Highlighted Provider Partners (BIPOC)
Origins of the Campaign

Campaign Objective: Addressing SUD Disparities in Allegheny County

Since March 2022, MEE Productions Inc. has assisted the Allegheny County Department of Human Services’ (AC-DHS) Office of Behavioral Health in creating a comprehensive implementation plan for a public-facing campaign, “Connect Protect Recover,” to increase awareness of the County’s access points to recovery and treatment services and support. The campaign was formally launched in June 2024.

The campaign was developed to engage and inform communities and populations in Allegheny County that have been disproportionately impacted by the opioid epidemic. It addresses a range of disparities related to this “third wave” of the epidemic. For example, data show that the County’s Black residents had a rate of overdose deaths twice as high as the rate among whites. In addition, Black residents are significantly under-represented in treatment services for opioid use disorders, including MOUD prescriptions. To start changing these numbers, the campaign will be working to engage historically marginalized and underserved families within lower-income BIPOC populations, with a focus on African Americans. The campaign seeks to involve all targeted families and individuals disproportionately impacted by an SUD, regardless of race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.

“We want to ensure that vulnerable, historically, marginalized and underserved County residents of color get connected to the right drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services when they need them, and with non-judgmental ease at every possible entry point.”

Targeting Families, Close Friends, Chosen Supporters of Residents with an SUD

The primary target audience of Connect Protect Recover is family (original or chosen), close friends, and partners of individuals struggling with addiction. The rationale is that this social connectedness/support (family), in its various forms, represents people who are in existing, supportive relationships with County residents who may at some point be ready for drug and alcohol recovery and treatment services. Through these close interpersonal relationships, our targeted individuals are present, they care and they are regularly interacting with or monitoring the person misusing substances.

They can be both supporters, influencers and navigators along the journey of SUD treatment and recovery. At the moment of readiness, they can have information about available recovery and treatment programs in their “back pocket” and assist with the navigation process to access those services.

Understanding the Capacity of SUD Treatment Providers to Address Inequities

In addition to Pathways to Care and Recovery, AC-DHS’ currently contracted “front door” through which residents are asked to access SUD intake and assessment services, the agency also sought to promote a broader array of drug and alcohol recovery and treatment providers in the County. MEE recognized that willingness and capacity within the County’s recovery/treatment community to collaborate with the “Connect Protect Recover” campaign would be a critical success factor.

Therefore, MEE convened a series of listening sessions in late 2023, with a goal of increasing overall coordination and collaboration among the County’s funded SUD treatment and recovery service providers. These sessions also helped MEE better understand the realities of the “supply-side” of the County’s funded treatment/recovery service providers, and their existing capabilities.

MEE realized that in order to successfully reduce historical inequities that have disproportionately impacted communities with high levels of trauma and lack of trust in mainstream institutions, more training and technical assistance was needed for the SUD provider community. Therefore, the campaign is offering a number of trainings and workshops (with CEUs) that build capacity and staff skills to respectfully and effectively support the most-at-risk and currently underserved residents in effectively “navigating the system” to get to the services they need.

Community-Centered and Inclusive Campaign-Development Steps

  • Listening to and Learning from the Community: As the foundation for creating Connect Protect Recover messages and materials, MEE met with frontline SUD staff with lived experience, community leaders, grassroots providers and other stakeholders, to better understand the community’s needs, challenges and past experiences with the County’s recovery and treatment services. In these discussions, we continually acknowledged the trauma that marginalized target audiences face on a daily basis. MEE fulfilled its commitment that all voices be brought to the table in a respectful manner that acknowledges a worldview that reflects the social determinants of health that influence their choices and behaviors.

 

  • Message Development: Starting with the campaign slogan, “No Judgement. No Stigma. Just Support.,”messages speak to communities that have been historically ignored or mistreated (and who are experiencing ongoing stress and trauma). Campaign messages targeting families, close friends and partners of individuals with SUD also reflect a protective-factors, strength-based approach, along with the language, style and day-to-day realities of our targeted Allegheny County families.

 

  • Testing: All potential campaign branding, materials and messages were pre-tested with the target audience prior to final development and implementation. MEE uses community-based participatory research (CBPR) to obtain direct input from our target audiences, enabling us to understand both the arguments and the effective counter-arguments that need to be reflected in our messaging in order to leverage the audience’s inherent knowledge and strengths, create successful dialogue, spur behavior change and shift social norms.

 

  • Message Senders: The campaign leverages local families (with lived experience), Certified (Family) Recovery Specialists, trusted community health workers and existing SUD outreach teams to engage the hardest-to-reach residents by “meeting them where they are” and delivering its messages. The professional staffs will receive training (with CEUs and/or) and technical assistance from MEE to support and enhance their outreach and message-delivery efforts.

