further, opening more opportunities to effectively reach
and influence these audiences to change behaviors.
While the clinical training, education and experience
of the original Prepped & Ready team is one that may
not be matched, we recommend looking for additional
individual partners that are trusted within different
populations (Hispanic, Black, lower income, high risk
youth) and create opportunities to leverage that trust
in the program itself. This could mean looking for health
professionals that are representative of these different
populations. It could also mean looking for volunteer
partners that could function as an emcee or to share
personal stories of how their lives have been affected
by some of the issues in the Prepped & Ready program.
These individuals and relationships could also be
leveraged through pre-recorded video (even for
in-person events.)
Each audience segment has its own communication
challenges and may look very different. The Prepped &
Ready staff have already shown a good understanding
of the importance of trust as evidenced by their efforts
to bring in a trained police officer to lend credibility to
the firearm component of the program. However, that
same rationale may actually have the opposite result
for some members of the Black community related to
the history of systemic inequality and cultural unrest
around issues of policing in the Black community. A
possible alternative in this specific instance might be to
partner with a veteran who is a person of color to
sidestep the issue of policing.
The reality is, there are certain populations that
are currently unreachable with the current Prepped &
Ready program. Specifically, higher risk populations
that are lower income with lower education levels will
be extremely difficult to influence with the current
format. The barriers of entry for this population are
much higher and may also involve fundamental issues
like illiteracy, transportation and sometimes language.
In our conversations with the Health Partnership Clinic
and Center of Grace, both underscored the importance
of simple language and shorter program length likely
being mandatory to reach their core populations.These can be difficult challenges to address and
there may not be a “one-size-fits-all” approach, but we
believe by diversifying the program itself, that will aid in
making this program more accessible to
other audiences.Additionally, some of our digital distribution tactics
should also naturally diversify some of the participant
pool by the increase in scale and targeting some
different sectors.