November 18, 2014

Students design social marketing campaigns to improve health of classmates

Social marketing campaigns designed by local Illawarra high school students to help improve the health and wellbeing of their community will be presented at UOW on Thursday 20 November.

The UOW Centre for Health Initiatives program, which invites local schools to apply for funding to develop a school-based social marketing campaign to address a social or health issue in a novel and fun way, is in its third year.

This year’s winners, Albion Park High School, Figtree High School and The Illawarra Grammar School, designed campaigns to help their classmates improve their nutrition and to promote blood and organ donation. The Centre for Health Initiatives provided each school with a $2,000 grant as well as a mentor to get their projects up and running. 

A group of passionate students from Year 9 at Albion Park High School, together with the support of teacher Ms Allyson Fisher, designed a campaign titled ‘Brekkie Wise’. The campaign aimed to improve the eating habits of students and teachers by providing healthy breakfast options before school. The team developed a nutritious breakfast menu, which was prepared and served twice a week from the school canteen. The students marketed their program with a free breakfast launch as well as class announcements, posters and loyalty cards.

With the support of teacher Ms Natasha Clarke, Figtree High School students ran a healthy canteen program to improve the range of healthy options available at their school. The students collected insights from fellow students and then created a range of healthy menu items to appeal to them. The team prepared the healthy food and ran the canteen weekly, promoting their initiative using posters, class announcements and a raffle.

Two students from The Illawarra Grammar School, with the support of teacher Jean Burton, ran the Heart2Heart program, which aimed to educate students on blood and organ donation, and include this in the PDHPE curriculum.  The project involved designing YouTube videos, advertisements on buses, a staff information pack, and engaged with the community on social media.

“We were delighted to be able to fund three exciting student-run projects this year, and all of a very high standard,” Program Coordinator Ms Katherine Butler, from the Centre for Health Initiatives, said.

Centre for Health Initiatives Research Manager, Mr Lance Barrie said: “Our team thoroughly enjoyed working with these passionate and committed students as they addressed health and social issues in their school. We look forward to running the competition again in 2015 and will call for entries in term one of 2015.”

Note to media: Students from the three schools will present an overview of their campaigns at 12.30 pm on Thursday 20 November at the Centre for Health Initiatives, ITAMS Building (233.G12), Innovation Campus.

Media contact: Program coordinator, Ms Katherine Butler, (02) 4221 3311 or kabutler@uow.edu.au.