Welcome to London and to the Kings College (London) and the National Social Marketing Centre. I am trying out this blog as a way of sharing my experiences while in London (and elsewhere in the UK and Ireland) in conjunction with a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award I received this summer. This is my first journey into "blogging"; so please forgive my clumsiness with the technology and the fact that it is a lot harder to keep up with the daily entry than I ever thought. So this is a "sort-of" daily blog, but the intervals got longer as the time went by. Also, please note my disclaimer--taking all responsibility for the informal entries and observations. Enjoy!!!
Note! The blog starts at the end and goes to the beginning (July 2, 2007). Also make sure that you check on the "older postings" at the bottom to get the earliest material.
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Friday, 10 August 2007
Last Day - US National Strategy for Social Marketing
August 10, 2007
Day 42 --Last Day
It is my last day at the National Social Marketing Centre (NCSM) and this phase of the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program. Tomorrow, Linda and I head for Ireland and a week of exploring the southern and western coast before going home to the USA.
I hope that this blog clearly tells the story of our wonderful and, for me at least, life-changing experience here in London. Seldom does someone in my position at a small, state health department, have the chance to observe—even participate—in public health operate on a national—or even global scale. It is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience. A great big "thank you" to all our new friends at NSMC, Kings College and others places in London and England!
As I mentioned in an earlier segment of this record, the experience leads me to consider a national strategy for the development of social marketing in the US. The argument goes something like this….using obesity as an example.
According to the English Department of Health document on the Healthy Living Social Marketing Initiative (2006) “the prevalence of obesity in the UK, in common with countries across the world, continues to rise. If present trends continue, 33% of men and 28% of women will be obese by 2010. The rate of increase in obesity among children and young people is very similar to that of adults, rising from 9.6% to 14.9% in boys and 10.3% to 12.5% in girls up to the age of 11 years in 1995 and 2003 respectively, and predicted to be 17% and 19% respectively by 2010. Given that weight is frequently gained throughout adult life, there is a legitimate concern that the prevalence of obesity is set to escalate further. Moreover, the magnitude and duration of excess weight are strongly associated with the burden of related ill- health. Accordingly, childhood obesity is sometimes referred to as ‘a ticking time-bomb’ of disease.”
It goes on to say that “the ‘Healthy Living’ Social Marketing Initiative provides a framework to deliver a concerted national programme of work that drives deep-rooted shifts in cultural values and social norms. A key aim must be to reduce the negative impact of the ‘obesogenic’ environment and instead create a positive climate that supports and facilitates the necessary changes in the diet and activity habits of parents and their children to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. We must reduce the impact of the ‘obesogenic’ environment and create a positive climate for change….. through collective working towards the common goal of improved health and well-being for the population at large and children in particular.” (emphasis mine).
In the US, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased sharply for both adults and children since the mid-seventies. Data from two NHANES surveys show that among adults aged 20–74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15.0% (in the 1976–1980 survey) to 32.9% (in the 2003–2004 survey). The two surveys also show increases in overweight among children and teens. For children aged 2–5 years, the prevalence of overweight increased from 5.0% to 13.9%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 18.8%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.4%. These increasing rates raise concern because of their implications for Americans’ health and because in spite of current efforts, that the situation is worsening rather than improving. (Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/)
Unlike the English experience, the US does not have a unified national strategy for the development of social marketing to support a “collective working towards the common goal of improved health and well-being for the population.” Given the evidence amassed by the NSMC and others in support of the effectiveness of social marketing to improve the behavioral outcomes of public health programs, I believe that a national strategy is not only possible, it is essential to a sustained contribution of social marketing to improved US health objectives.
Rev 8/7/07
DRAFT
Framework for an American National Strategy for Social Marketing (for developing the social marketing community (in public health?)*
Introduction:
The independent review of the first English national review of social marketing (It’s Our Health, 2006 http://www.nsms.org.uk/images/CoreFiles/itsourhealth.pdf) found that the adoption of social marketing in a systematic way will increase the impact and effectiveness of health-related programs and campaigns at the national level. It also concluded that current approaches were unlikely to deliver policy goals or provide sufficient leadership and coordination; that social marketing could use resources more effectively, but was underdeveloped and required research and evaluation to maximize its value.
This is not the first acknowledgement of the potential contribution of social marketing on a grand scale. Indeed, both the US Agency for International Development (USAID) http://www.psp-one.com/content/resource/detail/4070/ and the English Department for International Development (DFID) http://www.dfidhealthrc.org/publications/srh.html
promote the extensive research and practice of social marketing programs around the world. There are, of course, many other examples both from home and abroad.
The English experience, in particular, raises an interesting question about the need for a national strategy to promote social marketing in the US. How could the field move forward to link together the resources and networks and develop a capacity to mobilize and sustain the potential of social marketing to increase the impact and effectiveness of health-related programs and campaigns at the national level in the US? The purpose of this paper is to present a draft framework for further discussion of this strategy, at least for public health, extending if possible to its possible final form and process for achievement.
The US Social Marketing “Community”
First, it may be useful the think of social marketing as a “community” in the US, as opposed to a single profession, discipline, field or other line of work. Community has at least two elements that are useful for this purpose. First, community connotes individual, groups and institutions interacting with one another rather than just a population defined organizationally, demographically or geo-politically. So the social marketing community has training, research and practice components and includes various kinds and levels or organizations (governmental, private, academic, professional, etc.) Second, these interactions are based on common interests, both general and specific, rather than on a scope of professional knowledge or practice. In other words, the community may include those interested in public health as well as those interested in environmental sustainability, public administration, education or other areas of “social good.” It is well-known that social marketing includes more than just public health, but there may be less recognition that to be successful in establishing a national strategy, social marketing in public health will have to involve partners in different professionals, contexts and primary interests.
So planning is about the entire community, not only public health or universities or government agencies…an important, albeit challenging starting place.
The American Value Context:
The US faces a unique opportunity to create and achieve a strategic plan for social marketing. The English experience indicates that there is somewhat of an aversion to the term “marketing” in that society. In America, the aversion is more about the term “social”—giving rise to visions of increasing taxes, more government, run-amok welfare and even an American version of the “nanny state.” This is less applicable, of course, among those who envision government and institutions as vehicles for social improvement and change—such as many in public health and other similarly disposed fields.
Fortunately for strategic purposes at least, “marketing” resonates with core American values of enterprise, individual choice, business is “good” and responding to consumer demand. With thoughtful planning, we can position social marketing as an approach to public health (and other non-commercial “goods”) that is customer centered—asking about consumer wants and needs instead of prescribing what they “should” want and need. This notion couples nicely with social marketing as an approach that can significantly improve impact and mobilize resources more effectively than more traditional, “top-down” methods.
Aim of a strategic plan for social marketing
The aim of a strategic plan is to create an integrated national capacity to use social marketing as a systematic approach to design and implement effective customer-centered programs of behaviour change for promoting public health, reducing inequalities and achieving other social benefits. Capacity is the key word here. It recognizes, first, that our current US capacity is underdeveloped, second, that development is a long-term process and third, that it involves complex relationships among training, research and practice.
The American social marketing strategic plan
What would the result of a national social marketing strategy look like?
This national strategy is intended to achieve both horizontal and vertical integration of social marketing—horizontal meaning across governmental, academic, professional, financing, public/private sectors and “fields of practice”. Vertical integration pertains to national, federal/state/local governmental, community, agency and individual sectors of activity.
Policy oriented:
First of all, social marketing would play a key role in the design and implementation of national policy, both in federal and private sectors. There are at least two existing precedents for this role. The US Agency or International Development (USAID) strongly supports and uses social marketing as a systematic approach to health, sustainability and other behaviors throughout the world. A second precedent refers to the customer-centric nature of the American business and economic sectors—where choice, exchange and competition are central. Indeed, social marketing is often defined as the adoption of commercial marketing technologies. The English experience indicates that it would not be enough just to practice at the program level and leave the policy development to others. Social marketing needs a strong policy base as a leverage point for other aspects of the strategic framework. Its use and funding must become part of the national agenda for public health and other areas of interest.
Inclusive partnerships:
Next social marketing would have to be widely applicable across policy areas and fields of practice. Social marketing is useful in health, sustainability, public safety and many other areas. While public health may provide a key launching pad for a national strategy (and the primary objective of this framework), it must accommodate these other areas as equal partners in order to build a critical mass necessary to drive policy, funding and other critical elements. This is a difficult requirement. The fear of losing control and getting co-opted by another stronger (or more energetic) group lurks in the shadows. However, it is unlikely that public health either can or should achieve a national strategy monolithically. Just imagine the power of a technology for positive behavior change that transcends individual fields and sectors!
Practice Standards and credentialing
Defining social marketing as a community of experts and practitioners makes a logical first step. The objective here is three-fold: (1) to clearly identify the area of knowledge, technology and practice in which all social marketers participate; (2) to establish the competency and ethical standards of practice and (3) to create a process for officially recognizing the satisfactory training and achievement of those standards. This process could be similar to that of the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) that provides Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) credentials to qualified professionals. There are many other examples from other fields and disciplines.
Community and Professional organization
Professionalization and credentialing activities would take place in the context of a community and professional organization (CPO). The primary roles of the CPO are to:
Promote professional social marketing
Serve the members of the organization
Provide an organizational home for the profession
Provide policy leadership and advocacy for the profession (including research and training) and its various interests
Financially support the CPO and related activities
Also the CPO can develop and support communication networks, using new and emerging technologies to establish interaction channels that are timely, convenient and powerful tools for sharing research, evaluation and best practices—as well as other professional communications.
