Central California Public Health Consortium: Power-mapping, message development, and media training
Date: May 14, 2025 at 9:30 - 11:30
As part of BMSG’s ongoing work to strengthen narrative power for racial and health equity, the Racial and Health Equity Strategy Team, led by Katherine Schaff and Diana Guardado, hosted a training for the Central California Public Health Consortium focused on power-mapping and BMSG’s Layers of Strategy as a foundation for public health communications. Community organizers have long used power-mapping (or power analyses) to examine the power relationships that shape public health and to work toward social change. Actively working to shift power to those who have been most harmed by inequities can also provide a foundation for long-term narrative change and strategic communications work. In this training, participants learned how power-mapping can be integrated into everyday public health practice and used as a foundation for effective messaging and narrative change.
Following the power-mapping training, BMSG trainers Rosaura Wardsworth and Jocelyn Polanco led a message development and spokesperson training to help participants develop their message delivery’ skills. Participants learned how to determine an Overall Strategy as a foundation for their message development. Through a series of hands-on activities, they learned how to craft effective messages that reflect the needs and goals of the communities they serve. They also had the opportunity to practice interviewing each other in small groups and learned about best practices they can utilize to handle difficult questions and stay on message during interviews and other challenging conversations.
