#SaveOurDRINKINGWATE​R Campaign Kicks-Off with City of Flint Public Health Communications Strategy Forum

City Officials, Community Stakeholders and Kennedi-Taylor Group come together
to lead community discussion on Flint Water Crisis Communications

(Flint, Mich) — City of Flint (@Cityof_Flint) officials, Mayor Karen Weaver (@karenaboutflint) and Chief Public Health Advisor, Dr. Pamela Pugh (@pamlpugh) worked collaboratively this week with leaders from the National Wildlife Federation (@NWF), NAACP-Flint (@NAACPFlint), Freshwater Future (@FreshwaterFutur), One Love Global(@OneLoveGlobal) and Kennedi-Taylor Group to host an active and informative forum to discuss ways to develop an effective Public Health Communications Strategy to better inform the residents of Flint.  Representatives from the corporate, non-profit, state, county and community organizations gathered September 26^th at Mott Community College for the strategy session facilitated by Tirrell D. Whittley and Maurice Anderson of the Kennedi-Taylor Group.

Whittley and Anderson led the forward-thinking forum to develop ideas and solutions to address some of the challenges that exist regarding communications, to ensure the community receives important messages and information about Public Health issues related to the Flint Water Crisis.  Some of the topics discussed include:

• Re-establishing Public Trust
• Environmental Injustice
• Communication Barriers
• Identifying Trusted Information Sources
• Community Opinion Leaders and Influencers

“We wanted to establish a framework for a public health communications plan for the City of Flint by listening to the community first”, says Simone Lightfoot (@SimoneLightfoot), National Director of Urban Initiatives, National Wildlife Federation.
While Mayor Karen Weaver is addressing the Flint Water Crisis on a national and state level, Chief Public Health Advisor, Dr. Pamela Pugh is leading the charge to engage local community stakeholders to ensure consistent, comprehensive and trusted information is disseminated and made widely available.
Lee Gonzales, Legislative Liaison for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights said, “This was a very informative meeting on communications with important stakeholders at the table.  The ideas presented were forward-looking and created excitement among the participants.”

E. Yvonne Lewis (@YlewisE), Director of Outreach for the Genesee Health Plan and CEO of the National Center of African-American Health Consciousness helped lead group breakouts that allowed participants to deep-dive into communication opportunities and solutions.   The next phase of the #SaveOurDRINKINGWATER Campaign will be the development of a Public Health Communications Strategy and Plan for the City of Flint. The plan is expected to be completed in October 2017.

For more information and inquiries, please contact:
Maurice Anderson, Managing Partner Kennedi-Taylor. Email: [email protected]