In case you missed it, we have begun a Gwinnett County Blog series to highlight the various collaborations GUIDE has had in Gwinnett County for the past 30 years. This is our second post of the series, and it focuses on our partnership with the Gwinnett County Communications Department. If you didn’t read our first post about our collaboration with the Gwinnett County Parks and Recreation, you can catch up here.
It has been over a decade that we have been working with the Gwinnett County Communications Department and collaborating on multiple projects. One project that we have partnered on is the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services’ TV show, People Helping People, which the Communications team produces and films on a monthly basis. GUIDE’s staff, Youth Advisory Board members and other volunteers have participated on the show to discuss various prevention and health topics for the past several years.
Over the years, GUIDE has developed Public Service Announcements (PSAs) that play at the local DMV in Lawrenceville with facts about underage drinking. In 2013, our partnership with the Communications Department expanded, and their staff began working closely with us to enhance the quality of these PSAs as well as air them on TVgwinnett, Gwinnett County’s government access cable television channel which is available online, on demand and on the government access cable channels of Charter (ch. 182), Comcast (ch. 23 or 25) and AT&T U-verse (ch. 99). These cable systems provide the channel at no cost to the County along with funding for video production and distribution.
We are grateful for the expertise of the Communications team and their willingness to research new software programs, brainstorm new and innovative ways to create the PSAs and showcase important underage drinking prevention information. They even worked with us and another agency to translate one of the PSAs into five different languages. We have been very fortunate to have a team of people to work with us who are as committed to making an impact in the community as we are.
The Communications Department also plays a vital role in mentoring our Youth Advisory Board members and any other volunteers who are filmed for any of the PSAs or TV shows. They allow our youth and volunteers to develop skills and provide opportunities to expand their horizons. They also track the PSAs for us, which helps us to show exposure for our state funded contracts.
Working together with the Communications Department allows us to create better materials, which provide our community with important information to create a safer and healthier Gwinnett County. We look forward to continuing this important collaboration.
Stay tuned to learn more about our other partnerships in Gwinnett!