I was referred to Sommai Pham, the social media intern, at Prevention First. She asked me about my project and was certainly interested in having a bigger discussion about partnership - she is trying to set up a meeting with us and Toni (?) the political director for Prevention First. Sommai brought up an interesting question - she was concerned with the issue of getting permission from the girls' parents - to get their participation, film and broadcast them. She was also concerned about the potential efficacy of using their organization as a conversation loop - another organization might be better suited to handling response and resources. Sommai said she would try to organize a meeting for us after 2/8.
I also spoke with Rebecca Sunshine, Marketing Coordinator at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. She told me a few really cool social media outreach efforts that PP is already making.
First, PP is trying to form a partnership with a group call The National Campaign, who developed a program called "Stay Joven" whose goal is to reduce the rate of pregnancy (50%) among Latina teens. The program handed out flip cams to the teens, captured the conversation and questions among them, and and then produced PSA spots for broadcast from the content. Rebecca emphasized that studies have shown that broadcast is the most effective method to get messaging out. PP is trying to get authorization to air the spots in Colorado, but noted that advertising space is very expensive, and poses a barrier to this kind of outreach.
Planned Parenthood also provides a "Texting program" called ICYC (In Case You're Curious). Teens can anonymously text questions about sexual health to PP and have them answered within 24 hours. I was really impressed with this idea and wished that I was the one who came up with it!
Rebecca encouraged me to check out these existing campaigns, and consider how my creative vision could complement these existing efforts. At first I was discouraged because I thought the existing campaigns are so great, what can I do that is as valuable?
But I circle back to my idea of smartphones as a powerful tool to access information privately... and video as the ideal format to capture teens' attention. I still feel like combining these is a solid direction. Perhaps my next step is to find out if this has been done before, and what would make it successful. Maybe I don't need to exclusively tape teens talking... maybe it could be other content/footage produced and edited interestingly. It could be a combination of video and motion graphics, depending on the subject matter.
I want to find out what the most pressing questions teens have - and what the most effective ways of empowering them to make responsible decisions about birth control or delaying pregnancy. Then maybe I can figure out how to present the content. Ultimately I want to provide another channel for an organization to connect with the teens, and for the teens to have a resource for learning and self empowerment.
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