Promotional and Outreach Materials

Promotional materials can be provided at the school, district, and/or community level. Below are templates for various types of materials. You will see a link for each in a PDF format as well as design format that can be downloaded and edited with Adobe Illustrator software.

Poster

Hang at schools near the front entrance or another prominent location – the school will know the best location. Remind schools to write in the date of the flu vaccination day. Distribute the poster to schools with the consent forms, 3-4 weeks prior to the scheduled vaccination day. This sample includes translations in Spanish, Cambodian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic.

Flyer

Distribute to all students or use as a handout when attending school events (e.g. Back to School, Registration, PTO/PTA meetings). The sample provided is multilingual. It includes English content on one side, and Spanish on the other side. The English side also includes abbreviated translations in Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Arabic. It was designed to also be printed in black and white if needed.

Newsletter Blurbs

Inform your school community with a series of newsletter blurbs from Spring to when consents are delivered. This content can be used for digital or print newsletters or in emails to families. The content is focused on the logistics of the program: who is eligible, when forms are being distributed and collected, etc. You can send this document at the beginning of outreach or you can send each blurb at the time you would like schools to distribute it to families.

RoboCall Scripts

Inform your school community with a series of RoboCalls beginning with the start of school and ending with the day of flu vaccination. The content is focused on reminding families about receiving, completing and turning in the consent form if they would like for their student to be vaccinated.

Lesson Plans

Classroom activities can help get students excited about Flu Vaccine Day! These lesson plans help introduce students to influenza, the immune system, and the importance of vaccines and hand washing. 

Background Presentation 

Provide more background about the importance of flu vaccination and details on how it will work at school. This presentation could be used at school assemblies, PTA/PTO meetings, or staff meetings.

Banner

Banners that can be hung on fences or walls surrounding schools are an easy and cost effective way of communicating with families and the community. Ours has a specific printed space that can support dry erase marker writing and erasing to communicate the school’s vaccine day and ensures you can reuse the banner year to year. It is recommended that you hang banners at schools beginning in July and that you remove them on the vaccine day after all participants have been vaccinated. Ask school staff the best place to hang them. Hanging the banner is a great activity for volunteers. Just remember to take them down once your vaccine day is over and make time to clean them before the next year. 

Letter to Providers

It is important to communicate and partner with local healthcare providers, particularly pediatric providers, family practitioners and community health clinics. Most providers will likely be supportive of a SLIV program, but some may be concerned about vaccinations occurring outside of their offices, especially with regard to keeping their patient records up-to-date and having adequate information in case a patient seeks care for a possible vaccine-related adverse event. Keeping providers informed about planned SLIV activities also can help them estimate how much influenza vaccine they will need to order for their own patients.

Partnering with providers to advertise the program can help reach more patients and can also assure parents/guardians that it is a safe program. One way of partnering is to have program flyers and other giveaways, when feasible, available in clinic waiting rooms and to educate clinic staff about the program should parents ask about it. Many providers may be excited to promote the program as it reduces the burden to vaccinate all their patients against the flu in a short amount of time. Providers can be communicated with through the local health department, local chapters of professional organizations, and local immunization coalitions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also provide a template letter to providers on their SLIV webpage: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/slv/support.htm

Finally, consider enlisting local chapters of professional organizations, insurers, clinics and hospitals to endorse the program. An endorsement may be as simple as including the name and logo of the endorser on outreach material or implementing coordinated advertising and community outreach. This can help build trust for the program and may open the door to additional promotional opportunities.

Community Advertising

The Shoo the Flu pilot program in Oakland developed and used newspaper, billboard, and subway advertisements in its early years to help promote the program. Their impact on parent and guardian decision making was never deemed as strong as the less expensive methods mentioned above. However there may be local opportunities for donated space in these mediums. 

Print Ad

A-Frame Sign

Billboard

Subway Ad

Transit Shelter

Graphics

There are a wide variety of graphics available to enhance any new materials you may want to create to advertise your SLIV program and draw attention to important messages. Many of these are represented on our website and the materials included throughout this toolkit. Each Flu Germ also has a coloring page that helps spread positive flu vaccination messages and can serve as a classroom activity. 

SLIV Friends & Community

Flu Germ Coloring Pages

Social Media

If social media is a tool used by the community to communicate about school events, consider creating a calendar for social media posting. Ideas for posting can include:

• Reposting from trusted sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
• Reposting from local media stories related to immunization or influenza
• Posts related to school events (Back to School Night, Health Fairs, etc.)
• Reminders about deadlines for turning in consents 
• Daily/weekly announcements of schools scheduled that day/week

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