Services
- Program Development – Help deciding if and how a social norms effort might work for your population or issue. Describing the various elements needed for a successful effort. Detailing an annual budget for the project and possible funding sources.
- Collaboration on Grant Writing and Publications - Assistance in writing a social norms action plan for your grant application. Commitment of our resources to you grant. Review of manuscripts and assistance with the statistics and analysis of data for the article.
- Survey Design & Support – We design your survey or you can use ours and add your questions.
- Data Management & Analysis – We provide a method to read your survey data, write an analytical program, and provide you detailed summary analysis. All you do is administer the survey with the script and answer sheets that are provided.
- Focus Group Training & Advice – Complete support for Focus Groups, Mall Intercepts, and other qualitative methods for gathering information. The range of services can extend from free telephone advise to actually conducting the group or intercept at your site.
- Media Development (Posters, Print Advertisements, Radio Spots, etc.) – Many projects have difficulty crafting effective messages from the data they have collected. We can help you develop messages, locate graphics, and brainstorm the initial design.
- Critique of Media – Send us a copy of your media and we will review your media and describe the strong elements and those that could use improvement. Initial telephone review is free.
- Project Evaluation – We have extensive experience in evaluating the outcome of social norms projects. Whether using our instruments or one of your own, we can assist you in the evaluation process or conduct it for you.
- Press Relations – Social Norm Consultations can assist you in working with the press both proactively (press releases, news conferences, letters to the editor, ad placement) as well as reactively ( handling a crisis, staying on message, responding to negative coverage). Telephone consultation is at no cost and one day training workshops are available on site.
Free Consultations:
Initial telephone consultation is provided to anyone seeking information about applying the social norms approach to a variety of health or behavior change issues. More extensive telephone or on-site consultations can be arranged to fit most time and budgetary constraints.
Training:
We provide on-site training to school districts, community coalitions, state and federal agencies, colleges, and private entrepreneurs. Training can be of various lengths and content are custom designed to meet a variety of needs. Training content can include everything from a one-hour community introductory session to multi-day multi topic preparation for conducting a successful project.
Free Materials:
1- Guide to Marketing Social Norms for Health Promotion in Schools and Communities: This guidebook is the first comprehensive, step-by-step manual designed especially for those who are interested in using the social norms approach to address school-age and community-wide issues.
Inspired by the positive impact that a number of colleges and universities have had promoting student health using this approach, a number of high schools and communities have begun to implement their own social norms projects.
This guidebook is intended to provide both the theoretical and the practical information necessary to conduct an effective project. As such, it will be a valuable resource for anyone involved in such an effort—be they community members, school administrators and staff, or health promotion professionals.
The contents of this guidebook include:
- Initial Planning
- Data Collection
- Strategy Development
- Implementation
- Evaluation
- Sample Survey of Norms, Behaviors, and Attitudes
A revised version (July, 2005) of the guidebook, complete with graphics, is available here in PDF format.
2- TeeNS: A survey of teen norms about alcohol and tobacco use. The survey can be modified to include questions about other teen behaviors e.g. sex, violence, eating, exercise, volunteer work, etc. We also have a survey of parent perceptions of teen norms and faculty expectations as well. A new revised copy of the "Teen Norms Survey," which is included in the guidebook, is also available separately here in PDF format.
3- Samples of Data Analysis: We input and analyze survey data from projects around the country. Analysis may include:
- Comparison of actual behavioral norms to perceived norms of behavior
- Impact of media
- Problem diagnosis
- Pre-Post evaluation of impact
Examples of the data summaries and analysis reports that are provided to clients who use this service can be provided by email request. Contact mhaines@niu.edu.
4- Samples of Media: Copies of posters and mailers used in high school projects are available by request as well.