Georgia IDEA Part C Outreach Campaign
Georgia faced a significant challenge promoting its early detection and intervention service to families at risk for having children with delays and disabilities. The federal Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) requires that 2% of a state’s population aged three and under be served, but Georgia was performing at well below that level. The Babies Can’t Wait initiative (Georgia’s name for its Part C program) had a strong presence with its core audience of low-income families, but needed a plan to appeal to all families regardless of income level. CSF reviewed three years of hospital birth records for all live births in Georgia, identifying nine Target Family Types (TFTs) that had a significant portion of young children who fit the identified criteria of being at risk of having developmental delays. CSF created Family Portraits outlining in depth characteristics of these families and identified key factors that would help them make decisions about receiving intervention services for their child who was displaying indicators of developmental delays. CSF used this information to create individualized outreach strategies and media campaigns for each of the nine TFTs. The CSF team developed a series of radio PSAs, billboards, posters, brochures, newspaper spots and a kit for creating future media materials. CSF designed strategy reports, community outreach and media campaign materials, and developed training materials for both medical professionals and staff. CSF worked with the Babies Can’t Wait staff and trained them in how best to apply these materials to reach their target populations. CSF helped the program increase its year-on-year service participation rate from 1.35% in FY 2003-04 to 1.58% in FY 2004-05, and the program achieved its federally mandated goal of 2% participation by the end of calendar year 2007.
