This communications toolkit was created by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) to help local health departments (LHDs) effectively communicate about local public health. As a critical component of the local infrastructure, an LHD must be an effective advocate for itself, which requires excellence in communication. This toolkit suggests practical ways to succeed in this important activity.  The centerpiece of the toolkit is a set of three different fact sheets describing the role local health departments play in the communities they serve.

The first section of the toolkit provides the three fact sheets and offers suggestions about how to customize them for use in your own communities.

The second section describes the importance of building relationships with the media and includes specific tools and strategies that can be used to reach the media, with emphasis on using one of the fact sheets described above to supplement your efforts.

The third section provides tips for reaching policymakers and effectively delivering your message, with suggestions for incorporating a fact sheet in your efforts.

The final section describes the Operational Definition project. The three fact sheets in this toolkit were derived from the Operational Definition to provide concise and clear ways to define local public health to a variety of audiences. While the fact sheets generally describe what local public health does, the Operational Definition describes what each person can reasonably expect its LHD to provide.

You can also download the entire Toolkit as a Word Document.