2016 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest

 

The 2016 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest has officially begun! The contest was established in 2011 and grew out of the enthusiasm of Text4baby partners like you promoting Text4baby as a valuable health resource for women and families.

 

 

About the Contest

The contest will run from June 5 to October 8, 2016.  During this time, states will engage in a friendly competition to enroll as many participants as possible in the service. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are eligible to compete.

Timeline

Throughout the contest, states with the highest Text4baby enrollment over seven days will be identified as the Weekly Winners in Text4baby Tuesday. The states that enroll  the most users (as a proportion of live births in their state) between June 5 and October 8, 2016 will be the overall contest winners. 

Metrics

The population-adjusted rate of NEW Text4baby enrollment (enrollment just during the Contest Period) using 2012 live birth data from CDC (the most recently available data for all states) to approximate the number of NEW pregnancies and NEW infants for each state, will be used to determine winners of the 2016 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest.

We have three groups of states and members of each group competing against one another. The groups have been determined based on the overall distribution of 2012 live births with the goal of having states with similar numbers of estimated NEW pregnancies and NEW infants competing against each other. The Large State Category includes all states with live births in the upper quartile (highest 25%). The Medium State Category includes all states with live births in the middle 50%. The Small State Category includes all states with live births in the lower quartile (lowest 25%).

 

1)    Small State Category: States with the lowest number of live births:

WV, HI, ME, NH, MT, SD, DE, RI, AK, DC, ND, WY, VT

 

 

 

2)   Medium State Category: States with live births in between:

IN, AZ, TN, MO, MD, MA, WI, MN, CO, LA, AL, SC, KY, OK, UT, OR, PR, MS, KS, AR, IA, CT, NV, NM, NE, ID

 

 

 

3)   Large State Category: States with the highest number of live births:

CA, TX, NY, FL, IL, PA, OH, GA, NC, MI, NJ, VA, WA

 

 

 

This approach balances the distribution of live births and provides states with the fairest possible opportunity to win, given the wide variation in live birth rates across the country.

Contest Launch

The official launch of the 2016 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest will take place on June 5, 2016.

Resources

Text4baby Press Release Template 

2016 Contest Guidelines

Sample Social Media Posts

TEAM Text4baby

 
Read about the 2015 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest winners:

 

The 2015 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest winners were announced and honored during the Martha May Eliot Luncheon on November 2 at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Chicago. The event is the nation’s largest public health meeting.

 

Virginia has been a strong advocate of Text4baby since the program launched. A coalition of Virginia Text4baby partners from various state agencies joined together to promote the service and their interest was invigorated by Text4baby’s inclusion in Virginia Department of Health’s Infant Mortality Strategic Plan and participation in the Collaborative Innovation Network (COIN) initiative. The Department of Health customized the Text4baby service by including state-specific resources within the messages, as well as sharing monthly ad-hoc messages on topics of interest including prevention of child abuse, smoking cessation and more. Virginia Premier also partnered and promoted the service by providing free cell phones and connecting several hundred members to Text4baby. Read the full cast study here.

 

Thanks to the innovation of partners in Oklahoma, the state currently has the highest rate of enrollment for Text4baby in the country. Oklahoma Health Care Authority has been integrating Text4baby enrollment into its outreach and enrollment efforts with pregnant women and caretakers of infants, including implementing an automatic notification process via text message for members to easily opt-in to receive Text4baby messages. Since this process began, more than 10,000 SoonerCare members have opted to enroll through this process. Additionally, state partners have continued to reach moms with the service through a variety of media and advertisement outlets, during prenatal and pediatric appointments, in birthing hospitals, in WIC clinics, in faith-based organizations and through community outreach events. Sixty-five organizations in Oklahoma have partnered with Text4baby to help reach pregnant women and families with critical health and development information, including the OHCA, Oklahoma State Health Department, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, hospitals, and local health departments. Read the full case study here.

 

Throughout the competition, South Dakota consistently held one of the top spots of Text4baby enrollment among the small states. Led by the South Dakota Department of Health, moms are primarily enrolled through targeted promotional strategies by the State WIC and Bright Start Home Visiting programs. Resource folders including Text4baby materials have also been available at SDDOH for public health nurses and staff eager to make contact and share more information about the service with local providers across the state. Recently the service was promoted at the annual South Dakota Perinatal Association conference in September and at many other community events.  Read the full case study here.