Research
Social marketing already benefits from a wide array of research in public health and other areas. However, as the methodology is applied to a wider variety and more extensive number of behaviors, both the opportunity for and necessity of research will become more apparent. One of the goals of a national strategy for social marketing should be a generous and stable resource base for research, especially including applied research and evaluation. These resources could derive from either government or private resources (or both) and support social marketing research across various acute and chronic health problems as well as other community and policy objectives.
Research (like education and training) should be trans-institutional, building on the existing strengths and experiences of key centers to form new centers and a network of organizations engaged in social marketing and related research.
Education and training
A national emphasis on social marketing will require new resources for training—including financial resources as well as institutions and faculty with expertise/experience in social marketing. The UK completed an assessment of academic resources http://www.nsms.org.uk/images/CoreFiles/NSMC-R4_aacademic_sector.pdf and found them to be “underdeveloped”. It is uncertain as to whether a similar report exists for the US—clearly a prerequisite of planning in this area.
Education and training should encompass undergraduate, graduate and adult/continuing education and other professional training using a variety of formats (classroom, conferences, field schools) and technologies (local and distance-learning). Again, training need to be trans-institutional, perhaps with some concentrated specialty sites, but forming a national network sufficient to meet the emerging demands for social marketing training. In addition, given the increasing restrictions on travel, particularly for professionals in local government agencies, such training should be widely available both through distance learning technologies and through strategically located support centers.
Partnerships
After pointing out some of the pros and cons of both public and private stakeholders in social marketing (http://www.nsms.org.uk/images/CoreFiles/NSMC-R8_national_stakeholder_research.pdf ) the National Social Marketing Centre nonetheless reaffirmed the critical necessity of partnerships to the success of the national strategy. Partners could be approached based on 1) the degree of interest and readiness to partner and 2) the critical contribution to the success of the social marketing strategy.
It is premature to propose a list, however there already are numerous US organizations, both public and private, academic and practice oriented with keen interests in social marketing related to public health and other fields.
What would the strategic planning process include?
The specific details on the planning process are probably best left to another time, but the general nature of the process merits some discussion. This should be a funded planning process, including a core staff, organizational home and operations budget to support meetings, planning documents, consultants, travel and other expenses. One or more of the governmental or private organizations (or both) may be willing to support the process. The process should be transparent and inclusive, probably starting with a small representative, planning group to discuss, refine and plan the strategy; then expanding to a more participative model with specific workgroups.
___________________*My appreciation (and apologies) to Jeff French, Jim Lindenberger, Craig Lefebvre, Carol Bryant (and others) from whom I have adopted some ideas and discussed this project.
Day 42 --Last Day
It is my last day at the National Social Marketing Centre (NCSM) and this phase of the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program. Tomorrow, Linda and I head for Ireland and a week of exploring the southern and western coast before going home to the USA.
I hope that this blog clearly tells the story of our wonderful and, for me at least, life-changing experience here in London. Seldom does someone in my position at a small, state health department, have the chance to observe—even participate—in public health operate on a national—or even global scale. It is a humbling and awe-inspiring experience. A great big "thank you" to all our new friends at NSMC, Kings College and others places in London and England!
As I mentioned in an earlier segment of this record, the experience leads me to consider a national strategy for the development of social marketing in the US. The argument goes something like this….using obesity as an example.
According to the English Department of Health document on the Healthy Living Social Marketing Initiative (2006) “the prevalence of obesity in the UK, in common with countries across the world, continues to rise. If present trends continue, 33% of men and 28% of women will be obese by 2010. The rate of increase in obesity among children and young people is very similar to that of adults, rising from 9.6% to 14.9% in boys and 10.3% to 12.5% in girls up to the age of 11 years in 1995 and 2003 respectively, and predicted to be 17% and 19% respectively by 2010. Given that weight is frequently gained throughout adult life, there is a legitimate concern that the prevalence of obesity is set to escalate further. Moreover, the magnitude and duration of excess weight are strongly associated with the burden of related ill- health. Accordingly, childhood obesity is sometimes referred to as ‘a ticking time-bomb’ of disease.”
It goes on to say that “the ‘Healthy Living’ Social Marketing Initiative provides a framework to deliver a concerted national programme of work that drives deep-rooted shifts in cultural values and social norms. A key aim must be to reduce the negative impact of the ‘obesogenic’ environment and instead create a positive climate that supports and facilitates the necessary changes in the diet and activity habits of parents and their children to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. We must reduce the impact of the ‘obesogenic’ environment and create a positive climate for change….. through collective working towards the common goal of improved health and well-being for the population at large and children in particular.” (emphasis mine).
In the US, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased sharply for both adults and children since the mid-seventies. Data from two NHANES surveys show that among adults aged 20–74 years the prevalence of obesity increased from 15.0% (in the 1976–1980 survey) to 32.9% (in the 2003–2004 survey). The two surveys also show increases in overweight among children and teens. For children aged 2–5 years, the prevalence of overweight increased from 5.0% to 13.9%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 18.8%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.4%. These increasing rates raise concern because of their implications for Americans’ health and because in spite of current efforts, that the situation is worsening rather than improving. (Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/)
Unlike the English experience, the US does not have a unified national strategy for the development of social marketing to support a “collective working towards the common goal of improved health and well-being for the population.” Given the evidence amassed by the NSMC and others in support of the effectiveness of social marketing to improve the behavioral outcomes of public health programs, I believe that a national strategy is not only possible, it is essential to a sustained contribution of social marketing to improved US health objectives.
Rev 8/7/07
DRAFT
Framework for an American National Strategy for Social Marketing (for developing the social marketing community (in public health?)*
Introduction:
The independent review of the first English national review of social marketing (It’s Our Health, 2006 http://www.nsms.org.uk/images/CoreFiles/itsourhealth.pdf) found that the adoption of social marketing in a systematic way will increase the impact and effectiveness of health-related programs and campaigns at the national level. It also concluded that current approaches were unlikely to deliver policy goals or provide sufficient leadership and coordination; that social marketing could use resources more effectively, but was underdeveloped and required research and evaluation to maximize its value.
This is not the first acknowledgement of the potential contribution of social marketing on a grand scale. Indeed, both the US Agency for International Development (USAID) http://www.psp-one.com/content/resource/detail/4070/ and the English Department for International Development (DFID) http://www.dfidhealthrc.org/publications/srh.html
promote the extensive research and practice of social marketing programs around the world. There are, of course, many other examples both from home and abroad.
The English experience, in particular, raises an interesting question about the need for a national strategy to promote social marketing in the US. How could the field move forward to link together the resources and networks and develop a capacity to mobilize and sustain the potential of social marketing to increase the impact and effectiveness of health-related programs and campaigns at the national level in the US? The purpose of this paper is to present a draft framework for further discussion of this strategy, at least for public health, extending if possible to its possible final form and process for achievement.
The US Social Marketing “Community”
First, it may be useful the think of social marketing as a “community” in the US, as opposed to a single profession, discipline, field or other line of work. Community has at least two elements that are useful for this purpose. First, community connotes individual, groups and institutions interacting with one another rather than just a population defined organizationally, demographically or geo-politically. So the social marketing community has training, research and practice components and includes various kinds and levels or organizations (governmental, private, academic, professional, etc.) Second, these interactions are based on common interests, both general and specific, rather than on a scope of professional knowledge or practice. In other words, the community may include those interested in public health as well as those interested in environmental sustainability, public administration, education or other areas of “social good.” It is well-known that social marketing includes more than just public health, but there may be less recognition that to be successful in establishing a national strategy, social marketing in public health will have to involve partners in different professionals, contexts and primary interests.
So planning is about the entire community, not only public health or universities or government agencies…an important, albeit challenging starting place.
The American Value Context:
The US faces a unique opportunity to create and achieve a strategic plan for social marketing. The English experience indicates that there is somewhat of an aversion to the term “marketing” in that society. In America, the aversion is more about the term “social”—giving rise to visions of increasing taxes, more government, run-amok welfare and even an American version of the “nanny state.” This is less applicable, of course, among those who envision government and institutions as vehicles for social improvement and change—such as many in public health and other similarly disposed fields.
Fortunately for strategic purposes at least, “marketing” resonates with core American values of enterprise, individual choice, business is “good” and responding to consumer demand. With thoughtful planning, we can position social marketing as an approach to public health (and other non-commercial “goods”) that is customer centered—asking about consumer wants and needs instead of prescribing what they “should” want and need. This notion couples nicely with social marketing as an approach that can significantly improve impact and mobilize resources more effectively than more traditional, “top-down” methods.
Aim of a strategic plan for social marketing
The aim of a strategic plan is to create an integrated national capacity to use social marketing as a systematic approach to design and implement effective customer-centered programs of behaviour change for promoting public health, reducing inequalities and achieving other social benefits. Capacity is the key word here. It recognizes, first, that our current US capacity is underdeveloped, second, that development is a long-term process and third, that it involves complex relationships among training, research and practice.
The American social marketing strategic plan
What would the result of a national social marketing strategy look like?
This national strategy is intended to achieve both horizontal and vertical integration of social marketing—horizontal meaning across governmental, academic, professional, financing, public/private sectors and “fields of practice”. Vertical integration pertains to national, federal/state/local governmental, community, agency and individual sectors of activity.
