Communication Strategies and Tactics for Public Health Advocates
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Program Overview
Today’s public health leaders must have the skills to move ideas to scale, and drive needed changes for healthier communities. They (and you) have the power to be accelerants on the fire of change, to move ideas from the conceptual to action. This series of high-impact courses will help you build the strategic communications skills required to do so.
Wherever you end up next, you will have to convince policy makers, funders, partners, media, or boards of the value of your ideas You will also need to engage people whose views differ from your own, because their perspectives help shape what progress is possible. That means strategic communications is not a luxury or even a sidelight. It is core to success on all fronts.
This series of courses will be held online in a primarily self-paced format, with video lectures from Harvard experts and exercises to reinforce learning. Additional information on the course format will be available at a later date. For more information, please subscribe for program updates
Build Messages That Move People—and Policy
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Describe the role of communications as an essential component of public health leadership and a driver of healthier communities and populations.
- Explain the strategic communications planning process.
- Translate complex information in ways that are more accessible to the publics you seek to engage and influence.
- Gain confidence in your skills to be a successful change-agent in support of programs and policies most important to you.
- Explore new skills that you may not have previously attempted.
Through this series of online programs, you will have the have an opportunity to develop the pieces of a strategic communication plan required to advocate for a specific programmatic or policy reform of your choice:
- An original example of digital content creation
- Core messages to guide all communications, as well as messages your opponents might employ
- A story that will move your audiences emotionally
- A pitch letter making your case for a funder, policy maker or journalist
- An op-ed piece that makes your case
- A plan for telling and spreading your story via traditional and social media
Participants will receive a Certificate of Fundamentals from the Harvard Chan Advanced Learning Academy upon completion of each individual course.
Core Faculty