Expanding Access to Child Care Support in Montgomery County through Multilingual Outreach
Challenge
Childcare expenses can be a major financial burden for working and studying parents, and access to affordable care is critical for families’ well-being and the community’s economic development. The Montgomery County Working Parent Assistance (WPA) Program in Maryland is a county-sponsored initiative to help eligible residents pay for childcare services. However, to be truly effective, the program needed to reach a highly diverse population in Montgomery County, where residents speak various languages and come from various cultural backgrounds. The challenge was to develop an inclusive, multilingual communications strategy that ensured all community members were aware of and could access the program’s benefits.
Solution
Communications Shop led the WPA program’s communications strategy, including branding, messaging, and product development during the first six months of the campaign launch. The goal was to create a welcoming and easily understandable campaign that could reach Montgomery County’s diverse communities.
Key elements of the campaign included:
- Multilingual Communications Strategy: Recognizing the diversity of Montgomery County, Communications Shop developed a comprehensive campaign in the five most commonly spoken languages: English, Spanish, Amharic, Vietnamese, and French. This ensured that the messaging would resonate with the County’s diverse population and be accessible to all eligible families.
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- Creative Product Development: To make the information easily accessible and engaging, we developed a variety of communications materials, including:
- Posters and Brochures explaining the WPA program and how to apply for assistance.
- Videos and Radio PSAs that were broadcast in multiple languages, sharing key information in culturally relevant ways.
- Bus advertisements are to reach working parents in transit.
- Digital Content and a Multilingual Digital Toolkit will be provided for community partners, enabling them to further promote the program to their networks in their respective languages.
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- Inclusive and Welcoming Tone: The campaign focused on creating approachable and friendly messaging that emphasized the program’s benefits. This tone helped eliminate barriers of confusion or intimidation that families may feel when applying for financial assistance, ensuring that the campaign was as welcoming as possible to all parents and legal guardians.
Results
The multilingual communications strategy and creative product development successfully raised awareness of the WPA program across Montgomery County. Some key outcomes include:
- Widespread Reach: The campaign reached all targeted language communities, providing crucial childcare information to English, Spanish, Amharic, Vietnamese, and French-speaking residents.
- Culturally Appropriate Engagement: The campaign’s culturally relevant materials resonated with the diverse populations of Montgomery County, increasing program awareness and boosting applications for the Working Parent Assistance program.
- Partner Engagement: The multilingual digital toolkit allowed community partners to distribute information easily, extending the campaign’s reach through trusted local organizations and networks.
Conclusion
 Communications Shop’s work with the Montgomery County WPA Program highlights the importance of inclusive, multilingual outreach in public service communications. The campaign successfully increased awareness of the program by developing a comprehensive communications strategy that catered to the County’s diverse population. It helped ensure that more families could access vital childcare assistance. The innovative, culturally sensitive approach taken by Communications Shop continues to support Montgomery County’s commitment to the comprehensive development and well-being of its working parents and their children.
- Partner : Working Parents Assistance (WPA) Program
- Link : Working Parents Assistance (WPA) Program
- Categories •Campaign •Immigration •Access To Information
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