Tuesday, July 2, 2013

It's ECCO Time!

The Excellence in Community Communications and Outreach Recognition Program released the finalists today for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards in 7 categories for System of Care social marketing activities and materials. Project Connect is on that list once again this year! We qualified in the Media Outreach category with our commercial series entitled "I'm the Missing Piece" of Children's Mental Health that aired in 2012 on WSIL TV3 in Southern Illinois. On July 18th, during a special webinar hosted by SAMHSA, we will be finding out which award (gold, silver, or bronze) that we will be bringing home to Eldorado!
The goal of this particular campaign was to show that many people are involved when we are talking about diagnosis and treatment, and that it takes all of us to make the puzzle of mental health services come together -- focusing on three very important aspects first -- family members, teachers, and family practitioners. As the leader of the social marketing team, "ECCO" time is the highlight of my year! I am so excited that we as a team produced a tool that is considered one of the best in the nation. Our marketing team prides itself on being able to share information about transforming how mental health services are delivered to youth and families in our rural part of the country (3 counties to be exact) and we are so happy that we can share our success with the rest of the United States.
But the awards don't stop at the gold, silver, and bronze -- there is also an overall winner chosen among the 21 finalists. The ultimate in awards is "The People's Choice" social marketing award that is chosen by none other than YOU! That's where we could really use your help. Would you take the time to vote for us? But first, you might want to take a look at the great work we have done to get us to the finals. Check out our Youtube channel that has all three of our commercials posted.
"I'm the Missing Piece of Children's Mental Health" -- Parent Focus
"I'm the Missing Piece of Children's Mental Health" -- Teacher Focus
"I'm the Missing Piece of Children's Mental Health" -- Family Practitioner Focus

You can check out the other ECCO finalists by visiting the SAMHSA website
http://samhsa.gov/children/ecco.asp
and also see instructions there about voting for your favorite finalist! We are extremely proud to make the finalist list this year, and I'm already making plans for our application for next year :)