Health Raps
Conway, AR, 2002
According to the most recent Kids Count Data Book, the health status of Arkansas's children still lags behind the rest of the nation—ranking 45th in teen births, 47th in child deaths and 43rd in infant mortality. In order to provide outreach and public education about child and adolescent health concerns to Arkansas parents, the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN) is collaborating with the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) on Health Raps, a children's health initiative targeting 11 children's health issues in the state of Arkansas.
The project centered around 11 public service announcements for radio and television. In order to meet the needs of all Arkansas residents, specifically the state's growing Latino population, the programming utilized the talents of Latino performers. The PSAs comprised bilingual rap tunes featuring local musician, performer and community leader Al “Papa Rap†Lopez and area high school students. PSAs were scheduled around programming that reaches the target audiences. Comcast, a local cable television company, agreed to do the same. In addition, AETN and the AACF produced one 30-minute educational program targeted at parents and caregivers. A Web site archives the PSAs and offers facts about the health topic and links to related organizations and services.
The programs and a companion bilingual discussion guide were distributed to health educators, child-care providers and workshop participants. In addition, AETN and AACF participated in six local health fairs. The partners promoted the project using direct mailings, print ads and feature articles to targeted publications.
AETN chose AACF as its primary community partner due to its 25-year history of statewide intervention for children. AACF is the lead agency for both the Covering Kids and Families initiative and the Kids County project. Through these national initiatives AACF has developed the Covering Kids Coalition and the Kids Count Coalition, which supplied a direct link to communities for the Health Raps project.
Contact Information
Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN)
Carole Adornetto, Director of Production
Tel: 501-682-2386
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families
Amy Rossi, Executive Director
Tel: 501-371-9678
Awards:
AETN Additional Funding
Tyson Foods, Inc. gave $20,000 and is promoting and distributing Health Raps throughout the country via their their corporate communications group and operations managers responsible for community relations in 32 states.
AETN Round Three
Award of Excellence, Health Raps
— 2004 Videographer Awards
PSAs finalist, Health Raps-Smoking
— 25th Annual Telly Awards
Third Place, Health Raps-Smoking
— U.S. International Film and Video Festival