Partner Success Stories

Families Fighting Flu (FFF), a national non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the flu, participated in Year 3 of the Keep Flu Out of School program with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN). This initiative is a school-based program that focuses on the prevention of influenza among elementary school students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Close to 5,000 students in Chicago, IL; Springfield, MO; and Santa Rosa County, FL participated in Year 3 of the program. The goals of the program are to raise influenza awareness amongst students, parents, teachers, and school nurses; to reduce childhood immunization barriers; and, ultimately to increase influenza vaccination coverage rates among children in elementary school.

On March 7, 2016, CDC teamed up with The Kid’s Doctor, one of CDC’s partners in flu prevention, to host a Twitter Chat about the importance of flu vaccination for children of all ages. The #FluFreeKids chat was moderated by CDC Flu Expert Becky Schicker and Dr. Sue Hubbard, pediatrician and spokesperson for The Kid’s Doctor. Leveraging the #FluFreeKids hashtag, the social conversation focused on several key topics, including flu vaccinations, children at high risk for flu complications, antivirals, preventive actions, and additional flu resources.

On February 23-25, 2016, CDC and Healtheo360 worked together to host a forum on Healtheo360’s Facebook page. The three-day #FightFluForum focused on providing people with chronic health conditions with information and steps for protecting themselves against the flu. A CDC subject matter expert supported Healtheo360 by providing answers to questions they received throughout the forum.

During National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) 2015, CDC worked with five partners to host the 2015 NIVW Blog Relay, a multiday online event promoting the importance of flu vaccination among a variety of audiences. The blog relay used a “Focus on the Family” theme to encourage readers to focus on protecting their family during the holiday season and beyond. The participating partners helped CDC reach audiences across the lifespan, including general family, parents, people living with chronic diseases, and seniors.

With over 6,000 entries from across the United States, Canada, and several other countries, CDC is proud to have been named as a recipient of the Hermes Gold for Mobile Information Experience Award. Hermes awards recognize outstanding work in the marketing, advertising, production, and communications industry. Other recipients in the mobile creative design categories include Dainik Bhaskar Group of Mumbai, India, Allstate Insurance, and AstraZeneca.

Now in its second year, the Flu Vaccination Digital Ambassador initiative has more than doubled in size, from six Ambassadors in 2013-2014 to 13 for the 2014-2015 season. This year, Digital Ambassadors generated more than 124 million earned digital media impressions through 755 blog, website, and social media posts—an increase of more than 120 million impressions and 670 posts since the initiative’s first year.

CDC co-hosted three multi-day Facebook Forums with three Flu Vaccination Digital Ambassadors during the 2014-2015 flu season, in an effort to address consumers’ flu questions directly. A Place for Mom, Vaccinate Your Baby (the Facebook page of Every Child By Two and Shot of Prevention), and LIVESTRONG were the digital ambassadors who co-hosted these events. Together, the Forums generated 270 questions and comments, 1,540 likes, and 528 shares via 17 posts on the partnering hosts’ Facebook page timelines.

The #VaxWithMe campaign seeks to drive visibility of flu vaccination, spark engagement around the importance of vaccination, and ultimately, generate a movement that encourages more people to get their flu vaccination every year. Between September 2014 and April 2015, 552 participants used the #vaxwithme hashtag 827 times, generating 18.4 million impressions.

In the week leading up to NIVW 2014, seven CDC partners committed to posting about flu vaccination one day of the week as part of a “Countdown to NIVW Blog Relay.” The relay generated seven individual blog posts, 124 social media posts from participating partners’ cross-promotion, and 21.6 million total impressions—all by the time NIVW had just kicked off. Partners treated the activity as a true relay with each being responsible for publishing one blog post on each day and providing a “relay hand-off” that directed readers to the following day’s post on the next partner’s blog.

The Employee Health Department is pleased to announce the success of the 2014–15 Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Campaign. The Regional Medical Center of San Jose is excited with this year’s result of 94.2% vaccination compliance which is a great accomplishment. By vaccinating the leadership team, this has created a great example among healthcare workers.

