Toolkit
Overview
This toolkit provides a structured, evidence‑based roadmap for rural communities and youth leaders, health departments, and local organizations to design, implement, and evaluate awareness and behavior‑change campaigns that reflect community voices, values, and needs. Drawing on lessons from the Creating the Change campaign, it offers a practical, step‑by‑step process to plan, launch, and sustain efforts addressing mental health, substance use, stigma, and social connection.
Each rural community is unique—so are its challenges, strengths, and ingrained values. This toolkit will help you:
- Define your campaign’s purpose and focus areas, emphasizing mental health and substance use as community priorities.
- Identify local partners, strengths, and resources to support sustained behavioral health promotion.
- Understand your audience so messages are culturally relevant and resonate with those most affected.
- Create relatable, non‑judgmental, hopeful messages that reduce stigma and normalize seeking help, treatment, and recovery.
- Choose trusted community channels to share your message.
- Equip local leaders with evidence‑based, community‑informed tools to promote resilience.
- Engage the community in co‑creating content that reflects lived experience and builds protective factors like connection and belonging.
- Plan and evaluate your campaign to track impact and support long‑term healing and change.
Approach
This toolkit blends health promotion with social marketing principles to guide design, implementation, and evaluation.
It relies on locally informed, tailored messaging developed through participatory processes that reflect community values, identify barriers, and promote sustainable behavior change.
Who is this toolkit for?
- Youth groups and leaders
- Local health departments
- Schools and teachers
- Behavioral health providers
- Peer support organizations
- Tribal, rural, and frontier community coalitions
- Anyone seeking to shift harmful narratives and promote change