers and carers on the integration of sexual reproductive health and rights and HIV services.

 

Young People’s Information and Services Advocacy Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights

Champions Flipchart for Community Sessions (2012)SAfAIDS. This flipchart forms part of SAfAIDS’ Young People’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Information and Services Advocacy (YPISA) resource kit. YPISA is a set of initiatives designed to train and empower young people on sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV services and to become champions, for adolescent SRH rights in their communities. The YPISA Resource Kit consists of a training manual for training young people, caregivers and service providers, and a flipchart for use by the sexual and reproductive health and rights champions to train their peers.
Act 2015 Advocacy Strategy ToolkitUNAIDS. A practical toolkit for young people who are passionate about advancing HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights through national advocacy in the post-2015 agenda. This toolkit is designed for advocates planning to take action in the post-2015 development process, with a particular focus on the window of opportunity between April and October 2014. However, the resources in the toolkit maybe applicable to your program, regardless of whether you are taking part in the post-2015 advocacy process. 
The Power to Lead: A Leadership Model for Adolescent Girls (2009)

CARE. This paper outlines the process for engaging and empowering young girls in the community.
How to Reach Young Adolescents. A Toolkit for Educating 10 – 14 year olds on Sexual and Reproductive Health (2011)DSW. This toolkit is designed to guide implementation of SRH projects targeting 10 to 14 year olds who are enrolled in schools. The activities proposed in the toolkit, therefore, rely on programmers creating strong partnerships with local schools.
TRAIL Behavior Change Video Series (2014)

Pathfinder International. These three videos, each approximately 20 minutes long, belong to a series from Pathfinder aimed at demonstrating the community mobilization method of “Tailored Reflection and Integrated Learning,” or TRAIL. The methodology is used to engage communities by involving small groups and moving them through the process of problem identification and solution. The videos are available with English and French subtitles.

 

Interpersonal Communication

IPC Toolkit (2011)

PSI. This is a compilation of examples, lessons learned and best practices in IPC programs based on the IPC Deep Dive conducted in 2011.
An Interpersonal Communication and Counseling Skills Training Manual for Health Facility Support Staff: Facilitator’s Guide (2008)

Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs. The manual is meant for support staff at health facilities that interact with clients and providers. The manual is organized by lessons to help guide the trainer to gain confidence and skills to conduct an interpersonal communication and counseling training workshop for health facility support staff. The accompanying trainer’s guide can be found here.
Pathways to Change Game (2013)Pathfinder International. The Pathways to Change game is designed to make the concept of behavior change more understandable. When outreach workers use the game with their communities, it stimulates thinking that can motivate individuals and communities to change. Playing Pathways to Change can also help community health workers and peer educators understand the target population’s perceptions of barriers to change and facilitators of change. When the game is used in this way, it functions as an informal data collection tool that can be helpful for designing and tailoring interventions.
Cue Cards for Counseling Adolescents on Contraception (Multiple Languages) (2014)

Pathfinder International. The set of cue cards is designed to help a range of community- and facility-based providers to counsel adolescents and young people on their contraceptive options. The cue cards address combined oral contraceptives, progestin-only pills, emergency contraception, male and female condoms, injectables, implants, intrauterine devices and the lactational amenorrhea method. The provider can use the front side of the cards to give information about all available options and, after the adolescent chooses a method, turn to the back side to give specific instruction on use.

GREAT Scalable ToolkitInstitute of Reproductive Health, Pathfinder International, Save the Children. The Scalable Toolkit is a set of tools created to bring fun and engaging activities that transform gender and reproductive health outcomes through a three-stage process: review of relevant programs, extensive formative research with adolescents and the people who influence them, and a pretest of draft materials followed by revisions.
Manuel de Formation Santé de la Reproduction des Adolescents (2006)

DSW. This interactive manual emphasizes the participatory aspects of learning and addresses key sexual and reproductive health issues that concern young people, including: the reproductive anatomy, gender, adolescent sexuality, life skills for developing healthy sexual behaviors, STIs and contraception. It has been conceived as a manual for peer educators but contains helpful and creative activities for anyone to address SRH with young people. Versions are available in English and French.

 

Mobile Phones

This online tool includes background information and practical tools for using mobile phones to reach a wide audience with information about SRH.

Text to Change sends and receives information via mobile telephony in emerging countries, customizing mobile-based solutions to enable partners, such as USAID and UNICEF, to interact with people.

Marie Stopes International. This summary report provides an overview of how mHealth programming may be used to improve youth access to SRH services and information.

Abt Associates. A tool that helps users guide the design of mobile applications for health and provides insights about what works in mobile BCC.

k4health. The guide helps individuals and organizations appropriately plan for mHealth deployments. It’s intended primarily for global health technical experts, program managers and staff working to implement mHealth solutions in low-resource settings.

RapidSMS is a toolset for rapidly building text message services for data collection and group coordination using basic mobile phones. It can be used both to impart and collect information as it allows interaction with the user. RapidSMS was initially created by UNICEF’s Innovations Unit in 2007 to support UNICEF’s data collection of youth engagement activities. It has since been customized and deployed with diverse functionalities, including remote health diagnostics, nutrition surveillance, supply train tracking, registering children in public health campaigns, information sharing and community discussion.

 

Social Media

Provides monitoring and tracking tools for analysis of social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+) by country.

oAfrica covers information on how people in each African country are using the Internet.

This guide, developed for a U.S. audience, provides information about how to use popular social media channels to reach hard-to-reach young people, develop effective messages and overcome common barriers.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This toolkit was designed to provide guidance and share lessons learned in more than three years of integrating social media into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) health communication campaigns, activities and emergency response efforts. The information includes how to get started with using social media—from developing governance to determining which channels are best and to creating a social media strategy. It was developed for a U.S. audience.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This guide aims to assist you in translating your messages so they resonate and are relevant to social media audiences and encourage action, engagement and interaction. It is largely tactical, giving you specific ways to write for social media channels. Although a wide variety of social media tools exist, this guide will focus on three specific channels: Facebook, Twitter and text messages (SMS).

John Snow, Inc. This toolkit aims to help people working in the field of family planning better understand the major social media tools and networks available and how they can be used to strategically advance program goals and increase visibility among target audiences.