THURS-083 - A Local Health Coalition’s Approach to a Sugar Sweetened Beverage Education Campaign

Brief Abstract Summary: The Top 10 Coalition, a local health coalition in Indianapolis, Indiana, developed a community centered educational campaign in 2021 to encourage residents to limit their sugar sweetened beverage consumption and predominantly consume water and low-fat plan milk. This campaign, Rethink Your Drink: Indy Kids are Sweet Enough, utilized many forms of health communications to reach diverse audiences and encourage behavior change with a priority towards children and their families. Fourteen local organizations were involved in shaping the campaign and disseminating the messaging to the community. To date, Rethink Your Drink has interacted with over 8,000 individuals and garnered over 1 million impressions through radio, streaming audio, print, TV, social media, and a dedicated webpage.

Detailed abstract description: In 2021, the Top 10 Coalition, a local health coalition in Indianapolis, Indiana formed an educational campaign to effect behavior change to reduce sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption in the community. The campaign, Rethink Your Drink: Indy Kids are Sweet Enough, prioritizes encouraging minority children and their families to drink mostly water and low-fat, plain milk and fewer SSBs, such as sports drinks, sweetened coffee and tea, fruit drinks, soda and energy drinks. Outreach is achieved through direct education and through various communications outlets with a focus on positive and encouraging language and messaging.
Due to the coalition origins of this campaign, there are fourteen different partner organizations involved from local non-profits to national non-profits, government agencies, local health systems and more. The campaign received funding from Center for Science in the Public Interest and Indiana University Health in order to build its foundation. To start work on the grassroots level, the campaign subcontracted with a local non-profit, Centers of Wellness for Urban Women, to manage the community engagement arm of the campaign. Subsequently, a local community empowerment organization, Kheprw Institute, was contracted as the graphic designer for the campaign and created materials such as a style guide and graphics to post on social media. To ensure the materials and messaging were culturally appropriate and resonated with the community, a feedback committee was convened to provide feedback and adjusted the materials accordingly.
To engage diverse audiences, messaging is shared through a variety of communication and media outlets. These include outreach at community events, publishing articles in local news publications, posting on social media, holding community conversations on partners’ platforms, giving radio interviews, advertising on radio stations including a Spanish-language station and connecting with local influencers to create content. Participants in an Indianapolis food system leadership program, Neighborhood Food Champions, were trained and compensated to assist the campaign in delivering the messaging to their communities in which they are already a trusted source. Lastly, Rethink Your Drink Day, held on September 17, 2021, was a city-wide day to spread campaign awareness. This included outreach at five locations across Indianapolis, virtual engagement through a Facebook profile frame and a news story and community conversation presented by a local TV station. Rethink Your Drink has garnered over 8,000 in-person interactions and over 1 million impressions virtually to date. The campaign continues to engage with the community and work with partners to spread the message across Indianapolis.