Policy oriented:
First of all, social marketing would play a key role in the design and implementation of national policy, both in federal and private sectors. There are at least two existing precedents for this role. The US Agency or International Development (USAID) strongly supports and uses social marketing as a systematic approach to health, sustainability and other behaviors throughout the world. A second precedent refers to the customer-centric nature of the American business and economic sectors—where choice, exchange and competition are central. Indeed, social marketing is often defined as the adoption of commercial marketing technologies. The English experience indicates that it would not be enough just to practice at the program level and leave the policy development to others. Social marketing needs a strong policy base as a leverage point for other aspects of the strategic framework. Its use and funding must become part of the national agenda for public health and other areas of interest.
Inclusive partnerships:
Next social marketing would have to be widely applicable across policy areas and fields of practice. Social marketing is useful in health, sustainability, public safety and many other areas. While public health may provide a key launching pad for a national strategy (and the primary objective of this framework), it must accommodate these other areas as equal partners in order to build a critical mass necessary to drive policy, funding and other critical elements. This is a difficult requirement. The fear of losing control and getting co-opted by another stronger (or more energetic) group lurks in the shadows. However, it is unlikely that public health either can or should achieve a national strategy monolithically. Just imagine the power of a technology for positive behavior change that transcends individual fields and sectors!
Practice Standards and credentialing
Defining social marketing as a community of experts and practitioners makes a logical first step. The objective here is three-fold: (1) to clearly identify the area of knowledge, technology and practice in which all social marketers participate; (2) to establish the competency and ethical standards of practice and (3) to create a process for officially recognizing the satisfactory training and achievement of those standards. This process could be similar to that of the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) that provides Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) credentials to qualified professionals. There are many other examples from other fields and disciplines.
Community and Professional organization
Professionalization and credentialing activities would take place in the context of a community and professional organization (CPO). The primary roles of the CPO are to:
Promote professional social marketing
Serve the members of the organization
Provide an organizational home for the profession
Provide policy leadership and advocacy for the profession (including research and training) and its various interests
Financially support the CPO and related activities
Also the CPO can develop and support communication networks, using new and emerging technologies to establish interaction channels that are timely, convenient and powerful tools for sharing research, evaluation and best practices—as well as other professional communications.
Research
Social marketing already benefits from a wide array of research in public health and other areas. However, as the methodology is applied to a wider variety and more extensive number of behaviors, both the opportunity for and necessity of research will become more apparent. One of the goals of a national strategy for social marketing should be a generous and stable resource base for research, especially including applied research and evaluation. These resources could derive from either government or private resources (or both) and support social marketing research across various acute and chronic health problems as well as other community and policy objectives.
Research (like education and training) should be trans-institutional, building on the existing strengths and experiences of key centers to form new centers and a network of organizations engaged in social marketing and related research.
Education and training
A national emphasis on social marketing will require new resources for training—including financial resources as well as institutions and faculty with expertise/experience in social marketing. The UK completed an assessment of academic resources http://www.nsms.org.uk/images/CoreFiles/NSMC-R4_aacademic_sector.pdf and found them to be “underdeveloped”. It is uncertain as to whether a similar report exists for the US—clearly a prerequisite of planning in this area.
Education and training should encompass undergraduate, graduate and adult/continuing education and other professional training using a variety of formats (classroom, conferences, field schools) and technologies (local and distance-learning). Again, training need to be trans-institutional, perhaps with some concentrated specialty sites, but forming a national network sufficient to meet the emerging demands for social marketing training. In addition, given the increasing restrictions on travel, particularly for professionals in local government agencies, such training should be widely available both through distance learning technologies and through strategically located support centers.
Partnerships
After pointing out some of the pros and cons of both public and private stakeholders in social marketing (http://www.nsms.org.uk/images/CoreFiles/NSMC-R8_national_stakeholder_research.pdf ) the National Social Marketing Centre nonetheless reaffirmed the critical necessity of partnerships to the success of the national strategy. Partners could be approached based on 1) the degree of interest and readiness to partner and 2) the critical contribution to the success of the social marketing strategy.
It is premature to propose a list, however there already are numerous US organizations, both public and private, academic and practice oriented with keen interests in social marketing related to public health and other fields.
What would the strategic planning process include?
The specific details on the planning process are probably best left to another time, but the general nature of the process merits some discussion. This should be a funded planning process, including a core staff, organizational home and operations budget to support meetings, planning documents, consultants, travel and other expenses. One or more of the governmental or private organizations (or both) may be willing to support the process. The process should be transparent and inclusive, probably starting with a small representative, planning group to discuss, refine and plan the strategy; then expanding to a more participative model with specific workgroups.
___________________*My appreciation (and apologies) to Jeff French, Jim Lindenberger, Craig Lefebvre, Carol Bryant (and others) from whom I have adopted some ideas and discussed this project.
"Away Day"
August 9, 2007
Day 41 – “Away Day”
The NSMC conducts periodic “Away Days” to promote discussion and group consensus in an environment away from the usual distractions of the office. Today, they were kind, and open, enough to include me in the process. I learned so much, about the NSMC, the staff—even about myself!!
The facilitator (Dr. Graham Lister from Cambridge) led the group through a number of exercise and discussions using Jim Collins book, Good to Great: Why Some companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. We explored questions like: “what is your bag?”, “what are the big, hairy, audacious goals for NSMC?” and the “hedgehog”—what are we passionate about, what can we do best in the world, what’s our economic engine; what kind of organization with NSMC be in 3-5 years?” We also explored the nature of the “brutal truth”—sort of a “what one thing keeps us up at night?” It was a very stimulating and provocative discussion.
I learned a couple of neat sayings, such as: “Be a clockmaker, not a time teller!” and “Should we dictate the future or listen to our customers?” Plus lots of other things…
I came away from the session grateful for being associated with a group of such passionate, dedicated people and who are undaunted by the magnitude of the challenges facing them in the coming months and years.
Day 41 – “Away Day”
The NSMC conducts periodic “Away Days” to promote discussion and group consensus in an environment away from the usual distractions of the office. Today, they were kind, and open, enough to include me in the process. I learned so much, about the NSMC, the staff—even about myself!!
The facilitator (Dr. Graham Lister from Cambridge) led the group through a number of exercise and discussions using Jim Collins book, Good to Great: Why Some companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t. We explored questions like: “what is your bag?”, “what are the big, hairy, audacious goals for NSMC?” and the “hedgehog”—what are we passionate about, what can we do best in the world, what’s our economic engine; what kind of organization with NSMC be in 3-5 years?” We also explored the nature of the “brutal truth”—sort of a “what one thing keeps us up at night?” It was a very stimulating and provocative discussion.
I learned a couple of neat sayings, such as: “Be a clockmaker, not a time teller!” and “Should we dictate the future or listen to our customers?” Plus lots of other things…
I came away from the session grateful for being associated with a group of such passionate, dedicated people and who are undaunted by the magnitude of the challenges facing them in the coming months and years.
Sunday, 5 August 2007
An afternoon in Oxford
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Day 36
Oxford, England
At times like this I marvel about the richness of time in the human experience. Just when I begin to delude myself into thinking that there can’t be another awe-inspiring sight within a day’s travel of London (I know we are really beginning to wear down!) there is Oxford!
We took a mid-morning train and arrived in Oxford after about an hour. The station is just outside the city center so a brief walk took us to the center of the action. This is a “happening” place—at least on a Saturday in the academic off-season. It must be during the school year too, with some 30,000 students in a community of 145,000 residents. According to our tour map, Oxford University doesn’t have a campus, per se; it consists of 39 independent colleges and six “halls”—with between 450 to 100 students each. The proverbial college town! The university provides the libraries, laboratories, services, staff and other common requirements. So Oxford is somewhat like Cambridge, except much larger and set in an urban environment teeming with activity—at least during this visit.
It is immensely old, dating back as far as the 8th century—with the first official reference in 912 AD. The University dates to 1188! (eat your heart out Harvard!)
In the course of an afternoon, even a long one, it is not possible to absorb much more than a impression of this fantastic place—with every turn of the corner revealing a new college, more fantastic architecture and crafted beauty that embraces the senses. I don’t want to bore my friends with each step of our journey; rather point out a few special experiences along the way.
We climbed into the tower at St. Michaels at Northgate, part of the oldest surviving structure in Oxford, and got a bird’s-eye-view of the city. There were towers and steeples in every direction. For our time there we walked through ancient streets past many of the more famous colleges of Oxford—Christ Church, Trinity, Queens, Magdalen, Merton …on and on. The sheer grandeur and number of places was overwhelming. Back nearer to the city center, we walked down Queen’s Way and under the “Bridge of Sighs”, a replica of the original in Venice, and into a courtyard surrounded by astounding architecture and historic structures, including the Radcliffe Camera (“room”), the Divinity School, the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin and many others. After a couple of hours, we arrive back at Broad St. and at the door of Blackwell’s Book Store—a world famous source of books. We browsed around inside for a while and saw the sign directing shoppers to the Norrington Room, a vault containing over 160,000 volumes! Since this is “way too many” to check as baggage on our flight home (ha!), we decided to browse a little more then, being thoroughly exhausted from the long walk and bright sunshine, caught the next train back to London. Of course the sights and experiences of Oxford will stay with us for a lifetime!
Day 36
Oxford, England
At times like this I marvel about the richness of time in the human experience. Just when I begin to delude myself into thinking that there can’t be another awe-inspiring sight within a day’s travel of London (I know we are really beginning to wear down!) there is Oxford!
