As you know, dear readers, we occasionally highlight professional organizations that we think may interest our fellow health communicators (the Society for Health Communication is a good example). Well, get excited — because today we’ve got a great one for you.
The Public Health Communications Collaborative, or PHCC, was founded by the CDC Foundation, the de Beaumont Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, and Trust for America’s Health in 2020. The charge was both simple and not-at-all simple: Provide unbiased communication about the COVID pandemic.
We certainly don’t have to tell you that being a public health communicator at this exact moment in time can be… challenging. There’s been a profound loss of trust in public health institutions in this country, and it will take a lot of hard work and time to begin (re)building that trust. The founders of PHCC don’t want health communicators to have to figure all this out on their own. And so they started PHCC: a public health communication community dedicated to developing and sharing accurate, science-based messaging and related communication tools.
Sounds pretty great, right? Well, it is! PHCC works to develop and share actionable resources to help health communicators clearly and accurately communicate about current public health issues, build trust in the work of public health, and address harmful misinformation. If you start poking around the PHCC website, we wouldn’t be surprised if you spend much longer there than you intended. From answers to tough public health questions to timely misinfo alerts and all kinds of messaging resources — including a checklist on public health plain language and a brand new guide for creating accessible social media content on public health topics — PHCC has it all. (Oh, and educational opportunities! That too.)
So we suggest that you get to know PHCC — you can sign up for updates on the site — and keep a close eye out for new resources. We certainly will be
The bottom line: As public health communicators work to share clear and accurate public health messaging and rebuild trust in public health institutions, it’s important that we’re aligned — and that we support each other. The Public Health Communications Collaborative has entered the chat, and we ❤️ it.
Copy/paste to share on social (and tag us!): This week, CommunicateHealth is chatting about the Public Health Communications Collaboration. If you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s a fantastic resource for #PublicHealth communicators. Learn more: https://bit.ly/3X7hvCM #HealthComm #HealthCommunication #HealthLiteracy
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