Building a Healthier Philadelphia (2024)

Executive Summary CS has developed a three-year marketing campaign that highlights its 120+ community initiatives that bring preventive care and health education directly into Philadelphia neighborhoods. By blending community storytelling, advertising, and accessible wellness activations, the campaign raises awareness of accessible care options – showcasing health care as cultural and communal rather than clinical. Over the next 18 months, the campaign will engage more than 2.5 million residents through local partnerships, creative activations, and advertising campaigns that build trust, drive awareness, and encourage preventive action.

Statement of Need In Philadelphia, significant health disparities exist along both racial and economic lines. CS’s 2024 Community Needs Assessment found that almost half of the surveyed residents didn’t have consistent access to primary care. Obstacles such as mistrust of the hospital system, limited access to care, and being culturally disconnected from outreach have left many communities without essential options for preventive care. While traditional outreach methods often treat health as transactional rather than relational, our 120+ initiatives create community-forward experiences that speak to the cultural and emotional languages that people know and trust.

Goals and Objectives Through this campaign, our goal is to drive access to health initiatives and strengthen engagement through cultural and community-rooted care.

Increase preventive-care participation by 25% among Black, Latin, and AAPI communities.

Reach 2.5 million residents through events, outreach, and marketing campaigns.

Build 15 sustainable community partnerships with local organizations, faith groups, and creative collectives that can amplify our mission.

Reframe CS as a place that sees preventive care as a shared community practice.

Program Design The campaign unfolds in three connected phases between FY2024 and FY2026:

Community Development (Months 1–3) – Host focus groups, workshops, and audience testing with community members and leaders (residents, pastors, barbers, and youth leaders) to identify the barriers in our way and design messaging that resonates.

Wellness Activations (Year 1-3) – Launch experiential activations in everyday spaces such as parks, barbershops, and community events, offering screenings, workshops, and art installations focused on wellness and empowerment.

Storytelling Campaign (Year 1) – Produce the “This Is What Care Looks Like” campaign, a fully integrated media campaign that amplifies the real stories of impact CS has had on local health champions across paid media channels and community media outlets.

Target Population The campaign focuses on Black, Latin, and AAPI residents across Philadelphia, particularly adults aged 25–55 and youth ages 16–24. By reaching both generations, our campaign promotes wellness as a lasting, life-long community value.

Implementation and Evaluation Over the course of three years, CS will recruit, train, and mobilize 100 Community Health Ambassadors and volunteers to lead outreach and drive community storytelling. Community Health Ambassadors will deliver screenings on-site at dedicated events and data collection tools such as QR surveys, digital check-ins, and testimonials to measure reach and impact. Impact will also be measured through our annual Community Health Assessment, which will be deployed to 2,500 participants. Success will be evaluated from our participation data, surveys, and qualitative interviews assessing trust and shifts in behavioral change.

Sustainability After year one, local community partners will receive institutional support to continue activations independently, and Community Health Ambassadors will remain active and accessible as peer educators. Plans include expanding the model to additional neighborhoods and launching youth micro-grants for community wellness projects.

Organizational Background CS is a nationally recognized nonprofit health system investing over $100 million annually in community health programs that address key social determinants of health. Through initiatives in maternal health care, disease prevention, and youth and young adult empowerment, the organization works to make quality care accessible to all wherever they live, gather, and grow.