Get Ready to GROW: Comprehensive developmental checks
Only 20 to 30% of children with health, behavioral, and development problems are identified and receive appropriate interventions prior to entering school. Working along side Children's Institute and a collaborative of child-serving organizations, a new community campaign was created to ensure families are aware of the benefits and availability of screenings.
The Get Ready to GROW collaborative, led by Children’s Institute, features screenings designed to support a child’s doctor by providing complementary information that they would not get during a typical well visit. In addition to height, weight, vision, and hearing, these development checks look at movement, dental, speech & language, thinking & reasoning, and social & emotional well being, as well as social determinants of health and education. The free checks are an easy and fun way for families to engage in their child’s development, and leverage state-of-the-art technology to ensure best practices.
The initiative aims to raise awareness and educate parents about these important screenings. The advertising acknowledges that parents often see things in their child’s behavior they are unsure of or think will go away with time. With the help of a screening, they can uncover their child’s strengths and, if a need is identified, take action to ensure their development is on track.
The GROW community initiative is managed by Children’s Institute but is the result of multiple years of collaborative planning efforts with more than 30 partnering organizations across education, health, and human services. Each partner provides vital knowledge, services, and funding, with roles including funding, family and community connections, direct services such as screening, child care and medical service provision, and parent navigation support.
Parents or providers can learn more about Get Ready To Grow or sign up for a free check at www.GetReadyToGrow.org or by reaching out to the GROW team by email at support@getreadytogrow.org or by phone at (585) 295-1008.
Get AMPED: Go All Electric
“Carbon-free electricity will power our entire community, showing the nation that this transformation is possible”
Launched in September 2021, this community-led initiative supports the transition to clean energy through beneficial electrification in the nine-county Genesee-Finger Lakes Region
The overarching goal of this initiative is to mitigate the impacts of climate change by reducing carbon pollution caused by burning fossil fuels. Climate change poses numerous harms and risks to our community, including the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, food insecurity, the spread of vector-borne diseases, poor indoor and outdoor air quality, toxic algae blooms, and damage to both private and public property.
This campaign is promoting the use of carbon-free electricity to meet our energy needs. Because most local emissions come from building heating systems and on-road vehicles, the focus of the campaign will be to encourage and support the transition of area organizations’ vehicles and buildings to technologies that are powered by carbon-free electricity, instead of fossil fuels.
AMPED is using inspiring stories and resources helpful to organizations looking to learn about beneficial electrification options, costs, and available incentives. Monthly webinars will cover a variety of building electrification and electric vehicle topics, all targeted at enabling organizations to take action. Local success stories and details can be found on ampedproject.org.
The AMPED campaign was developed through a process facilitated by Causewave Community Partners and funded by the Climate Solutions Accelerator, Greater Rochester Clean Cities, New York State Pollution Prevention Institute and the City of Rochester. Collaborators in the campaign included representatives from those funders and Center for Community Health & Prevention, Common Ground Health, Dutton Properties, EMCOR Betlem, Empire State Development, Gallina Development, Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council, Genesee Transportation Council, Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, Monroe County, PathStone Corporation, Piekunka Systems Inc., Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester Housing Authority, Rochester Regional Health, Regional Transit Service, SWBR, and University of Rochester.
To learn more about the campaign and sign up for updates visit www.ampedproject.org.
drive2Bbetter: Traffic Safety
Driver error remains the number one cause of crashes involving cars and bicyclists/pedestrians, despite the fact that drivers have the most power to prevent these accidents from happening in the first place.
The drive2Bbetter Campaign is has been brought to life through the work of community-wide stakeholders who strive to improve safety for all road users – including pedestrians and bicyclists.
The initial phase of the campaign focuses on three desired driver behaviors: slowing down, scanning for pedestrians and bicyclists, and leaving at least 3 feet of space when following, driving beside or passing a bicyclist on the road. By following these three simple driving habits we can begin to reduce the nearly 1.3 crashes that happen each day in Rochester.
Our partners on the drive2Bbetter campaign include AARP, Center for Disability Rights, City of Rochester, City of Rochester Police Department, Common Ground Health, Genesee Transportation Council, Injury Free Coalition for Kids of Rochester, Monroe County Department of Health, Monroe County Department of Public Safety, MVP Healthcare, Reconnect Rochester, Regional Transit Service (RTS), Rochester Cycling Alliance, School 19 – Rochester City School District, United Way of Greater Rochester.
