Developing and Implementing a Social Marketing Campaign In One’s Own Community: Impact on Community Action Team Members and Beyond

Background/Purpose: Community-based IPV prevention programs, especially in growing immigrant communities, remain scarce. We developed a prevention campaign for Asian Indians, one of the most rapidly growing population groups in the Midwestern USA. The campaign was aimed at altering community norms and promoting bystander efficacy and action and centered on the community’s cherished value of shanti (peace and harmony). This study examines the campaign’s impact on community members substantively involved in project development and implementation.

Methods: Campaign Development. Social marketing approaches, widely applied to prevention campaigns, often leave out members of the target community in program design and implementation. Thus, we created multiple mechanisms to engage residents and organizations in the target community, such as engaging lay community members to serve on a Community Action Team (CAT) and collaborating with community- and faith-based organizations.

Impact Assessment. To assess changes in CAT members’ knowledge attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors (KABBs), we administered written surveys and in-depth interviews prior to their participation in CAT and after the project completion. Survey responses were analyzed using paired t-test (2 tailed). Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results: Fifteen community members volunteered to serve as CAT members and underwent initial intensive training as well as ongoing skill-building activities. Together with university-based project staff, trained CAT members developed and implemented the program.

CAT members came into the project with varying degrees of knowledge about the root causes of IPV. At post-project, CAT members were less likely to consider drinking alcohol (p =.002) or stress of immigration (p =.08) as major causes of IPV. In post-project interviews, many CAT members described IPV as a learned behavior to establish power and control, stemming from societal acceptance of patriarchal gender roles. At post-project, CAT members reported higher sense of efficacy for intervening in situations suggestive of IPV (p = .01). At post-project, all CAT members reported increased sense of confidence in speaking with friends and acquaintances about IPV.

CAT members described the CAT as an effective approach for bringing about community change, identifying several key factors for the group’s success: its sociodemographic diversity; preparedness for community engagement due to training; and practicing/modeling among themselves the values and behaviors they were promoting within the greater community (e.g., mutual respect and open communication). Survey data showed greater levels of perceived community readiness for IPV prevention (p = .02) at post-program. In interviews, CAT members expressed guarded optimism that the greater community was committed and able to address IPV in their community, noting, however, that mobilizing the larger community was more difficult and slower than mobilizing the CAT itself.

Conclusions and Implications: Both quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed changes in knowledge about IPV, sense of efficacy for and skills in addressing IPV, and confidence in facilitating discussion about IPV prevention. Beyond these individual-level changes, increased community readiness to address IPV was identified. Participatory planning and implementation, such as using a CAT consisting of diverse community members, appears to be an effective way to address a controversial issue facing the community.