We took a mid-morning train and arrived in Oxford after about an hour. The station is just outside the city center so a brief walk took us to the center of the action. This is a “happening” place—at least on a Saturday in the academic off-season. It must be during the school year too, with some 30,000 students in a community of 145,000 residents. According to our tour map, Oxford University doesn’t have a campus, per se; it consists of 39 independent colleges and six “halls”—with between 450 to 100 students each. The proverbial college town! The university provides the libraries, laboratories, services, staff and other common requirements. So Oxford is somewhat like Cambridge, except much larger and set in an urban environment teeming with activity—at least during this visit.
It is immensely old, dating back as far as the 8th century—with the first official reference in 912 AD. The University dates to 1188! (eat your heart out Harvard!)
In the course of an afternoon, even a long one, it is not possible to absorb much more than a impression of this fantastic place—with every turn of the corner revealing a new college, more fantastic architecture and crafted beauty that embraces the senses. I don’t want to bore my friends with each step of our journey; rather point out a few special experiences along the way.
We climbed into the tower at St. Michaels at Northgate, part of the oldest surviving structure in Oxford, and got a bird’s-eye-view of the city. There were towers and steeples in every direction. For our time there we walked through ancient streets past many of the more famous colleges of Oxford—Christ Church, Trinity, Queens, Magdalen, Merton …on and on. The sheer grandeur and number of places was overwhelming. Back nearer to the city center, we walked down Queen’s Way and under the “Bridge of Sighs”, a replica of the original in Venice, and into a courtyard surrounded by astounding architecture and historic structures, including the Radcliffe Camera (“room”), the Divinity School, the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin and many others. After a couple of hours, we arrive back at Broad St. and at the door of Blackwell’s Book Store—a world famous source of books. We browsed around inside for a while and saw the sign directing shoppers to the Norrington Room, a vault containing over 160,000 volumes! Since this is “way too many” to check as baggage on our flight home (ha!), we decided to browse a little more then, being thoroughly exhausted from the long walk and bright sunshine, caught the next train back to London. Of course the sights and experiences of Oxford will stay with us for a lifetime!
Saturday, 4 August 2007
Southwestern England: Somerset and Cornwall
Note: One of the hardest things to remember is to write this blog in reverse order if covering several days. I think I got it right this time......!
Polporro, Cornwall 2 August
http://www.polperro.org/
We get lots of suggestions from people about where to go and what to see—many of them quite helpful. The innkeeper in Bodmin told us about Polperro; so we decided to try it. Boy, are we ever glad!
Polporro is an idyllic Cornwall fishing community largely preserved and protected from most automobile traffic and other modern influences. Visitors can only get down into the city by foot, a tiny electric shuttle or by horse-drawn wagon. The village itself is a fantasy maze of tiny, curved streets, brick and stucco buildings, winding staircases and potted flowers adorning every window, staircase and walkway. Its like stepping back in time and place to a simpler way of life…
We walked down the main access way into a charming community wedged in between the sea and the cliffs. The path teemed with restaurants, ice cream stands, souvenir shops and many of the regular tourist attractions. Turning right at the bottom of the path, we crossed the stream running down alongside the road—an obvious source of power and possibly fresh water. On the left the harbor opened up between the houses and cliffs. Further along, we discovered that a concrete barrier and “gate” protect the harbor and the many fishing and pleasure crafts from the surging seas just yards away. In the few hours that we spent there, the harbor emptied from about 1/3 full to nearly dry, with only the water from the fresh water stream to cut a path to the sea—much to the delight of the sea gulls.
We walked along the many back streets and wound our way through the narrow alleyways marveling at the variety of structures. Most were white, but had colorful gardens and various kinds of stairs linking to the pathways. One home was completely done in seashells pressed into the stucco along the entire façade. Pathways lead up to the cliffs on both sides, offering a different view of both the village and the sea just outside the harbor.
After several hours drinking in the sun and the charm of this unique spot, we decided to make our way back to the car, but not before sampling something called a Cornwall Ice Cream Oyster. This is a wafer oyster shell filled with the most delicious vanilla ice cream and topped with “clotted” cream that tastes something like a mild cheese. The final surprise was that when digging down to the bottom, there is a little dab of marshmallow “fluff” –like a pearl on the bottom. After an experience like that, there is little left to do but return back to Taunton (to drop off the car) and catch the train to London.
St. Just
http://www.landsendarea.co.uk/505_aboutthearea.htm
Michael’s Mount
http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/about.htm
On the way back to our hotel we drove through St. Just, a charming little village set back in winding roads and rolling hills from Land’s End, then through Penzance, a beach-front tourist destination with a long main “drag” and lots of activities (and traffic).
Just beyond Penznace is St. Michael’s Mount, a delightful jewel of a structure set atop a rocky island just a few hundreds of yards from the shore. It is quite reminiscent of Mont St. Michael on the French coast and even accessible over a causeway during low tide. Unfortunately for us, the tide was high (and the sun low) so we stopped only for pictures and then headed back to Bodmin for the night.
Lands End 1 August
http://www.chycor.co.uk/travel-tips/penzance/landsend.htm
Land’s End is the part of England closest to the US and sits at the tip of a wide peninsula stretching put into the Atlantic Ocean. I have always loved this kind of coastline, such as we have in Newport, in Maine, Big Sur (CA) and other places. The day was spectacular, sunny, warm with a light breeze and almost no humidity. From the parking area, the tourist facility sits on an obvious cliff, with nothing behind but the sea. But when we got closer, the full beauty and magic of the area occurred in a visual explosion—moss and lichen cover rocks, leading to 100-ft cliffs of jagged rock, and below pounding waves of some of the clearest, blue water I have ever seen. Trails lead to various places along the cliffs and overlooks. I headed down to a promontory overlooking a wide cove and climbed up to the very edge. It reminded me of Yosemite Valley, only exchanging waves and water for valley floor and an ever-extending horizon merging the blues of ocean and sky instead of towering mountains. The experience was overpowering.
We stayed for a while to take it in, and on the way out observed a group of 3 bicyclists getting dropped off to begin their ride to John O’Groats in Scotland, a distance of nearly 900 miles! I both envied and pitied them, remembering the narrowness of the roads in Scotland and the height of the mountains. Still, what and adventure!
Bodmin, Cornwall 31 July
http://www.bodmin.gov.uk/History.html
Cornwall is the area at the extreme southwest corner of England. It is a land of expansive rolling hills (some quite large), broken only by green fields, each bordered by hedgerows like an irregular checkerboard, and dotted with lovely little villages and hamlets. We picked Bodmin (the name apparently means the “home of monks”) because it was on a direct line of travel and had a nice hotel (Westbury Inn) for the night. We only stayed long enough to have lunch on the narrow main street lined with medieval buildings; then set out for our primary objective (at least mine) Land’s End.
Bristol 31 July
http://www.about-bristol.co.uk/index.asp
When the training ended, we picked up a car in Taunton and headed for Bristol, about a hour’s drive on the M5 to the north. Bristol is well-known as a merchant navy port, one of the largest in England; so I naturally thought it was on the west side of the highway, near the sea. Of course, it isn’t! Instead, Bristol, like London, is 20-ish miles inland on the river Avon, which winds its way through the valley in serpentine fashion, giving some spectacular views of the steep hills on all sides. So we got lost…but eventually found our way to the hotel right in the downtown area and close to many of the attractions. It was already late; so we found a local pub for dinner and then walked a bit along the river, which offers a nice promenade near the downtown area with several floating restaurants and a view of the many small working boats and pleasure yachts moored along the banks.
The next morning (Wednesday) took a walk after breakfast, again along the river, to get a better feel for this undoubtedly old and prosperous city. The hills on the sides of the river looked even higher and steeper—with definite areas at various levels: shipping, town center, commercial district, cathedral and government buildings, universities, hospitals, residential areas. After the river, and viewing the 6-masted HMS Britannia, we climbed a long, gradual hill to the cathedral and were welcomed by a lovely, older women dressed in a liturgical robe. We spend a short time touring yet another magnificent structure including some special chapels off to the side dating back many centuries.
On the way back to the car, we stopped into a local library to check our email; then gathered our bags and started on our way to Cornwall.
Polporro, Cornwall 2 August
http://www.polperro.org/
We get lots of suggestions from people about where to go and what to see—many of them quite helpful. The innkeeper in Bodmin told us about Polperro; so we decided to try it. Boy, are we ever glad!
Polporro is an idyllic Cornwall fishing community largely preserved and protected from most automobile traffic and other modern influences. Visitors can only get down into the city by foot, a tiny electric shuttle or by horse-drawn wagon. The village itself is a fantasy maze of tiny, curved streets, brick and stucco buildings, winding staircases and potted flowers adorning every window, staircase and walkway. Its like stepping back in time and place to a simpler way of life…
We walked down the main access way into a charming community wedged in between the sea and the cliffs. The path teemed with restaurants, ice cream stands, souvenir shops and many of the regular tourist attractions. Turning right at the bottom of the path, we crossed the stream running down alongside the road—an obvious source of power and possibly fresh water. On the left the harbor opened up between the houses and cliffs. Further along, we discovered that a concrete barrier and “gate” protect the harbor and the many fishing and pleasure crafts from the surging seas just yards away. In the few hours that we spent there, the harbor emptied from about 1/3 full to nearly dry, with only the water from the fresh water stream to cut a path to the sea—much to the delight of the sea gulls.