Visit drive2Bbetter.com to learn more information.
A Winnable Public Health Battle
“The Center for Disease Control has identified teen pregnancy prevention as a Winnable Battle. With additional effort and support for evidence-based, cost-effective strategies that we can implement now, we will have a significant impact on our nation’s health.” (Source: CDC.org)
In 2016, the City of Rochester had a teen birth rate of 31 births per 1,000 women ages 15-19. This compares to rates of 16 in New York State and 24 nationwide. While these numbers have steadily declined over the past two decades, they are still much higher than in other developed countries (e.g. Canada=11 and the Netherlands=4). However, research shows that in Rochester, it's not just teens. In fact, the highest rate of unintended pregnancies of young women are between the ages of 20-24, followed by 25-29 year olds, then 15-19 year olds.
Over the past year, Causewave helped to convene a powerhouse of local experts to create a community-wide initiative. The catalyst for taking on this issue was twofold:
- Evidence shows that by improving access to more effective contraception like long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC), unintended pregnancies will drop; and
- There was a mix of passionate individuals and organizations ready to take on this challenge in our community.
The initiative is focused on reducing the number of unintended pregnancies in young women from teens up to 29 year olds by improving access to and awareness of all available contraception methods. The Steering Committee determined that the key message should aim at educating young women so that they can make informed reproductive choices without judgment.
“Stay True to You echoes a great deal of what young women are hearing from mentors and other women they respect. It’s a great platform for those mentors and healthcare professionals to engage and inform young women even more about the true facts they likely don’t know about their birth control options, to make the discussion more publicly and culturally acceptable, and ultimately help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in young women in the Rochester area. ”
JAY, a local advertising and marketing agency, has created an eye-catching messaging with media to intrigue young women to learn more about their birth control options. With help from Nan Burgess-Whitman, a volunteer market researcher, we were able to test two possible campaign messages and the corresponding creative. Nan, who has years of experience in the market research field suggested Causewave use both online and in person focus groups to test these concepts. This was decided partly on the age demographic we were trying to target and partly on the numerous benefits of using online focus groups, which includes reduced cost, more data and quicker results. Causewave had never used online focus groups prior but found them to be easy, fun and the results were really surprising!
Thanks to JAY, who is donating all of the creative development and media planning, Causewave and its many partners are now in the final stages before officially launching the campaign.
Keep an eye out for the public launch of the campaign this summer! If you'd like to learn more or get involved, please contact Stacey Saracene, Senior Program Manager, at ssaracene@causewave.org.
Huge thanks to all devoted steering committee members, including: Rachael Phelps, Katherine Greenberg, MD, Andy Aligne, MD, Sherita D. Bullock, Jess Coleman, Sandy Coleman, Sheila Driscoll, Marielena Vélez de Brown, MD, Tori Toliver-Powers, Audrey Korokeyi, Mary Terziani, Krysta Baccari, Jessica Cranch and Gladys Pedraza-Burgos. Special thanks to Jay Advertising and Nan Burgess-Whitman for all the hard work and dedication they’ve put into the messaging strategy for this initiative.
Picture Source: The Sunday News
H2O Hero: Water Pollution Prevention
Our region is home to some of the most beautiful freshwater in the world. Thanks to the abundance of this natural resource, we have access to plentiful clean drinking water, are a tourism destination, enjoy year-round recreational activities, and have untapped economic development potential.
Unfortunately, the Rochester Embayment area has been identified as 1 of 43 Areas of Concern in the Great Lakes due to harmful human activity, while historical and current pollution problems continue to impair the quality of this precious resource.
With our partners at the Water Education Collaborative (WEC) and SIGMA Marketing, we are working to increase awareness and understanding regarding water quality and how individuals can make a difference. Since non-point source pollution principally comes from stormwater run-off, and is affected by people’s daily activities, the WEC’s overarching mission is to address this problem by promoting water quality education in the community and encouraging stewardship in one’s own backyard. The “H2O Hero” campaign launched in May 2007, and has seen success in the form of hundreds of additional volunteers and education delivered at the award-winning www.H2Ohero.org website, as well as rain barrel education.