Introduction
Part three of the project will critically analyze different aspects of the project in detail. The section will analyze how to involve media to communicate the projects work, funding, and the available opportunities and how to maintain them, and finally the ethical consideration when working with children in a study as a vulnerable population
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Media and communication
As outline in the proposed interventions to childhood obesity, the important strategies that could support this health promotion project include the following:
- Strategy 1: making childhood obesity a priority for all government health agencies and ministries
- Strategy 2: coordinating efforts on the priorities
- Supportive environments: making physical and social environments where the children play, learn and live more supportive to healthy eating and physical activity
- Early action: finding out risks of obesity and overweight in children and addressing it early
- Nutritious foods: coming up with ways to increase accessibility and availability of nutritious foods and decreasing the marketing, accessibility, and availability of beverages and foods in high sugar, fat, and sodium in children
- Strategy 3: Assessing and reporting on the intervention’s collective progress in childhood obesity reduction, learning from the strategies and initiatives that were successful, and modifying the approaches appropriately.
The media is a vital ally to any situation in public health because of its function of serving the role of being an advocate and as a source of correct information for correct health behaviors (UFS, 2015). The media also play a crucial role as the connection between the larger public and the health workers. According to UFS (2015), health authorities entrust and educate the media with important health information, which is sent to the general public in formats that are readily accessible through different media channels. Given that the media is a key stakeholder in this project, they could be involved to communicate the project’s work in several ways.
Mass media
These will be involved to expand the reach of the health promotion program. The mass media will be helpful since it provides a vital link between the vital health information from the project and the rural residents. According to UFS (2015), the mass media such as television and radio, are effective ways of persuading the targeted audiences to remind them of the important information to adopt new behaviors. The mass media would be involved in informing the public about the child obesity condition and how to manage it, motivate organized listening groups or ad hoc, and promote the acceptance of the health program by the communities
Radio spots
In regions where listening to radios is still popular, radio spots will be sued successfully as a tool for health communication. Radios are readily available and very cheaper, their programs can also be readily be adapted to the local languages, values, and culture (UFS, 2015). According to UFS (2015), promotional sports for 45 seconds are the backbone of mass media programs. Therefore, the project will start with the spots since they are easy and quick to produce and broadcast. This way, radio spots will be a low-cost tool that is accessible to a large number of families. Moreover, the project will ensure that dozens of radio sports are broadcasted to several FM stations daily. If this will work, the project will develop short radio programs by recording short brief interviews and local skits with parents. This will create a powerful synergy between marketing as selling and advertising, however marketing consists of different activities. Kotler and Make define marketing as the set of activities, and communication channels when the skits will be broadcasting on the local radio stations.
social media
Since access to the internet is rapidly expanding, it is serving as a rich source of information to environments lacking health expertise. UFS (2015) indicated that the internet allows people to access a wide range of information that is health related regardless of their location at a mouse click. The project will embrace Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube among others to relay health information especially on nutrition, physical activities, and health statistics to the people.
Print media
This will also be used by the project is distributing leaflets and pamphlets to disseminate health information to the people reliably.
Funding
The project fully understands that finding funds for the project is a daunting task. This section of the paper will elaborate on the opportunities that might be available and how it will maintain them to ensure the project is sustainable.
Federal and state government grants
State or federal governmental agencies often advertise for proposals on certain topic areas. Moreover, they usually have a time period during which the proposals are accepted and the funding decisions are made. This project will always be alert to be aware of the timeframes of different grant opportunities. Similarly, the project will sign up for the grants email alerts to receive notifications for the new proposals calls
Foundations
There are several foundation types including public, family, and community foundations. To get these foundations, the project will look for them online that match this health program of childhood obesity. Other liable sources that the project will look at will include the chamber of commerce, county councils’ government.
Corporations
Several corporations provide grants through philanthropic divisions or foundations, and they tend to invest in the local communities they are located (n.a, 2015). Therefore, to sustain the project, it will investigate the corporation’s headquarters or their branches or facilities in the community and also in their websites on what type of initiatives and programs they fund
Service organizations
Service and civic clubs like the Junior League, Lions clubs, and the Rotary often have in-kind or monetary resources (n.a, 2015). service organizations are very wide and include the following sectors, education, business, human services, government, health among others. Therefore, to get these opportunities, the project will engage with members in different sectors to build a great synergy with these service organizations.
