This assignment has two components: a fact sheet for the general public, and a memo for public health educators working with targeted populations. Read through the instructions, then identify a recent environmental event in your state or region as the focus of your intervention.

Imagine that you are working for an organization whose job is to help mitigate a recent negative event, such as an industrial accident, and to improve the environmental health for people living nearby. You have been asked to develop a one-page fact sheet to help educate those affected by the issue. After you develop the fact sheet, you must submit it to your supervisor for approval before it is produced and distributed.

Additionally, you must draft a memo to your supervisor that provides an evidence-based rationale for your design decisions and that details ways in which public health workers can ensure that they address the specific needs of diverse neighborhood residents with the aid of the fact sheet.

Instructions

You are encouraged to use Environmental Health NewsLinks to an external site. to find examples of recent events with environmental implications. Once you have chosen an issue, navigate to the appropriate government websites to gather relevant data to create the following:

• Fact sheet: This handout should be designed to give citizens an overview of the environmental hazard they are facing, answers to frequently asked questions, and suggestions for action steps to reduce risks to themselves and their family members. Consider including contact information for additional resources as well.
  • Remember to design this fact sheet for a general public audience. While you may include images as appropriate to reinforce key points and add visual interest, keep your fact sheet clean and simple.
• Memo to supervisor: This is a one-page workplace memo that contains an evidence-based rationale designed to gain approval from the organization to distribute the fact sheet to the neighborhood. Any APA citations supporting your evidence should be added as an appendix to the memo. Be sure to include the following:
  • Distribution strategy: Include talking points to help your colleagues understand how the fact sheet is to be used.
  • Special considerations: Describe the types of cultural considerations and strategies that you took into account when designing the fact sheet and talking points.
  • Indicators of success: Describe the ways the organization will be able to know whether the fact sheet is accomplishing its educational goals.

Additional Requirements

The fact sheet will be evaluated on how well you accomplish the following:

• Use data from a government website to create an educational fact sheet about an environmental health issue.
• Recommend actions an average person can take to reduce the risks posed by a hazardous agent in his or her home or neighborhood.
• Communicate clearly to a diverse audience. Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

The supervisor memo will be graded on how well you accomplish the following:

• Demonstrate awareness of the cultural values and practices of a specific population in the design of an educational initiative addressing an environmental health issue.
• Develop a strategy to guide colleagues in the implementation of a public health education initiative. 
• Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
• Follow current APA guidelines for style and formatting, including in-text and reference citations where appropriate. See the APA ModuleLinks to an external site., and use the Capella University LibraryLinks to an external site. and the Public Health Masters Research GuideLinks to an external site. as needed.

Resources

• APA ModuleLinks to an external site..
• Public Health Masters Research GuideLinks to an external site..
• Capella University LibraryLinks to an external site..
• Environmental Health NewsLinks to an external site..