The tool box is designed to help managers of health communication programs improve their unit's organization and credibility while simultaneously strengthening staff members' communication skills and confidence in their ability to apply the communication methodology described in the Tool Box. This collection of practical tools includes management ideas, models, concepts, and strategies that have been field-tested under the pressures of real-life and real-time logistical barriers, challenging cultural contexts, human resources issues, and funding problems

Focusing on avian influenza, this guide provides an overview of the advocacy process and its components – from planning and information gathering to evaluating the success of a project's advocacy efforts – and suggests strategic activities and messages that can be used to reach different audiences. It can be used regardless of the issue, the size of an organization, or the resources available.

As part of the U.S. Government’s response to avian influenza, the Academy for Educational Development has been tasked by USAID to work with local and international media to orient them to avian influenza - the science and the practice. Following AED’s work with media in several countries, AED developed Avian Influenza: Media Orientation Training Notes. Based on evidence-based information and tested training notes, this document introduces avian influenza to local media to help them cover the story and understand the complexity of the virus and its impact.

This course is designed to train community health workers in behavior change communication skills to improve infant feeding, and to train the trainers of these community health workers. The training takes a practical approach to problem solving related to infant feeding.

This document is meant for those who want to incorporate behavior change strategies in their child survival programs, as well as those who already plan and carry out such activities. It focuses on the key practices associated with child health and what we have learned about these in the context of programs in developing countries. It examines the relative importance and various challenges of these practices, with the overall aim of providing insight into how programs can select priorities and plan effective strategies. Chapters are included on six major interventions: Newborn/neonatal health, Childhood Immunization, Control of Acute Respiratory Infections, Control of Diarrheal Disease, Malaria Prevention and Treatment, and Nutrition. Each chapter is followed by a short summary of Audiences and Actions, Key Issues, and How Behavior Change Approaches Can Contribute.

Limited copies of this document are available in hard copy to those in developing countries. Please contact ghcm@aed.org.

The purpose of this guide is to help local leaders and community organizers bring together the community to help plan for disease outbreaks and other emergencies. This guide uses the lessons from communities that have already dealt with disease outbreaks and also uses other often-used tools to create discussion among community members and effectively garner their insight.

The MARAM Project (Improving Village and Community Health) was a USAID-funded project operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from 2001 to 2005. It included a small-grants program to improve service delivery as well as activities aimed at improving key family health practices. This case study relates the process, lessons, and achievements of community grantees as part of the behavior change communications component of the program. The publication is available in English and Arabic.

Focusing on pandemic influenza, this guide provides an overview of the advocacy process and its components – from planning and information gathering to evaluating the success of a project's advocacy efforts – and suggests strategic activities and messages that can be used to reach different audiences. It can be used regardless of the issue, the size of an organization, or the resources available. The guide is intended for use with the Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness (H2P) Pandemic Influenza Advocacy Packet, a collection of fact sheets and other useful information that will help you to undertake advocacy activities in your country, district, or community.

This booklet is a tool that is distributed to families in pandemic-afflicted areas. It contains essential information for household members on how to reduce transmission of the flu as well as how to care for household members who have the flu, focusing on specific household behaviors.

One of the most important factors in ensuring a successful response to any disaster or emergency is effective and timely communication between responders, decision-makers, and the public, from the national level to the community level. This guide is used for facilitation of emergency communication workshops in which the issue of communications preparedness at the field level (the point closest to the emergency impact) in the event of a major emergency is addressed and an appropriate communications plan in response to the community emergency can be developed.

Extra Time is a youth peer education workbook that uses the game of soccer and its global stars to convey critical HIV prevention and life skills messages to young people and prompt them to share what they’ve learned with friends and family. Extra Time has been adapted for various sports-based HIV prevention programs and for diverse target audiences in countries across Africa. Currently available in English and French.

This publication provides program managers with a step-by-step process in planning, researching, designing, producing, and evaluating print materials. These materials specifically address reminding families of when to seek immediate medical care for a sick child.

Prevention and care during a pandemic influenza are divided into two areas: Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPI) and Pharmaceutical Interventions.The overarching goal of both these interventions is to reduce the opportunities for the spread of the virus and reduce the number of cases. Each page of these information sheets contains a variety of communication, training, and advocacy tools that can be adapted to address their communities’ needs. Also included are counseling cards that health workers and volunteers can use to share information with community members.

This packet is a collection of documents that promote pandemic influenza awareness, specifically oriented toward national leaders, district/local governments, and advocacy organizations.  The primary purpose of the materials is to inform advocates on how to engage leaders and partners in preparedness and response. They include fact sheets, role descriptions, information about community approaches and non-pharmaceutical interventions, and communication and Frequently-Asked-Question sections.

This paper highlights the ways in which projects can identify and adapt communication technologies, such as the Internet, personal digital assistants, and cellular phones, in developing health communications programs.