Other funding sources
Other funding sources that will help sustain and boost the health promotion program include the following; fundraising, donations, in-kind support, earned income, gifts, participation fees, and contributions.
When developing a budget for the project, the following factors could be important as outlined by Balle (2015):
Source of income/funding: the project will need to focus on the net income and not the gross income since the funds and grants are susceptible to taxation. Therefore, the net income should be considered for budgeting for the project
Costs: the project will need costs to stay in operation. Therefore, every expense by the project will be accounted for by recording it in the budget. However small the purchase is, to get an accurate total figure in the budget
Balance: achieving balance is another important factor. The budget side of the worksheet listing income must equal the expenses side. Balle (2015) indicated that a budget with more income than the expense is good since the excess funds can be saved for future programs ahead. However, a budget with more expense than income is a serious problem and therefore more ways of getting income/funds and reducing expenses should be sought.
Goals: reaching certain project goals should be an important factor in budgeting for the project. The long term and short term goals that need to be achieved should guide budgeting and help in monitoring the progress of the project towards realizing them.
Ethical considerations
The project will deal with children as the vulnerable population. Copernicus Group (2015) defined children as people who have not reached the legal age for procedures or treatments involved in the research under the jurisdictions applicable law in which the research is being conducted. Certain ethical issues relate to children when used in a study and they will definitely rise in the proposed project. The project has adequate measures to ensure the project remains ethical and does not violate the children population.
Parental permission
Parental permission is required when research is involving children and it replaced informed consent. Therefore, to ensure the project remains ethical, parental permission will be needed from the parents of the children under the program
Assent
This is the affirmative agreement of the child to participate in the study. The process of assent aims to involve the children in decisions and discussions about the research participation. Therefore, to ensure that the project is ethical, the project investigators will:
- Assist the child in achieving an understanding that is developmentally appropriate of the nature of their conditions
- Assess the children’s understanding of the provided information
- Disclose to the children the nature of the intervention proposed and what they would likely experience
- Secure the willingness of the child to accept the intervention proposed.
My reflection
I have been developing the project over the past few weeks and so far I believed it has been successful. This proposal I have been developing was in three parts and has been a reflection of what I have studied in the unit
The first part of the proposal was about the proposal on a health program. I chose childhood obesity as the health issue in my proposal and the vulnerable population was children. My planned intervention entailed three strategies and it included all the stakeholders ranging from the governments, individuals, communities, families, youth groups, media, businesses, schools, and religious organizations. With well-elaborated aims and objectives, the project proposal was aimed at making a great impact on society.
After days of wringing and coming up with the proposal, I embarked on writing the second part of the project. Generally, this part was descriptive in nature. The second part of the project entails the requirement for planning, the significance of each stakeholder, the implementation stage, how the project would be evaluated, and how it will be sustainable. The information I learned in the unit was very much helpful in this part also as most of them I knew about from my classroom
The last part of the project was analytical in nature unlike part two which was descriptive. Majorly part three was on how the media could be involved in the project, funding, ethical consideration for children, the vulnerable population. This part was also doable since my class unit and notes were very much helpful
Conclusion
In conclusion, media and improving social health is by having good communication skills. Additionally, it is drawn from the way we relate to others. communication are vital for the project’s success. Mass media, radio spots, social media, and print media are integral in the dissemination of information to communities. Funding for the project could be gotten from various sources such as grants, donations, foundations, corporations, and service sectors among others. Parent permission ad child assent are key ethical considerations when working with children
References
Balle, L. (2015). What Are the Factors for Preparing a Budget? | below. row. Retrieved 18 August 2015, from http://www.ehow.com/info_7753539_factors-preparing-budget.html
Corpernicus Group, (2015). Protecting Vulnerable Populations During Research: Guidelines for safeguarding the health and welfare of children | Copernicus Group – Independent Review Board. Cgirb.com. Retrieved 18 August 2015, from http://www.cgirb.com/irb-insights/protecting-vulnerable-populations-during-research-guidelines/
Crowdfunding. A new option for funding health projects. (2015). Arch Argent Pediat. doi:10.5546/AAP.2015.eng.154
UFS, (2015). Health Communication Course: Module 5 – The Role of Media in Health Promotion. Uniteforsight.org. Retrieved 18 August 2015, from http://www.uniteforsight.org/health-communication-course/module5
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