It's been real busy 'round the work site lately. We are currently looking at and assessing current community outreach activities and working with a teen prevention group to create community appropriate materials. The teen program is by far one of my favorites. There is a 9 year gap between me and high school and I tell ya what...the times have changed! The teens teach me new things all the time, for better or for worse. For instance, I have recently realized that you can use the word "like" as many times in a sentence as it will fit. Without our teen group though there would be no way we could successfully reach that community. Yeah...I know what your thinking...I can speak teen. Uhh...no. Unless your a teen, you can't speak or understand their language or culture.
This is why I love using Anthropology in my outreach work. I know that the best way to reach this group with our message is to go directly to them and hear from them what they need or want. Its called "meeting them where their at." The teen years are a tough time. Not just because of hormones but also because of other things. For instance, teens are in what we anthropologists call the "liminal phase." What is this liminal phase, you ask? Well, basically it's the in between state. Teens are no longer children, but they are also not yet adults. They are in a transitional period where they are shaping their adult identities and trying to gain responsibility while holding onto childish wants and behaviors. Those people in the liminal phase have no real place in society, so society must decide what to do with them. This can lead to all kinds of conflicts and challenges. Teens don't want adults coming to their schools and groups and telling them what to do. They want to think for themselves and to learn for themselves. They gain information and experience from and with their peers. Taking this into account, we are working to shape our teen outreach program through teens. We want to use their ideas, their language, and their humor to develop our programs. This is the only manner through which we will reach this group. Walking in and talking from our perspective would go in one ear and out the next. Ill give you an example...
Take language. Teens have their own language. Adults tend to be very formal in their language usage. When coming in they bring with them the language of whatever field they are working in (jargon). In our field we frequently talk about "healthy relationships." In a recent meeting with our teen group I asked them how they felt about that term, "healthy relationships." They didn't think much of it at all. As a matter of fact, it meant nothing to them. Teens don't think about relationships as healthy or unhealthy. They think of them as good or bad. So putting up posters in the school that talk about healthy relationship as opposed to good relationships is not going to reach our target audience.
I guess my overall point of this is that if you are going to be doing outreach of any kind, or marketing for that matter, you HAVE to talk to and gain an understanding of the people you want to market towards. This means going above and beyond the traditional survey and talking to people. Survey's don't allow follow up questions. They don't allow you to probe deeper. Gaining a better understanding of your target group will make any campaign more effective than if you just go it alone.
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