Leveraging Partnerships for Effective Community Engagement: The Key to Improving Health in Underserved Communities

Background:

Dachon Freeman, Account Director at CMRignite, has served in many positions across the marketing industry. Mr. Freeman’s expertise is behavior change marketing and he has a deep-rooted commitment to serving minority communities through expanding programs and services. In addition, to Mind Your Risks®, Mr. Freeman has extensive experience working with partners, such as equipping hundreds of community-based organizations with vaccine information to support effective outreach to underserved communities for the Partnering for Vaccine Equity Program. This included combating online misinformation and providing factual, relatable, culturally appropriate COVID-19 and influenza vaccine information for Black Americans experiencing health disparities within their community.

Program background:

Improving the health of underserved communities requires creating meaningful partnerships with organizations and individuals. Mr. Freeman and his team at CMRignite have been strategic thought partners coordinating media, partnerships, and outreach to the Black community for the Mind Your Risks® campaign.

Evaluation Methods and Results:

We found that engagement with partners and stakeholders who deeply understand the community’s needs can result in improving community health outcomes. Moreover, understanding how to work with partners, identifying mutual goals, and establishing a shared vision can maximize resources to address health inequities.

Conclusions:

In collaboration with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Fors Marsh, CMRignite secured strategic partnerships to help promote and raise awareness of the Mind Your Risks® campaign to reach the target audience. Some of those partnerships were with Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine, DC HBCU Alumni Alliance, media outlets such as Heart & Soul Magazine, Rolling Out Magazine, HBCU Connect, Radio One, and Monique Pressley, host and executive producer of the Make It Make Sense show.

Implications for research and/or practice:

During the panel discussion, Mr. Freeman will discuss approaches for leveraging partnerships, guidelines for successful partnerships, and effective forms of engagement to educate and engage Black men and other underserved communities. This includes collaboration with Historical Black Colleges Universities (HBCU’s), Black alumni associations, industry health care professionals, and trustworthy media partners to increase awareness and media coverage through their outlets.