FrameWorks Institute: Changing the Public Conversation about Social Problems

Building and sustaining healthy environments is one of government’s core responsibilities to its citizens. In the U.S., there is an extensive and multidisciplinary network of professionals who work to promote public health and protect citizens from environmental hazards like air and water pollution, extreme weather and climate change, threats to food safety, and poor quality housing. Despite its importance, however, this work often flies under the radar of public awareness and is largely taken for granted or misunderstood by the public.

Recognizing this challenge, in 2009 three leading, national nonprofit professional organizations engaged in environmental health work, the American Public Health Association (APHA), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), through funding from the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH), partnered with the FrameWorks Institute on a research project to develop and direct the field’s communications capacities. This research was grounded in the realization that, in order to promote public health and protect communities, the field of environmental health needs to be able to sustain a robust conversation with the public it serves.

To this end, the research project translates and helps frame the core tenets of the science of environmental health for the American public – defining what it comprises, what it can accomplish, and why this work is a public responsibility. In so doing, the project aims to help those who work in environmental health policy, practice, research, and advocacy speak with a more consistent and strategic voice to both public and policy audiences about their field and its work. The ultimate goal of the communications project is to provide a strategy and tools that can be used to build support for efforts to promote healthy environments and reduce harm associated with environmental hazards.