2013 State Enrollment Contest Winners
North Carolina, Arkansas and South Dakota Connect the Most Women to
Free Health and Safety Information through Text4baby
Text4baby announces winners of the 2013 State Enrollment Contest
at nation’s largest public health meeting
WASHINGTON (November 4, 2013) – North Carolina, Arkansas and South Dakota have been named the winners of the 2013 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest, a competition to encourage promotion of text4baby, the nation’s largest and only free mobile health service. This national contest has engaged states across the country in connecting expecting and new moms to the critical health and safety information they need. The contest grew out of the enthusiasm of over 1,000 text4baby partners nationwide and their support of text4baby as a valuable tool for improving maternal and child health.
Winners were determined based on new participants who enrolled in the service during the contest period as a percentage of eligible moms. States/territories were separated into three categories – large, medium and small - based on their estimated number of new pregnancies and new infants. Throughout the contest, text4baby partners were able to regularly monitor their progress by accessing subscriber enrollment data by zip code through the text4baby website.
The winners of the contest were announced and honored by Text4baby Director Sarah Ingersoll during the Martha May Eliot Awards Ceremony at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting in Boston, Mass. The winning state representatives received a certificate and a congratulatory letter from Dr. Michael Lu, Associate Administrator for Maternal and Child Health at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“On behalf of HRSA and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, I would like to congratulate the three winners of the 2013 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest,” said Dr. Lu. “The innovative efforts of these three states, and of all the states that participated in the 2013 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest, are successfully linking many more pregnant women and new mothers to important evidence-based health information.”
“Without the support of over 1,000 partners nationwide, women would not be aware of this valuable, free service,” said Sarah Ingersoll, text4baby director. “The three state winners promoted text4baby through unique community events, TV advertisements and targeted mailings that helped thousands of women sign up for text4baby’s valuable health and safety messages.”
The winning states are:
Large State Category: North Carolina
North Carolina partners, including the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and the North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation, won the large state category by enrolling 4,882 new women during the contest period. Between July and August 2013, North Carolina partners paid for text4baby television advertisement airings throughout the state on cable stations in major city markets. These advertisements and other promotional efforts resulted in thousands of local women signing up for text4baby’s free health and safety messages.
Medium State Category: Arkansas
Arkansas led throughout the contest because of an innovative media campaign with press releases, billboards, and a media tour; and the grassroots efforts of local African-American sororities in the SISTERS United program who hosted text4baby awareness events for local women, including baby showers, vigils and community events. These diverse efforts helped connect 1,938 new Arkansas women to text4baby’s valuable health and safety information throughout the contest.
Small State Category: South Dakota
2012 winner South Dakota rose to the top again in 2013. The state’s keys to victory included the South Dakota Department of Health providing text4baby information, posters, and tearpads to WIC offices, hospitals, domestic violence shelters, providers, and organizations across the state. These strategies helped spread the word about text4baby statewide and enroll 525 new women.
The 2013 Text4baby State Enrollment Contest was supported by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American Public Health Association (APHA), Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP), Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), CityMatCH, March of Dimes, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), National Head Start Association (NHSA), National Healthy Start Association, National WIC Association, Southern Governors’ Association (SGA), and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
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About text4baby
Text4baby is the nation’s only free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health through text messaging. A free service of the nonprofit National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB), implemented in partnership with Voxiva, the Founding Sponsor is Johnson & Johnson. Founding partners include The Wireless Foundation, and Grey Healthcare Group (a WPP company). A special thanks goes to the carriers who support text4baby so the service can be free to the end users: Alltel, Assurance Wireless, AT&T, Bluegrass Cellular, Boost Mobile, Cellcom, Cincinnati Bell, Cricket, MetroPCS, n-Telos, Nex-Tech Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, TracFone, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Virgin Mobile U.S.A. Text4baby’s public-private partnership also includes over 1000 national, state and local organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For more information, visit text4baby.org.