In the 2013-2014 flu season, CDC launched a Flu Vaccination Digital Ambassador initiative to establish a group of online publishers dedicated to raising awareness about flu vaccination throughout the season. During the initiative’s inaugural year, CDC initiated six Digital Ambassadors, five targeting high priority audiences—pregnant women, healthcare providers, seniors over the age of 65, people with chronic conditions, and parents and caregivers of young children and a sixth addressing a larger, general audience.

Family Voices, a nonprofit dedicated to family centered care for children and youth with special healthcare needs (CYSHCN), has launched a collaborative campaign with CDC that aims to inform parents and caretakers about the importance of flu vaccination among people in this group. This collaboration helped reach a new audience with critical messaging about the importance of flu prevention – a major achievement for the campaign.

In September 2013, Text4baby, a free service of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition named Rite Aid as its first national retail partner. In celebration of the new partnership, Rite Aid provided 10,000 free flu shots to Text4baby mothers during the 2013 flu season. Pregnant women and new moms who were enrolled in the service received a free flu shot code redeemable at their local Rite Aid pharmacy.

As of early November 2013, USPHS Lawton Service Unit had achieved a 96% employee flu vaccination rate. BEE WISE…Immunize! became Lawton Indian Hospital’s 2013 campaign slogan in our effort to break previous records for employee flu vaccinations: 90% in 2011 and 92% in 2012.

With a goal of increasing seasonal flu vaccination rates by 5 percent, the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health embarked on a wide-ranging flu vaccine campaign in 2013. The effort included provider training and education, special promotional materials and a radio PSA.

Thanks to a grant from the Indiana State Department of Health and the time and effort of our dedicated staff, so far more than 140 people representing 25 healthcare providers were trained on giving flu vaccine, nearly 3,500 doses of flu vaccine were administered to area school children, and 1,665 radio spots promoting flu vaccinations aired on local radio stations.

In September 2013, responding to new regulations from New York State’s Department of Health requiring all health care personnel to be vaccinated against influenza (“flu”) or wear a mask in areas where patients may be present, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) kicked off a vigorous campaign to raise awareness of the new rules and vaccinate employees.

The 2012-2013 influenza season marked five years since the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) established the Childhood Influenza Immunization Coalition (CIIC) to encourage and support a universal pediatric influenza immunization recommendation and help improve influenza vaccination rates. CIIC membership comprises more than 30 of the nation’s leading public health, medical, patient, and parent groups, working together to protect children from influenza by communicating with “one strong voice” the need to make influenza vaccination a national health priority.

Families Fighting Flu (FFF) is a national, nonprofit organization comprised mainly of families who have either lost a child to the flu or whose child became seriously ill due to the disease. In response to feedback received from its membership, FFF held two free webinars during the fall of 2012 to educate about flu prevention for the entire family. Both webinars were well-attended with nearly 200 participants, including parents, local/state health agency workers, and FFF members, from across the country.

During the 2012-2013 flu season, the Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health launched an ongoing vaccination awareness campaign. The Department of Health held or assisted with seasonal flu immunization clinics in which approximately 6,450 vaccinations have been given (as of Dec. 1, 2012).

In support of National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW), the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB) partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Families Fighting Flu (FFF) to feature a two-part blog post on its updated website. The blog posts were promoted on the HMHB homepage as well as through various social media channels for HMHB, FFF and CDC.

In support of National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW), NASN became the new blogger on the block by hosting an hour-long blogger briefing on December 4, 2012, to raise awareness and increase seasonal influenza vaccine uptake. Four organizations participated in the briefing: Moms that Vax, Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), and Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases (pKids). The blogger briefing focused on the important role school nurses play in getting school-age children and their families vaccinated each year.

NASN advances the specialty practice of school nursing to improve the health and academic success of all students with national and international reach to approximately 16,000 school nurses who are in 75% of the nation’s schools serving 52 million students and their families.

The Richmond City Health District is strong in partnership development and has made great strides in building public awareness, understanding, and support of the CDC flu vaccination campaign. Starting in December 2011 with a campaign kick-off during NIVW, where participants included city agencies, church ministries, and African American print and broadcast media, 2012 ushered in even greater partnership growth.