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Community engagement is the key to behaviour change
Back in 2019, Sheffield City Council appointed us to deliver a five-year campaign aimed at reducing sugar consumption, a major cause of tooth decay and obesity in the most deprived parts of the city. From the outset, we knew that community engagement was going to be key.
Our ‘Sheffield is Sweet Enough’ campaign was launched in Woodthorpe Primary school, with educational materials aimed at engaging local children and was supported by leaflets, a dedicated website and a social media campaign.
This year, we’re continuing to strengthen our links with the community by getting local people involved in the campaign, from office workers to health visitors. To encourage people to share our low-sugar message, we asked parents, students, businesses and nutritionists to contribute low-sugar recipes and created a dedicated book written by the people of Sheffield.
The Sheffield Family Guide to Smart Sugar Swaps is full of practical advice and tips to help families cook healthy, nutritious meals without using so much sugar. We enlisted the help of a local printer to publish the first 1,500 copies. As well as being a cost-effective marketing tool with content supplied by local people, the book is being crowd funded. For each copy bought, another is being gifted to a local family, community centre, school or library. From the first print run, 750 copies will be given away for free while the other 750 will go on sale to fund further print runs. This means even families on low incomes can access it.
By getting the whole community involved, there are more opportunities to share our low-sugar message and encourage population-wide behaviour change. The book is now available to purchase from Waterstones in Sheffield (and online) and selected independent bookstores around the city.
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About The Foundry
The Foundry is a strategic communications agency, based in Manchester, delivering fully-integrated marketing campaigns for B2B, B2C, public sector and healthcare clients. Healthcare marketing services include qualitative and quantitative research, branding and packaging design, social media campaigns, educational websites, CPD programmes, online learning tools, in-clinic training materials, posters and patient literature.
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