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Healthy
Kids Now!, the Washington State Children's Health Insurance
Program, recently won the public relations industry's equivalent
of an Oscar for organizing an outreach campaign that has enrolled
more than 40,000 children in state medical programs over the
last 18 months.
The Public Relations Society of America
annually awards its “Silver Anvil” – which symbolizes the
forging of public opinion -- to public relations practitioners
who address a contemporary issue with skill, creativity and
resourcefulness. Winning
programs meet the highest standards of the four components
of strategic public relations programming -- research, planning,
execution and evaluation.
The
Healthy
Kids Now! campaign
-- managed by the state Department of Social and Health
Services’ Medical Administration and conducted by the Health
Improvement Partnership and Desautel Hege Communications of
Spokane -- was chosen for the award from among more than 700
national competitors, including Heinz, Frito Lay and Levi
Strauss. The
campaign featured short, family-friendly messages and colorful
promotional materials and relied on grassroots outreach tactics
as well as private-sector advertising and marketing techniques.
Washington's SCHIP uses the national Insure
Kids Now! toll-free number as its
Healthy Kids Now! hotline.
HRSA supports Insure Kids Now!, which features the toll-free number and a Web site
(www.insurekidsnow.gov)
that link people desiring information on health insurance for
children to free and low-cost insurance programs in their home
state. The Healthy Kids Now! hotline has received about 11,300
calls since the campaign began in February 2000. Some 10 million children nationwide are estimated to be uninsured.
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