IMPACT
Every celebrity has a cause, what’s yours?

Thank you for your interest in IMPACT, an initiative to engage celebrities, sports figures, politicians, civic and community leaders in campaigns to increase awareness of 100% preventable public health issues. You may ask yourself, why get involved? Why now? It is a known fact the best endorsements achieve an eclectic balance between the brand/social cause and the celebrity, giving a campaign a‘face’ is a decision that can change the future of a social cause forever.

The Department of Health and Wellness Promotion; Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery (BSAPTR) developed an innovative and exciting communication platform/ website that includes all of the functionality required to effectively and inexpensively facilitate two way communication in this new age.

Inspired by the “Netroots” campaign approach of President Obama, which engaged record-breaking numbers of young Americans, our new site will include features such as text and email blasting, social networking, video and audio uploading, blogging, chat, ringtone downloads, webcasting and more. Its design, along with planned programming is consistent with appealing to a target audience of 12-30 years old in a fun “hot” online environment that also offers news, educational and service resources. Even more exciting, is the opportunity that this platform provides for DHWP to partner with foundations, such as yours, in creating social marketing campaigns and initiatives that drive positive action in our community.

Our objective is for this site to serve as a catalyst for positive social change and activism through its interactive features and opportunities for collaboration toward providing positive messaging to participants. While numerous topics will be covered during this period, our focus will be violence reduction via the campaign “Keep Pushin Peace; Be a part of the Solution”. A number of collateral activities are being planned in support of this campaign.

KeepPushin.org will provide unique opportunities for all community members to learn valuable information, teach each other, talk to each other, support each other to look at and overcome environmental issues that lead to alcohol and drug abuse, teen violence or dropping out of school. The positive benefits of celebrity endorsements include:

• Attracting new audiences
• Raising funds by encouraging sponsorship and contributions
• Mobilizing public opinion and involvement
• Reinvigorating a long running campaign.