We walked along the many back streets and wound our way through the narrow alleyways marveling at the variety of structures. Most were white, but had colorful gardens and various kinds of stairs linking to the pathways. One home was completely done in seashells pressed into the stucco along the entire façade. Pathways lead up to the cliffs on both sides, offering a different view of both the village and the sea just outside the harbor.
After several hours drinking in the sun and the charm of this unique spot, we decided to make our way back to the car, but not before sampling something called a Cornwall Ice Cream Oyster. This is a wafer oyster shell filled with the most delicious vanilla ice cream and topped with “clotted” cream that tastes something like a mild cheese. The final surprise was that when digging down to the bottom, there is a little dab of marshmallow “fluff” –like a pearl on the bottom. After an experience like that, there is little left to do but return back to Taunton (to drop off the car) and catch the train to London.
St. Just
http://www.landsendarea.co.uk/505_aboutthearea.htm
Michael’s Mount
http://www.stmichaelsmount.co.uk/about.htm
On the way back to our hotel we drove through St. Just, a charming little village set back in winding roads and rolling hills from Land’s End, then through Penzance, a beach-front tourist destination with a long main “drag” and lots of activities (and traffic).
Just beyond Penznace is St. Michael’s Mount, a delightful jewel of a structure set atop a rocky island just a few hundreds of yards from the shore. It is quite reminiscent of Mont St. Michael on the French coast and even accessible over a causeway during low tide. Unfortunately for us, the tide was high (and the sun low) so we stopped only for pictures and then headed back to Bodmin for the night.
Lands End 1 August
http://www.chycor.co.uk/travel-tips/penzance/landsend.htm
Land’s End is the part of England closest to the US and sits at the tip of a wide peninsula stretching put into the Atlantic Ocean. I have always loved this kind of coastline, such as we have in Newport, in Maine, Big Sur (CA) and other places. The day was spectacular, sunny, warm with a light breeze and almost no humidity. From the parking area, the tourist facility sits on an obvious cliff, with nothing behind but the sea. But when we got closer, the full beauty and magic of the area occurred in a visual explosion—moss and lichen cover rocks, leading to 100-ft cliffs of jagged rock, and below pounding waves of some of the clearest, blue water I have ever seen. Trails lead to various places along the cliffs and overlooks. I headed down to a promontory overlooking a wide cove and climbed up to the very edge. It reminded me of Yosemite Valley, only exchanging waves and water for valley floor and an ever-extending horizon merging the blues of ocean and sky instead of towering mountains. The experience was overpowering.
We stayed for a while to take it in, and on the way out observed a group of 3 bicyclists getting dropped off to begin their ride to John O’Groats in Scotland, a distance of nearly 900 miles! I both envied and pitied them, remembering the narrowness of the roads in Scotland and the height of the mountains. Still, what and adventure!
Bodmin, Cornwall 31 July
http://www.bodmin.gov.uk/History.html
Cornwall is the area at the extreme southwest corner of England. It is a land of expansive rolling hills (some quite large), broken only by green fields, each bordered by hedgerows like an irregular checkerboard, and dotted with lovely little villages and hamlets. We picked Bodmin (the name apparently means the “home of monks”) because it was on a direct line of travel and had a nice hotel (Westbury Inn) for the night. We only stayed long enough to have lunch on the narrow main street lined with medieval buildings; then set out for our primary objective (at least mine) Land’s End.
Bristol 31 July
http://www.about-bristol.co.uk/index.asp
When the training ended, we picked up a car in Taunton and headed for Bristol, about a hour’s drive on the M5 to the north. Bristol is well-known as a merchant navy port, one of the largest in England; so I naturally thought it was on the west side of the highway, near the sea. Of course, it isn’t! Instead, Bristol, like London, is 20-ish miles inland on the river Avon, which winds its way through the valley in serpentine fashion, giving some spectacular views of the steep hills on all sides. So we got lost…but eventually found our way to the hotel right in the downtown area and close to many of the attractions. It was already late; so we found a local pub for dinner and then walked a bit along the river, which offers a nice promenade near the downtown area with several floating restaurants and a view of the many small working boats and pleasure yachts moored along the banks.
The next morning (Wednesday) took a walk after breakfast, again along the river, to get a better feel for this undoubtedly old and prosperous city. The hills on the sides of the river looked even higher and steeper—with definite areas at various levels: shipping, town center, commercial district, cathedral and government buildings, universities, hospitals, residential areas. After the river, and viewing the 6-masted HMS Britannia, we climbed a long, gradual hill to the cathedral and were welcomed by a lovely, older women dressed in a liturgical robe. We spend a short time touring yet another magnificent structure including some special chapels off to the side dating back many centuries.
On the way back to the car, we stopped into a local library to check our email; then gathered our bags and started on our way to Cornwall.
Friday, 3 August 2007
Taunton Social Marketing Training
July 30 – Aug 2
Days 30-34
Taunton (social marketing training), Bristol, Lands End, Polporro
What a week so far!!! We just returned by train from Taunton (Somerset) after a wonderful 4-day excursion through the southwest. We left from Paddington Station on The Great Western Rail system on noon Monday, with a direct train to Taunton, the site of a full-day training for public health people from that region. It’s only a 2-hour ride and upon arrival we took a cab to our B&B, which turned out to be a couple of miles out in the countryside. But what a surprise to find a lovely old manor house with 5-6 beautifully restored “cottages” for guests! Ours was a large castle-like room with walls 2-ft thick and huge beams in the ceiling. The floors were stone with Persian-type rugs and a sofa in front of the fireplace and a 4-poster bed—so comfortable!
A little later we walked into the city (around 40 minutes) on a sidewalk/bikepath and explored and pedestrian-mall/shopping area and even stopped for a drink in the outside café after the long walk. Soon we connect up with our colleague from NSMC and had a great Italian dinner on the main street. Taunton doesn’t stay open late on a Monday; so we hiked back to our “castle” for a good nights rest.
The cab arrived at 9am on Tuesday for our trip into the training session at a place called the Coal Orchard—a local theater and arts center that doubles as a conference center. The training included about 25 local public health and environmental professionals—mostly involved in tobacco control. In addition, there were a few key, senior people from the NHS who played a role in the latter part of the training.
The session followed the same pattern as the previous sessions. I really like the “mood” exercise and the “candy bar branding” exercise where the participants really begin to think about the kind of people in target audiences or who are attracted to certain products. It begins to get people thinking outside of the normal socio-demographic model that we typically use for target audiences.
One interesting aspect of these trainings is that several of the senior and really well-experienced people have trouble with the “marketing mindset”. They have such knowledge and experience with the audiences that they can hardly imagine that there is something that influences audience behavior that hasn’t been already tried—and often fails! Getting them to think about the “emotional hook” to behavior change can be really difficult because it’s hard to disengage them from the health and behavior direct linkage context—usually one established in knowledge and science. That people act emotionally and not always in their own best “scientific” interests can be hard for professionals well-trained in public health.
I thought the training went really well and people started to get the idea about how social marketing is different from typical top-down interventions or even classical health promotion. At the end of the session, the senior people from DH discussed the media campaign for NHS smoking cessation programs. It was quite well-done and interesting! Smoking prevalence has gone steadily down in the UK over the last couple of decades, largely due to the premature deaths of the post WWII smokers—according to the DH data. That’s a sobering thought. The national goals propose a continuing decrease supported by NHS cessation clinics available throughout the nation. Later I asked about the clinics and how the “branding” of the services fit in with the accessibility, acceptability and effectiveness of the services. Apparently they are quite effective, accessible and available in a variety of formats (session, phone, NTS replacement, Chantix assisted, etc.) I collected a few business cards and exchanged a few promises to correspond via email in the future.
One last note: the NHS has assistance teams who move around the country to help PCTs and other local agencies implement tobacco control programs. I found this quite encouraging! Here, as other places where we conducted trainings, I got the feeling that there would have to be a serious program of training and technical assistance in social marketing to achieve success at the local and regional level. I wasn’t able to find out enough about the assistance teams to develop an opinion about whether this was being done to a sufficient degree or whether the teams themselves were trained in social marketing. Something to follow up on in the little time remaining in England….
An interesting quote from the Siegel and Doner book on Marketing Public Health:
“…the key to running effective public health programs is to abandon the traditional practice of deciding what policy makers or the public ought to want and then trying to sell it to them in the absence of significant demand. Instead, public health practitioners must first find out the needs and wants of their target audience (policy makers or public) and then redefine their product (changes in individual behavior or the adoption of public health programs and policies) to satisfy and existing demand. Rather than appealing exclusively to the benefits of improved health, public health practitioners must learn to package, position and frame their programs to appeal to more salient, powerful and influential core values: freedom, independence, autonomy, control, fairness, democracy and free enterprise.” (emphasis mine)M. Siegel and L. Doner, Marketing Public Health 1998: Aspen p. xv.
More about the rest of our trip later….
Days 30-34
Taunton (social marketing training), Bristol, Lands End, Polporro
What a week so far!!! We just returned by train from Taunton (Somerset) after a wonderful 4-day excursion through the southwest. We left from Paddington Station on The Great Western Rail system on noon Monday, with a direct train to Taunton, the site of a full-day training for public health people from that region. It’s only a 2-hour ride and upon arrival we took a cab to our B&B, which turned out to be a couple of miles out in the countryside. But what a surprise to find a lovely old manor house with 5-6 beautifully restored “cottages” for guests! Ours was a large castle-like room with walls 2-ft thick and huge beams in the ceiling. The floors were stone with Persian-type rugs and a sofa in front of the fireplace and a 4-poster bed—so comfortable!
