success stories
Virginia Healthy Start Initiative
The Loving Steps Campaign
View Collateral
The Virginia Healthy Start Initiative was initiated by the Virginia Department of Health in six Virginia communities with the highest levels of late-term miscarriages, infant deaths, births to teen mothers and poverty. Its goal was to provide urban and rural teens and young women ages 20-24 with information to raise awareness of infant mortality and low-weight births and encourage behavioral changes that would improve perinatal outcomes.
Our
Steps To “Loving Steps.”
After conducting extensive research, Cahoon & Cross formulated a social marketing model with the Loving Steps campaign. Images
for the marketing materials included original photographs of a healthy African-American baby with her mother and father, as well as Hispanic
and Caucasian mothers with their babies. Print and broadcast advertising encouraged expectant mothers to take care of themselves and their babies by getting prenatal
care, eating healthy, avoiding alcohol, drugs and tobacco, and seeking help from supporters. Medical professionals and supporters were also
targeted to help expectant moms to have healthy babies. They offered practical, simple steps that a mother could take to positively impact her
life and that of her baby. View
Collateral
A Healthy Awareness
The campaign worked to build support for existing programs, increasing public awareness for prenatal care and encouraging the community to support
expectant mothers in need. Field managers responded enthusiastically to the Loving Steps campaign.