Cholera, tobacco, and obesity: Educating the community over time

Whether it is to raise awareness about a specific public health threat or provide disease prevention messages, educating community residents is a critical public health function. As the nation's first health department, the Boston Public Health Commission has a long and rich history of communicating with residents using a variety of methods, from posting signs on lamp posts to posting on Facebook. More recently, some of our efforts have focused on strengthening the capacity of community residents to consume public health data and using data to support community engagement. This presentation will provide an overview of past and present strategies employed by Boston's public health officials to communicate with and educate the general public, describe lessons learned, and suggest strategies that may be used in future.