A little later we walked into the city (around 40 minutes) on a sidewalk/bikepath and explored and pedestrian-mall/shopping area and even stopped for a drink in the outside café after the long walk. Soon we connect up with our colleague from NSMC and had a great Italian dinner on the main street. Taunton doesn’t stay open late on a Monday; so we hiked back to our “castle” for a good nights rest.
The cab arrived at 9am on Tuesday for our trip into the training session at a place called the Coal Orchard—a local theater and arts center that doubles as a conference center. The training included about 25 local public health and environmental professionals—mostly involved in tobacco control. In addition, there were a few key, senior people from the NHS who played a role in the latter part of the training.
The session followed the same pattern as the previous sessions. I really like the “mood” exercise and the “candy bar branding” exercise where the participants really begin to think about the kind of people in target audiences or who are attracted to certain products. It begins to get people thinking outside of the normal socio-demographic model that we typically use for target audiences.
One interesting aspect of these trainings is that several of the senior and really well-experienced people have trouble with the “marketing mindset”. They have such knowledge and experience with the audiences that they can hardly imagine that there is something that influences audience behavior that hasn’t been already tried—and often fails! Getting them to think about the “emotional hook” to behavior change can be really difficult because it’s hard to disengage them from the health and behavior direct linkage context—usually one established in knowledge and science. That people act emotionally and not always in their own best “scientific” interests can be hard for professionals well-trained in public health.
I thought the training went really well and people started to get the idea about how social marketing is different from typical top-down interventions or even classical health promotion. At the end of the session, the senior people from DH discussed the media campaign for NHS smoking cessation programs. It was quite well-done and interesting! Smoking prevalence has gone steadily down in the UK over the last couple of decades, largely due to the premature deaths of the post WWII smokers—according to the DH data. That’s a sobering thought. The national goals propose a continuing decrease supported by NHS cessation clinics available throughout the nation. Later I asked about the clinics and how the “branding” of the services fit in with the accessibility, acceptability and effectiveness of the services. Apparently they are quite effective, accessible and available in a variety of formats (session, phone, NTS replacement, Chantix assisted, etc.) I collected a few business cards and exchanged a few promises to correspond via email in the future.
One last note: the NHS has assistance teams who move around the country to help PCTs and other local agencies implement tobacco control programs. I found this quite encouraging! Here, as other places where we conducted trainings, I got the feeling that there would have to be a serious program of training and technical assistance in social marketing to achieve success at the local and regional level. I wasn’t able to find out enough about the assistance teams to develop an opinion about whether this was being done to a sufficient degree or whether the teams themselves were trained in social marketing. Something to follow up on in the little time remaining in England….
An interesting quote from the Siegel and Doner book on Marketing Public Health:
“…the key to running effective public health programs is to abandon the traditional practice of deciding what policy makers or the public ought to want and then trying to sell it to them in the absence of significant demand. Instead, public health practitioners must first find out the needs and wants of their target audience (policy makers or public) and then redefine their product (changes in individual behavior or the adoption of public health programs and policies) to satisfy and existing demand. Rather than appealing exclusively to the benefits of improved health, public health practitioners must learn to package, position and frame their programs to appeal to more salient, powerful and influential core values: freedom, independence, autonomy, control, fairness, democracy and free enterprise.” (emphasis mine)M. Siegel and L. Doner, Marketing Public Health 1998: Aspen p. xv.
More about the rest of our trip later….
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Winchester Cathedral
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Today we took a trip by train to Winchester, a modest-sized town to the southwest of London. Peter Duncan, my academic sponson at Kings College London, and his wife Jane and the two girls, invited us to lunch and a tour of the town. Peter met us at the train and drove us to his house, a lovely 100 year-old, duplex-style house (attached) to which they had made many terrific improvements. It was quite warm and cosy. Jane cooked us a delicious home-style meal (one of our few in many days) complete with red current wine made by their neighbor. It was really good--more like a light port.
After a hearty meal and some wonderful conversation, they drove us to the Winchester Cathedral, a huge structure set off in an enclosed church area (a "close"). Entrance is free on Sunday (so we made a donation), and we got to hear part of a service, including the ever marvelous choir, including the boy sopranos. I still can't get over that sound echoing off the cavern-like stone walls of the cathedral. Winchester Cathedral is not as ornate as some others we visited, but it has one of those high, stone, fan-like ceilings and external flying buttresses on one side.
After a brief visit, we walked into the town and marveled at the main street--a double row of mixed historic structures winding and climing up the hill. Later we passed the old Guild House and the statue of King Alfred (founder of Britain???). More historical details to catch up on later.
So Linda and I caught the train and enjoyed the hour ride back to London, talking about our wonderful day and how the fantastic sites and lovely friends seem endless.
Today we took a trip by train to Winchester, a modest-sized town to the southwest of London. Peter Duncan, my academic sponson at Kings College London, and his wife Jane and the two girls, invited us to lunch and a tour of the town. Peter met us at the train and drove us to his house, a lovely 100 year-old, duplex-style house (attached) to which they had made many terrific improvements. It was quite warm and cosy. Jane cooked us a delicious home-style meal (one of our few in many days) complete with red current wine made by their neighbor. It was really good--more like a light port.
After a hearty meal and some wonderful conversation, they drove us to the Winchester Cathedral, a huge structure set off in an enclosed church area (a "close"). Entrance is free on Sunday (so we made a donation), and we got to hear part of a service, including the ever marvelous choir, including the boy sopranos. I still can't get over that sound echoing off the cavern-like stone walls of the cathedral. Winchester Cathedral is not as ornate as some others we visited, but it has one of those high, stone, fan-like ceilings and external flying buttresses on one side.
After a brief visit, we walked into the town and marveled at the main street--a double row of mixed historic structures winding and climing up the hill. Later we passed the old Guild House and the statue of King Alfred (founder of Britain???). More historical details to catch up on later.
So Linda and I caught the train and enjoyed the hour ride back to London, talking about our wonderful day and how the fantastic sites and lovely friends seem endless.
Saturday, 28 July 2007
Prayers and Pizza!
July 27, 2007
Day 28
Prayers and Pizza in Southwark
Sorry for the slightly irreverent heading, but it does describe our activities last evening.
First we attended a brief service at the Southwark Cathedral, home of the Anglican Diocese in this area. The Cathedral lies on the South Bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge on a site occupied by a Church for over one thousand years. The main structure of today's church was built between 1220 and 1420. http://www.southwark.anglican.org/cathedral/
Today this lovely structure is crammed in, between office buildings, restaurants, pub, cobbled streets and even the initial ramp of the London Bridge. I would describe the ground-level, historic, structure (although best seen from the sidewalk of the bridge, some 20-ft above) as “hunkered-down” in the midst of all this mélange. However the upper levels, including the spires, windows and bell tower, reach into the sky, like the blooms on a flower searching for light and air!
I’m not much of an architect or cathedral expert, but found the inside of the cathedral to be altogether lovely and expansive—clearly the rival of much more celebrated churches we have seen. It only opens for church services and tours with appointment; so we took advantage of the service of readings to gain entrance.
I don’t think I can improve on the physical description of the web link above, but the service was simple, informal and quite calming. Only about a half-dozen people were present; so the reader invited us up into the choir area, if we wanted. We remained in the sanctuary hall with the beautiful stained-glass window before us and the fan-styled, stone roof high above.
The reader told the story of King Saul, when Samuel announced that he would loose his kingdom to another because he made a burned offering to keep the people happy. What a commentary on our world today! Also at the end, during the Lord’s Prayer, they used the phrase, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” What a beautiful and difficult way to say it.
At the close of the service, I lit a candle for my brother and for a friend who helped him. In the presence of this beautiful, peaceful cathedral, surrounded by so much anxiety and noise, it seemed like the thing to do.
By the way, the Londoners don’t say “South-wark” the way it is spelled. The best I can describe it is “sudth-erk” with the emphasis on the “sudth.” Go figure!
As far as the pizza part of my story is concerned, we tried a local pizza restaurant in the shadow of the cathedral. We had a great salad, some wine and shared a pizza (NOT NY style), but something crisp, aromatic and quite tasty.
##
Day 28
Prayers and Pizza in Southwark
Sorry for the slightly irreverent heading, but it does describe our activities last evening.
First we attended a brief service at the Southwark Cathedral, home of the Anglican Diocese in this area. The Cathedral lies on the South Bank of the River Thames close to London Bridge on a site occupied by a Church for over one thousand years. The main structure of today's church was built between 1220 and 1420. http://www.southwark.anglican.org/cathedral/
Today this lovely structure is crammed in, between office buildings, restaurants, pub, cobbled streets and even the initial ramp of the London Bridge. I would describe the ground-level, historic, structure (although best seen from the sidewalk of the bridge, some 20-ft above) as “hunkered-down” in the midst of all this mélange. However the upper levels, including the spires, windows and bell tower, reach into the sky, like the blooms on a flower searching for light and air!
I’m not much of an architect or cathedral expert, but found the inside of the cathedral to be altogether lovely and expansive—clearly the rival of much more celebrated churches we have seen. It only opens for church services and tours with appointment; so we took advantage of the service of readings to gain entrance.
