A Health Promotion Campaign Targeting Caregivers of Young Children

The Take TIME initiative will be developed and delivered in conjunction with the Township of Uxbridge and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. The Durham Region Health Department, the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport, and 35 schools and community organizations have also agreed to collaborate on project activities. The health promotion campaign will occur from October 15, 2010 until May 31, 2011. The campaign activities were developed from the input of parents and programme/care providers gathered during the planning phase of this research.

The impact of the Take TIME campaign will be evaluated in two ways. The overall readiness of the community to support healthy childhoods will be evaluated using the Community Readiness Model, which relies on a series of interviews with key individuals in leadership positions. Awareness and current behaviour among community members will be assessed through the completion of telephone surveys of randomly selected households. Each of these evaluations will be completed twice, before and after delivery of the Take TIME campaign. The pre-campaign evaluations will be completed in September 2010. The post-campaign evaluations, using the same procedures, will be completed in June 2011.

Inclusion criteria

• Parent(s) or caregiver(s) of young children (8 years of age and younger) will be eligible for the pre- and post- intervention telephone surveys.
• Intervention activities will target parents and caregivers of young children and children 8 years of age and younger, although the events, information and policies may also influence other residents of the community.

Exclusion criteria

• Children and adults who are not parents or caregivers for young children 8 years of age or younger are not eligible to complete the random telephone survey.