tailieunhanh - Developing Health Education Materials

There are three key steps to successful outreach. The first step is to gather background information about the community you’d like to work with, and assess your own organization. Second, you establish contacts and develop relationships with community members and organizations. Finally, you plan and implement an outreach program. Obvious? Unfortunately not. Given the pressures of time, money, pending grant proposal deadlines and human nature, many organizations take these steps in reverse order — planning and implementing programs before establishing thorough contacts in a community; and making contacts before completing essential research. In your efforts to improve your organization’s outreach, be sure to allot. | Section Three Health Education Health Education Materials Depending on resources and budgets designing your own health education materials may be a more desired route than purchasing existing materials. This may be an option because materials on the specific topic you are addressing may not be available the reading level of the materials does not meet your needs the information is not geared toward your target population or the information is needed in a different format. Visual Design Generally when designing any health education materials the following design aspects should be considered Keep the materials SIMPLE. Try to limit the amount of information contained in one publication. The font size of the inside text should be at least 12-point if not larger. Fonts with serifs are generally easier to read for the text. Times New Roman Palatino and Century Schoolbook are some examples of fonts with serifs. Any titles or subheadings should be larger than the text and clearly visible. Titles in upper and lower cases are easier to read than all uPpER caps. Use unjustified right margins. This allows the reader7 s eye to flow more easily through the text and eliminates blank spaces caused by justification. Literacy levels should be kept to about 5th or 6th grade see SMOG test later in this section . The material should not be cluttered. A well-proportioned amount of white space is beneficial to the appearance of the document. The material should be visually appealing. If possible try to include a mix of graphics and pictures with text. Any graphics or pictures should correspond directly to the content of the material. If using any photographs the photos should reflect the culture and ethnicity of the target audience. People in the photographs should be conducting realistic activities. Community Health Resource Guide Page 165 Section Three Health Education Developing Health Education Materials Substance Abuse Prevention Materials The Centers for Substance Abuse Prevention