Caring for Chicago Newborns and Families

CLIENT

The Chicago Department of Public Health

INDUSTRY

Public Health

THE CHALLENGE

Create awareness and resources for the Family Connects Chicago program, which provides a free home nurse visit to Chicago families with newborns

SERVICES

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Chicago Department of Public Health is focused on supporting Chicagoans at every stage of life, from the moment they’re born. In 2019, CDPH’s Family Connects Chicago program began partnering with hospitals across the city to give families with new infants a free home nurse visit and connect them with resources. Eligible families include foster parents, adoptive parents and families who already have other children.

But without dedicated marketing tools, CDPH struggled to create awareness among birthing families. Bigmouth was tasked with creating a landing page and tools to educate birthing parents about the program, and to help internal audiences communicate about the program both internally and externally.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

Applying our knowledge of Chicago’s families

Family Connects Chicago is an offshoot of the Family Connects International program, which currently operates in numerous cities and counties across 20 U.S. states. While FCI created the Family Connects model, each location is responsible for facilitating, branding and communicating Family Connects within their community.

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY

Applying our knowledge of Chicago’s families

Bigmouth had already created family-focused brands and websites like One Chicago Family and Illinois Safe Sleep in partnership with CDPH. This experience, and our familiarity with the city’s standardized Chicago Design System, set us up early for success.

With a solid understanding of our baseline, the team set out to explore the human-centric elements of our work. We paired data from the CDPH team with anecdotal evidence from program leaders and nurses to understand:

The program’s end-to-end structure: Families’ experience from beginning to end
CDPH’s goals for growing the program, and barriers to this growth
The program’s benefits and most-used resources
The messages external audiences most needed to hear

KEY BIGMOUTH TACTICS

Developing a specific vocabulary and point of view for the FCC sub-brand

Defining efficient marketing strategies and tactics

The program’s end-to-end structure: Families’ experience from beginning to end
CDPH’s goals for growing the program, and barriers to this growth
The program’s benefits and most-used resources
The messages external audiences most needed to hear

KEY BIGMOUTH TACTICS

Developing a specific vocabulary and point of view for the FCC sub-brand

Defining efficient marketing strategies and tactics

BRAND + IDENTITY

Capturing the stories of real Chicago families

The Family Connects Chicago audience potentially includes every Chicago family with an infant, regardless of neighborhood, income, reading level and accessibility needs. To ensure our work resonated with as many people as possible, we used a supportive tone and straightforward language to provide the most important information as quickly and clearly as possible.

We carried over and refreshed illustrations and graphical elements from the Illinois Safe Sleep campaign for brand continuity, paired with photography that allowed Chicagoans to see themselves in the work.

KEY BIGMOUTH TACTICS

Showing real Chicago families of various ages, races, and family makeups to authentically reflect and connect with audiences across the city.

Creating appropriate differentiation from the Illinois Safe Sleep campaign, while using familiar illustration styles and colors to build brand continuity.

Our CDPH collaborators’ vision for Family Connects wasn’t just a brand featuring families of varied backgrounds, but families who really lived in Chicago. The Bigmouth and Family Connects team recruited real FCC participants for multiple photoshoots and interviews to capture their stories. FCC nurses also shared their experiences working with families and interacted with parents and babies to give audiences a look at what to expect during their own home visits.

These sessions were also an opportunity for Bigmouth to involve some of our favorite collaborators, including Nunnally Productions and M Lamourt Studios. Their vision and artistic direction led to organic, human-centric visuals that brought audiences into the story.

“Families aren’t on camera every day, so it’s important to make folks as comfortable as they can be.”

M LAMOURT

Campaign Photographer

CAMPAIGN CREATIVE

Supporting our internal stakeholders

This visual and testimonial storytelling was the perfect foundation for the next step: Educational materials for use by hospitals, community organizations and CDPH employees in the field. With an eye on reaching as many families as possible, all outputs were transcreated across the five languages most commonly spoken in Chicago. This work included:

A trifold informational brochure
A PowerPoint template, palm cards, informational one-sheets, in-office posters, and tabletop signage, all templated for ongoing use
The 2024 Family Connects Chicago report, which shares the program’s accomplishments and program outcomes beyond single-day nurse visits

The Bigmouth team also built an e-store stocked with physical versions of these resources. Now, community partner organizations can easily order CDPH print items for delivery and use in their communities.

KEY BIGMOUTH TACTICS

Working with native speakers and translation partners to ensure all materials resonated in English, Spanish, Polish, Chinese and Arabic.

Giving the Family Connects community of providers and advocates easy access to the tools to grow program participation.

WEBSITE

A space for education and crucial resources

The FCC landing page carried over our joint goal of offering easy-to-use ways for Chicagoans to learn about the program. The site includes a step-by-step walkthrough so families know what to expect; testimonials gathered during our photoshoot interviews; and related resources for family health and support, including a list of participating hospitals.

University of Chicago Medical Center / Rush University Medical Center / Mt. Sinai Hospital Chicago / Humboldt Park Health / Swedish Hospital / St. Anthony Hospital / Roseland Community Hospital / John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County /Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center / Advocate Trinity Hospital

KEY BIGMOUTH TACTICS

Designing an easy-to-use website to reflect FCC’s identity, optimize user experience and allow for easy site updates.

ACTIVATION

Celebrating FCC’s accomplishments

It truly takes a village for FCC to support our city’s families; 10 Chicago hospitals currently participate in the program, supported by community partner organizations and volunteers. In July 2024, CDPH and Bigmouth hosted an annual meeting to celebrate their efforts, review 2023 accomplishments and discuss FCC’s role in health equity.

The baby shower-themed event, held at the Chicago Cultural Center, featured fun activities like fingerprint trees and written wishes for FCC infants, as well as breakfast, presentations and plenty of relationship-building. Bigmouth’s support through site and catering coordination; engagement activities; slideware and signage; and decor and event photography, brought the whole day together.

KEY BIGMOUTH TACTICS