Project Info
Project Description
Client Challenge
Providing support, resources, and access for Black birthing women 16 years and older, the team at Black Infant Health in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties have worked tirelessly to improve the outcomes for Black women and infants during childbirth. The team desired a comprehensive campaign that would empower Black women before, during and after their birthing process and engage medical professionals to actively work towards improving Black maternal health outcomes.
About Perinatal Equity Initiative
The Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI) in Riverside and San Bernardino counties aims to address the causes of persistent inequality and identify best practices to deal with disparities in Black infant mortality. PEI promotes the use of specific interventions designed to fill gaps in current programming offered through the Black Infant Health Group Model.
How Nice supported communications
Nice Work
Nice Media Group crafts a year-long campaign for Riverside and San Bernardino counties, “Rallying Around Sisters: Redefining and Strengthening the Village” that includes strategy sessions, visual graphics, content creation and listening sessions. The campaign deliverables centered Black mothers and the high maternal mortality rates they face using a non-deficit narrative lens. In addition, the campaign highlighted ways the “village” can support a mother during her birthing journey.
Strategy Sessions
Nice developed long-term plans and goals for PEI in conjunction with the community advisory board members who support the initiative. We also partnered with community advisory board members of the initiative to gain a pulse on topics that interest mothers during their birthing journey. From there the series, IGTV Mommy Talks was created to equip mothers with what to expect during their birthing journey and provide them with resources.
Content Creation
Content for this campaign was created with a non-deficit narrative lens to intentionally make mothers feel safe and hopeful about their maternal health, while also encouraging her village, inclusive of medical providers, to support better health outcomes. In addition, the campaign spoke to inclusivity of persons who are gender non-conforming or trans and are in the birthing process. Maternal mortality rates in the Black community are at an all-time high. Nice crafted messaging that presented the data while also leveraging on Black mothers’ strengths…their village.
Visual Support
Nice worked with Essence photographer to visually tell the story of “Rallying Around Sisters: Redefining and Strengthening the Village.” We developed a shot list to ensure the mother was captured surrounded by her village: partner, children, doula, grandparents and friends.
Media Toolkit
To increase viewership and sharing of the campaign among stakeholders and community members, Nice created a user-friendly toolkit with downloadable images and content that highlight ways a village can support a mother and the resources the Black Infant Health program provides.
Listening Session
Nice Media Group provided one-on-one listening sessions to help bridge the gap between Black mothers and medical providers. Results from the listening sessions informed the messaging crafted for the counties Twitter accounts, which were specifically geared towards medical providers.
Nice Results
Partnerships
Nice was able to increase partnerships among both counties by tapping our personal contacts. Nice forged a partnership between Prana Wellness (a yoga company that provides prenatal and postpartum yoga) and San Bernardino and Riverside county, securing a free prenatal yoga session via Instagram for our clients’ audiences.
Nice engaged the medical provider community through listening sessions. The listening sessions aimed to to better understand the perspectives of healthcare providers who provide care to Black birthing mothers. The listening sessions increased medical providers’ knowledge about our client’s programs and created space for partnership.
Client Feedback:
“We appreciate how deliberate you are with the imagery. We love the posts and are happy we are getting out there in the community.” – Black Infant Health Team