Effective Community Engagement: Blending Technology and Human-ology

Connect Protect Recover melds the latest digital media (technology) for scale, with the power of grassroots (in-person) community-based “human-ology” for impact and true behavior change. Because the campaign values and prioritize community engagement in its promotion of recovery and treatment services in the County, the latest technology will be paired with what MEE calls “human-ology” interpersonal (virtual or face-to face) interactions with members of a community.

Traditional media and digital/social media platforms were launched in June 2024 to formally introduce the campaign to the primary audience and at the broadest levels of the community. Reaching thousands of residents all across the County, these digital media, transit and radio advertising began to create awareness of the new campaign. Social and other digital media will drive residents to community events and activities that are part of the grassroots outreach and engagement that will roll out over the summer and fall.

The digital technology (high-tech) is the mechanism to drive as many members of hard-to-reach audiences as possible to on-the-ground, community-based encounters (high-touch) where authentic dialogue can take place. A circular framework (See Figure 2) then allows engaged residents to use digital solutions like social media platforms to maintain the established relationship and/or to seek more detailed information as needed.

Specifically, the campaign social media messaging, website and YouTube channel will drive families and close friends to in-person community events that facilitate interpersonal dialogue with Certified (Family) Recovery Specialists and others with lived experience navigating the SUD treatment and recover landscape. (See more about the campaign components below.)

Once the targeted families and close individuals participate in any of these offline, interpersonal activities, they will be invited to visit or return to Connect Protect Recover’s digital assets (social media, website, YouTube channel). There, they can:

  • Get Educated, by watching recovery treatment educational videos on a range of recovery/treatment topics and video testimonials from local families.
  • Get Resources, including information about harm-reduction tools (like Narcan) to use with their loved ones and connecting with a range of community supports for their own mental health and wellness.
  • Get Involved, by understanding the ways they can interact with the campaign and its community events and activities, such as family support workshops and tours of the Pathways to Care and Recovery facility.
  • Get Connected with specific SUD providers/services and options that could meet the unique needs of their loved one.

The Campaign Components to Build Awareness and Engage Communities

The overarching goal of Connect Protect Recover is to drive those in the closest, most supportive relationship (social connectedness) with residents experiencing the highest disparities/inequities to get support for themselves and for their loved one. We want family members to be knowledgeable about available SUD treatment/recovery services when it’s time to support their loved one during the access and navigation process into and through recovery, while also taking care of their own emotional and safety needs along the way.

Campaign Components Include:

  • A 24/7, toll-free campaign hotline (412-325-7550) powered by Pathway to Care and Recovery. Here, family members can confidentially speak with a Certified Recovery Specialist or Certified Family Recovery Specialist to vent, ask questions or get a referral for their loved one to enter treatment.
  • A robust social media presence (posting and ads on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok; content on LinkedIn and a useful campaign Website (ConnectProtectRecover.org)
  • A YouTube channel with testimonial videos from local families, along with educational videos about key topics
  • Transit advertising on 65 bus routes (interior car cards) and 15 bus shelter locations across the County
  • Audio ads on streaming and broadcast radio stations
  • Partner and/or campaign hosted “Chat & Chews,” small-group information sessions to learn more about the campaign
  • Teams of trained community outreach staff from BIPOC-led SUD providers and other campaign partners (including Community Health Workers)
  • Partnerships with popular DJs on broadcast radio stations to interview CRS and community experts and promote the campaign’s community events
  • Community awareness and education events at known and trusted locations, where families can watch recovery education videos, then talk about them with CRS and other SUD professionals who can explain the steps and set expectations in the treatment and recovery journey. Events also include free Narcan trainings (including distribution of kits).
  • Campaign-sponsored family support and wellness workshops where family members can share mutual support with others in similar situations and gain access to wellness resources that will help them reduce their stress, trauma and isolation while supporting their loved one.

Building SUD Provider Capacity for Effective Community Engagement

In order to successfully reduce historical inequities in who accesses programs and services addressing substance-use disorders, Allegheny County providers need increased capacity and skills for high-quality community outreach and engagement. MEE recognized that additional capacity-building training in these areas was needed in order for the campaign to leverage community engagement as a key channel to promote the County’s range of SUD treatment and recovery services.

A series of promoted and incentivized (i.e., with CEUs, training hours) capacity-building trainings (augmented by post-training technical assistance) will enable the County’s funded treatment/recovery service provider partners to:

  • Promote the campaign using a community-engagement toolkit.
  • Sponsor/host community events and family support workshops to: (1) provide safe spaces and social connectedness/support to families impacted by the SUD of a loved one; (2) educate families and supporters about the range of recovery/treatment options; (3) get specific questions answered by Certified Recovery Specialists; and (4) and gain access to family SUD support groups (Nar-Anon, etc.) and mental wellness resources they will need while supporting their loved one.
  • Further build their internal capacity for community outreach (via additional trainings), by understanding and acknowledging the trauma that marginalized target audiences face on a daily basis and building their capacity (and sustainability) to effectively engage those audiences.