Master Trainers/Coordinators Corner

Marketing the ACT Program

As an ACT Coordinator/Master Trainer, an important part of the job is to promote the ACT Program in an area by identifying organizations to host the program and professionals to be trained to deliver the program curriculum to parents. You will need easy-to-tailor outreach ideas and materials.

To make sure your outreach has maximum impact:

  • Identify partners who need to address early violence prevention and parenting training.
  • Identify media and social media outlets.
  • Create materials that have messages or data that are specific to your community.
  • Tailor messages to partners’ needs regarding violence prevention and parenting training.
  • Be locally relevant: Show how the program addresses the community’s needs.
  • Keep your messages short and consistent.
  • Be culturally sensitive and language appropriate.

Strategies

Build relationships

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To garner support for the adoption of the program, reach out to local organizations and agencies. Host welcome meetings for leaders from organizations like Head Start centers, schools, community health centers, churches, hospitals, health care clinics, and shelters, YMCA, YWCA, Boys and Girls Club, to introduce them to the program. Show the ACT promotional video, use PowerPoint slides and distribute the program advertising materials.

Identify events in the community that focus on parents, children, families, health, violence and prevention. Contact the event organizers about setting up a booth or table. Fliers, posters, and cards can be displayed on interesting, eye-catching tables. Follow-up with visitors to the booth or table.

Identify those with whom you have shared goals and practices related to children, families, violence, and child maltreatment prevention. Join their efforts to advance common goals.

Display fliers and posters at local businesses like grocery stores, medical offices and clinics, churches, social service offices, and community health centers. You can also identify media outlets that may be interested in the program and its goals.

Media outreach

Getting media attention is important when raising awareness about the ACT program and the importance of helping families prevent maltreatment and raise safe children. Media can be defined as different outlets, including TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, and newsletters. Use a mixture of these outlets to reach a variety of people. Media vehicles are interested in disseminating information that is useful and interesting to the community. So, make the most of your shared interest and send them information they can use.

How to get media attention

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  • Contact editors and reports when there is violence in the community, or you have something new and interesting to share.
  • Find out what their needs are, what topics they are currently covering, and how you can help them.
  • Refer to events of violence in the community and provide facts about the impact of violence on the community’s economic situation, students’ educational results, and safety awareness.
  • Talk about the relationship of youth aggressive, violent behaviors to early childhood adverse experiences (ACEs).
  • Explain the importance of starting early to prevent ACEs and the long-term consequences of ACEs.
  • Explain the effectiveness of prevention.
  • Introduce the ACT program, its goals and results, and how it can help the community.
  • Have background material and resources about the program topics.

If you have an opportunity to provide a story for a TV or newspaper outlet:

  • Make your stories about the ACT program newsworthy. This might mean:
    • It is new, such as a new study
    • It is timely
    • It involves a public figure or a well-known organization
    • It has a strong human interest angle and touches people’s hearts
    • It affects or benefits a large number of people
    • It presents a variation on an issue or theme already covered
  • Find a personal angle, connect with a local interest topic, and talk about results from evaluation studies to show the ACT program as a response to the community's needs.
  • Volunteer to bring parents who have graduated from the program to share their stories about and learnings from the program.

Using social media

Social media tools are a very effective way to engage broad and specific audiences. The vast majority of professionals and parents are now on social media, making it a smart channel for your outreach efforts.

How to leverage social media

  • Ask partners to show their support for ACT publicly by posting on their own Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or other social channels.
  • Use your own social media channels to voice your thoughts, share links to articles, and post updates about the program and upcoming events.
  • Write blogs to engage individuals and organizations to support the program. You can link to your blogs from social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and Threads to increase your reach.

Marketing materials

Last updated: February 2026Date created: 2017