I don’t think I can improve on the physical description of the web link above, but the service was simple, informal and quite calming. Only about a half-dozen people were present; so the reader invited us up into the choir area, if we wanted. We remained in the sanctuary hall with the beautiful stained-glass window before us and the fan-styled, stone roof high above.
The reader told the story of King Saul, when Samuel announced that he would loose his kingdom to another because he made a burned offering to keep the people happy. What a commentary on our world today! Also at the end, during the Lord’s Prayer, they used the phrase, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” What a beautiful and difficult way to say it.
At the close of the service, I lit a candle for my brother and for a friend who helped him. In the presence of this beautiful, peaceful cathedral, surrounded by so much anxiety and noise, it seemed like the thing to do.
By the way, the Londoners don’t say “South-wark” the way it is spelled. The best I can describe it is “sudth-erk” with the emphasis on the “sudth.” Go figure!
As far as the pizza part of my story is concerned, we tried a local pizza restaurant in the shadow of the cathedral. We had a great salad, some wine and shared a pizza (NOT NY style), but something crisp, aromatic and quite tasty.
##
Friday, 27 July 2007
Fulbright Project and "Wicked" in London!
27 July 2007
Day 28
Fulbright Project
The “project” is beginning to come together (at last!). Jeff French, the NSMC director and I discussed it again yesterday and decided that developing a draft framework of an American National Strategy for Social Marketing in Public Health would be a useful exercise both for the England (mainly because it is based, in part, on my observations of the NSMC and the development of social marketing here), and possibly for the US. I am not aware of a US national strategy, or of an ongoing discussion regarding a plan for its development. According to a few colleagues, there have been discussions in the past, but they were abandoned without resolution.
Admittedly, it is presumptuous that I should undertake such a task—certainly alone, perhaps at all. I am not a “patron saint” in the social marketing field, by any means. But I believe that social marketing can and does make an important contribution to public health (and to other areas of “public good”). Also I believe that we need to realign the disconnects between public policy, funding, research, training, professions and practice (including partnerships with other sectors) if we are to realize the full potential of social marketing in the US. It’s a big challenge, but if I can only revive the discussion and help to give it momentum, it may be a worthwhile endeavour.
The contrast between the US and England is becoming clearer to me after a few weeks of observation. England created a policy umbrella at the highest levels of government—including the Department of Health (DH), the NCC/NSMC and several other governmental agencies. This appears to result from a large amount of luck (being in the right place at the right time with the right people) and taking advantage of opportunities created through hard work and vision. The key players plan to work out along the ribs of the umbrella, as it were, to bring in other policy partners and expand the overall field. Also, the NSMC identified 10 demonstration sites (under its contract with the DH) and works with them to train staff and provide technical assistance. These activities, along with an incredible number of superb supportive documents, meetings, plans and other excellent work by a small core staff, support the policy-level infrastructure with the potential for stimulating an ever-wider penetration of social marketing into the national, regional and local levels.
According to one report, there are number of academic centers involved in social marketing teaching and research in the UK, but only one has a robust, long term program. Otherwise, teaching and research in social marketing is described as being “relegated to modules within other degree programs.” Obviously, the success of social marketing at the policy level and its intended extension into practice raises the question of “who is going to train social marketing professionals in the future?” So although the English model has real strengths, there are also clear challenges.
The US, on the other hand, seems to approach social marketing from a more combined academic and pragmatic point of view—as counterintuitive as that may sound. There are several key US academic centers offering social marketing training and research, (although I am not sure there is a current and systematic listing of these programs). The RI Department of Health has hired several regionally-trained public health professionals over the past few years with real expertise in social marketing. Many more of us got our training from the USF National Conference on Social Marketing in Public Health, or from the associated field schools and related activities. In addition, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funded the Turning Point Initiative. Started in 1997, Turning Point created a network of 23 state partners and five National Excellence Collaboratives to transform and strengthen the public health system in the United States. Although the program has closed, many of its products are archived on the turning point website http://www.turningpointprogram.org/ and are available for use. Obviously, the participating states and others still benefit from involvement in this excellent program.
It appears that one could describe the evolution of social marketing in the US as more of a “grass roots” approach rather than a policy approach. In other words, a few key academic centers have produced modest sized classes of students prepared in social marketing practice; some expanded these programs into conferences and special schools. At the same time, an increasing number of state and local health agencies, as well as private, voluntary organizations are using social marketing-based interventions. Unlike England, the US does not have a social-marketing friendly policy (e.g. designated funding and exclusive status as a public health intervention) at the highest levels or a series of documents and plans to promote social marketing throughout the governmental and public/private practice sectors. This may change with the relatively new Coordinating Center for Health Marketing and Communication at CDC. However, as far as I am aware, neither country has policies to fully address the development of social marketing in the academic and professional (competencies, benchmarks, and certification) sectors.
So, once again, my apologies to more knowledgeable colleagues for any errors or misconceptions in this analysis, so far. I hope that you will give me your encouragement, advice and point me in the right direction for more information.
26 July 2007-07-27
Day 27
Wicked Good Time!
Last night Linda and I went to see “Wicked” the rave London musical telling the story behind the two witches in Oz: Glinda, the “good” witch and Elphaba, the “wicked” witch. It was a wonderful production—one of the best I have ever seen! The cast portrayed their characters with energy and style, the voices were wonderful, the choreography thrilling and the sets fantastic. The sets included a backdrop of moveable panels with gigantic gears and levers and other mechanical devices. And the flying monkeys were so believable! They reminded me of the authenticity of the feline characters in Cats; after a while I forgot they were actors!
Day 28
Fulbright Project
The “project” is beginning to come together (at last!). Jeff French, the NSMC director and I discussed it again yesterday and decided that developing a draft framework of an American National Strategy for Social Marketing in Public Health would be a useful exercise both for the England (mainly because it is based, in part, on my observations of the NSMC and the development of social marketing here), and possibly for the US. I am not aware of a US national strategy, or of an ongoing discussion regarding a plan for its development. According to a few colleagues, there have been discussions in the past, but they were abandoned without resolution.
Admittedly, it is presumptuous that I should undertake such a task—certainly alone, perhaps at all. I am not a “patron saint” in the social marketing field, by any means. But I believe that social marketing can and does make an important contribution to public health (and to other areas of “public good”). Also I believe that we need to realign the disconnects between public policy, funding, research, training, professions and practice (including partnerships with other sectors) if we are to realize the full potential of social marketing in the US. It’s a big challenge, but if I can only revive the discussion and help to give it momentum, it may be a worthwhile endeavour.
The contrast between the US and England is becoming clearer to me after a few weeks of observation. England created a policy umbrella at the highest levels of government—including the Department of Health (DH), the NCC/NSMC and several other governmental agencies. This appears to result from a large amount of luck (being in the right place at the right time with the right people) and taking advantage of opportunities created through hard work and vision. The key players plan to work out along the ribs of the umbrella, as it were, to bring in other policy partners and expand the overall field. Also, the NSMC identified 10 demonstration sites (under its contract with the DH) and works with them to train staff and provide technical assistance. These activities, along with an incredible number of superb supportive documents, meetings, plans and other excellent work by a small core staff, support the policy-level infrastructure with the potential for stimulating an ever-wider penetration of social marketing into the national, regional and local levels.
According to one report, there are number of academic centers involved in social marketing teaching and research in the UK, but only one has a robust, long term program. Otherwise, teaching and research in social marketing is described as being “relegated to modules within other degree programs.” Obviously, the success of social marketing at the policy level and its intended extension into practice raises the question of “who is going to train social marketing professionals in the future?” So although the English model has real strengths, there are also clear challenges.
The US, on the other hand, seems to approach social marketing from a more combined academic and pragmatic point of view—as counterintuitive as that may sound. There are several key US academic centers offering social marketing training and research, (although I am not sure there is a current and systematic listing of these programs). The RI Department of Health has hired several regionally-trained public health professionals over the past few years with real expertise in social marketing. Many more of us got our training from the USF National Conference on Social Marketing in Public Health, or from the associated field schools and related activities. In addition, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funded the Turning Point Initiative. Started in 1997, Turning Point created a network of 23 state partners and five National Excellence Collaboratives to transform and strengthen the public health system in the United States. Although the program has closed, many of its products are archived on the turning point website http://www.turningpointprogram.org/ and are available for use. Obviously, the participating states and others still benefit from involvement in this excellent program.
It appears that one could describe the evolution of social marketing in the US as more of a “grass roots” approach rather than a policy approach. In other words, a few key academic centers have produced modest sized classes of students prepared in social marketing practice; some expanded these programs into conferences and special schools. At the same time, an increasing number of state and local health agencies, as well as private, voluntary organizations are using social marketing-based interventions. Unlike England, the US does not have a social-marketing friendly policy (e.g. designated funding and exclusive status as a public health intervention) at the highest levels or a series of documents and plans to promote social marketing throughout the governmental and public/private practice sectors. This may change with the relatively new Coordinating Center for Health Marketing and Communication at CDC. However, as far as I am aware, neither country has policies to fully address the development of social marketing in the academic and professional (competencies, benchmarks, and certification) sectors.
So, once again, my apologies to more knowledgeable colleagues for any errors or misconceptions in this analysis, so far. I hope that you will give me your encouragement, advice and point me in the right direction for more information.
26 July 2007-07-27
Day 27
Wicked Good Time!
