Communications & Advocacy: Sharing the “Who, What, Where, When, Why & How”

Greetings! It’s been an exciting 10 months since I’ve joined Northern Human Services as the public policy & marketing coordinator. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know so many of you, and hope to meet many more staff throughout 2023. I invite you to read on to learn more about what I do to support advocacy, communication and marketing efforts for Northern Human Services and the families we serve.

Advocacy

In October 2022, Northern Human Services hosted three in-person Legislative Learning sessions for local candidates running for the NH House and Senate in Carroll, Coos, and Upper Grafton counties. Events were held in Whitefield, Conway and Berlin.

The goals for these events were to connect families and caregivers with legislative candidates and to provide an overview of NHS’services provided to the developmental disability and acquired brain injury community.

Our Legislative Learning sessions focused on challenges our families are facing: inability to hire direct support professionals for services and respite care and the very real limitations to “legacy” budgets (individual budgets that have not increased except for extenuating life circumstances).

Most importantly, several of our families were invited to share their life experiences—both positive and challenging with our invited guests.

We were fortunate to have nine family members and three home care providers participate, along with staff and additional families in the audience. Each event was unique, with different families and staff members participating.

New Year New, Legislative Session

January 4 marked the start of the 2023 legislative session, with both the House and Senate convening together in Representative’s Hall. The governor’s inauguration was held on January 5. There are 33 representatives, three senators, and two executive councilors representing families and staff who live throughout Region 1.

I will be spending the next six months following the many legislative bills that may impact the developmental disability and acquired brain injury community. As the public policy and marketing coordinator, part of my role is to connect and collaborate with the Community Support Network Inc. (CSNI), the association that supports NH’s 10 area agencies for developmental disabilities, the Family Support Advisory Council, families with a child who experiences a developmental disability, and other interested stakeholders.

Part of these efforts will be to guide interested stakeholders on how to navigate the General Court’s website, how to submit written testimony or remote sign-ins on a bill, and how to contact your representative, senator, executive councilor, or our governor. Much of this information will be added to our website.

If you are interested in learning more about this work, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter, “The Advocate.” To avoid having the newsletter quarantined by Northern’s spam filter, please use a non NHS email (it won’t be shared; just added to the email distribution list).

Communication & Outreach Efforts

Marketing Materials

We are fortunate to introduce some new marketing materials that may be used for in-person events including:

• NHS-branded tablecloths.
• NHS general overview tabletop banners.
• NHS-branded giveaway items (mobile phone wallets, waterproof toiletry bags, and reusable shopping bags).
• NHS Developmental Disability program overview table top banners.

Table top banners for Mental Health Services will be available in 2023.

Social Media

As many staff already know, we have been maintaining Facebook and LinkedIn accounts for Northern Human Services. In September, we added an Instagram account and we are currently exploring establishing a TikTok account for Northern Human Services.

If you have news or events to share with our social media community, please contact me at mstjohn@northernhs.org. Pictures and background information — the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” are greatly appreciated!

Website

Have you taken a look at our website recently? We’ve revamped the home page to include several posts from our news blog and have begun efforts to review and update content throughout the site. If you are responsible for a program area and you’d like to conduct a content review/refresh, please reach out as I’d love to work with staff to refresh content throughout the site in 2023.

Newsletters

We will be sending out two eNewsletters to families and those interested in advocacy efforts in New Hampshire at the federal level. If you are interested in receiving either email newsletter, please subscribe using a personal email account to avoid having the email get caught up in Northern’s spam filter.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out!

–Michelle St. John (mstjohn@northernhs.org)