Last night Linda and I went to see “Wicked” the rave London musical telling the story behind the two witches in Oz: Glinda, the “good” witch and Elphaba, the “wicked” witch. It was a wonderful production—one of the best I have ever seen! The cast portrayed their characters with energy and style, the voices were wonderful, the choreography thrilling and the sets fantastic. The sets included a backdrop of moveable panels with gigantic gears and levers and other mechanical devices. And the flying monkeys were so believable! They reminded me of the authenticity of the feline characters in Cats; after a while I forgot they were actors!
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
Academic meeting and Site Visit
25 July 2007
Day 26
Today I met with Ann Wylie, PhD, Senior Tutor at the KCL Undergraduate Medical School. We enjoyed a long discussion about her efforts to teach health promotion to medical students in each of the 5-years of training. She has some rather innovative methods, in my opinion, of exposing medical students to some of the ecological issues of health and the difficulties and strategies for changing risk behaviors. I don’t believe we have anything like it in the States, although my direct experience with medical education is limited.
What I liked about her approach is that it was a way of helping practicing physicians to be aware of population health promotion and developing support in that sector. We also talked about the possibility of including social marketing in that curriculum as a way of building support for the strategic program into the future. Although I am still struggling to fully understand the structure of government, public health and academic sectors in England, we talked about the position of the Faculty in Public Health (and the Voluntary Register) as well as some of the other organizations involved, such as the Association of Study of Medical Education (ASME), the Association of Medical Education Europe (AMEE) and the Society of Academic Primary Care (SAPC)---about their position on social marketing. I think it’s fair to say, they don’t have one.
Here again, I think there is a valuable opportunity to garner strategic support for social marketing in primary care medicine and medical education. I believe key academic partners are willing to play a role (and seem to have a strong strategic position in the relevant organizations) but would need support from NSMC and other partner organizations. A more informed discussion with her, perhaps a presentation to one or more of the relevant groups, an article in one of the professionals journals (Health Education Journal?) and some other activities would go a long way to making this possibility a reality. I can’t imagine a more powerful, strategic support for social marketing in public health than to have the understanding and support of primary care professionals—especially corps of new physicians (the KCL medical class alone is more than 400 each year!) over the next decade or so.
Also, I plan to take some of these ideas back to Brown with me and talk there about the possibility of including social marketing (along with health promotion in general) in the medical curriculum. (See A. Scott-Samuel and J. Wills in Health Education Journal, 2007:66, 115 for an article: “Health Promotion in England: sleeping beauty or corpse?”
Metropolitan PCT site visit (Hamlet Towers):
At an earlier meeting, one of the associate staff at a local PCT offered to give a tour and site visit. Linda joined me and we set off on the tube for the East London area known at Whitechapel. I knew something was radically different when we emerged from the station into a busy street filled with sidewalk merchants and people of every conceivable nationality or ethnicity. There were turbans, sarongs, burkas, shorts, robes etc., etc., reminiscent of a busy street in Cairo or Istanbul—hardly what I expected in London. Our guide explained that 40% of the population in this area is Muslim (from various countries) with white Britishers accounting for another 40%. The remainder comes from all over the world and settles here due to the more reasonable living costs (compared to downtown London). After only a few moments, we passed across the street from the London Mosque which was broadcasting the call to prayers throughout the neighbourhood.
This is also the world of Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and alas, the start of the Salvation Army (of which my parents were officers). We explored the narrow streets filled with restaurants, shops and artists only to emerge on the edge of the financial district and below a unique building widely known by the nickname "The Gherkin." It is 180 meters (590 ft) tall, making it the second-tallest building in the City of London. I like to think of it as the “lipstick”—but that’s just me.
So we walked through the open markets, back alleys and broad avenues trying to soak up some of the diverse culture of the area. I didn’t directly observe any desperate poverty, but can only imagine some of the issues that exist in the vast expanses of public housing and tenement towers. It was more difficult to imagine trying to promote health in an area with so many different languages and cultures. But our guide persisted in pointing out the richness of the culture and the essential energy of the population crowding the streets. Perhaps this reminds us that while health is certainly one of the most valued things, it is not the only thing that matters…..
##
Day 26
Today I met with Ann Wylie, PhD, Senior Tutor at the KCL Undergraduate Medical School. We enjoyed a long discussion about her efforts to teach health promotion to medical students in each of the 5-years of training. She has some rather innovative methods, in my opinion, of exposing medical students to some of the ecological issues of health and the difficulties and strategies for changing risk behaviors. I don’t believe we have anything like it in the States, although my direct experience with medical education is limited.
What I liked about her approach is that it was a way of helping practicing physicians to be aware of population health promotion and developing support in that sector. We also talked about the possibility of including social marketing in that curriculum as a way of building support for the strategic program into the future. Although I am still struggling to fully understand the structure of government, public health and academic sectors in England, we talked about the position of the Faculty in Public Health (and the Voluntary Register) as well as some of the other organizations involved, such as the Association of Study of Medical Education (ASME), the Association of Medical Education Europe (AMEE) and the Society of Academic Primary Care (SAPC)---about their position on social marketing. I think it’s fair to say, they don’t have one.
Here again, I think there is a valuable opportunity to garner strategic support for social marketing in primary care medicine and medical education. I believe key academic partners are willing to play a role (and seem to have a strong strategic position in the relevant organizations) but would need support from NSMC and other partner organizations. A more informed discussion with her, perhaps a presentation to one or more of the relevant groups, an article in one of the professionals journals (Health Education Journal?) and some other activities would go a long way to making this possibility a reality. I can’t imagine a more powerful, strategic support for social marketing in public health than to have the understanding and support of primary care professionals—especially corps of new physicians (the KCL medical class alone is more than 400 each year!) over the next decade or so.
Also, I plan to take some of these ideas back to Brown with me and talk there about the possibility of including social marketing (along with health promotion in general) in the medical curriculum. (See A. Scott-Samuel and J. Wills in Health Education Journal, 2007:66, 115 for an article: “Health Promotion in England: sleeping beauty or corpse?”
Metropolitan PCT site visit (Hamlet Towers):
At an earlier meeting, one of the associate staff at a local PCT offered to give a tour and site visit. Linda joined me and we set off on the tube for the East London area known at Whitechapel. I knew something was radically different when we emerged from the station into a busy street filled with sidewalk merchants and people of every conceivable nationality or ethnicity. There were turbans, sarongs, burkas, shorts, robes etc., etc., reminiscent of a busy street in Cairo or Istanbul—hardly what I expected in London. Our guide explained that 40% of the population in this area is Muslim (from various countries) with white Britishers accounting for another 40%. The remainder comes from all over the world and settles here due to the more reasonable living costs (compared to downtown London). After only a few moments, we passed across the street from the London Mosque which was broadcasting the call to prayers throughout the neighbourhood.
This is also the world of Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and alas, the start of the Salvation Army (of which my parents were officers). We explored the narrow streets filled with restaurants, shops and artists only to emerge on the edge of the financial district and below a unique building widely known by the nickname "The Gherkin." It is 180 meters (590 ft) tall, making it the second-tallest building in the City of London. I like to think of it as the “lipstick”—but that’s just me.
So we walked through the open markets, back alleys and broad avenues trying to soak up some of the diverse culture of the area. I didn’t directly observe any desperate poverty, but can only imagine some of the issues that exist in the vast expanses of public housing and tenement towers. It was more difficult to imagine trying to promote health in an area with so many different languages and cultures. But our guide persisted in pointing out the richness of the culture and the essential energy of the population crowding the streets. Perhaps this reminds us that while health is certainly one of the most valued things, it is not the only thing that matters…..
##
Monday, 23 July 2007
"Commissioning" for Social Marketing
23 July: Day 24
“Commissioning” (Contracting) for Social Marketing
The longer I spend over here, the more I become convinced that many of the public health challenges in the two countries (England/USA) are similar. This came out earlier in a training session when participants said that the three biggest obstacles to using social marketing in public health were: getting permission, getting enough time to do it right, and getting sufficient money to support it. I often hear the same three issues in America.
This morning I sat-in on a briefing session with senior-level representatives from a metropolitan PCT (Primary Care Trust) with a large, mostly disadvantaged population. The topic was guidelines for contracting with consultant firms. Senior NSMC staff did a brief orientation and review of social marketing; then presented a number of checklists and tips on “commissioning”—materials (and discussion) that I thought were really helpful. The “What Is Commissioning?” slides discussed the balance between advocating for the public and stewardship of tax revenues. The 10-point checklist established a number of characteristics that potential contractors should display, such as “evidence of systematic scoping (formative research) and development phase;” “evidence of working with multi-sector delivery coalitions,”—in other words, have they really done social marketing before and will they do it for me?
A briefing template takes the public health professional through a step-by-step plan for organizing the social marketing project. It helps to answer the question about whether the formative research (or the firm’s usual approach/product) will have the greatest effect on the project design or what partnerships or stakeholders need to be informed. In addition there were other tip sheets and “working in partnership” guidelines available.
The contracting process in England seems at least as rigid and proscribed as it does in the US. So I thought that the practical guidelines for an agency that was new to matching up social marketing interventions with a chorus of prospective consulting/contracting firms was really a good idea. I hope I am able to bring some of these ideas home and adapt them to our own situation and encourage others in other state and local health agencies to do the same thing. When they appear on the NSMC website (most are still in draft form), I will add a link to my blog.
##
“Commissioning” (Contracting) for Social Marketing
The longer I spend over here, the more I become convinced that many of the public health challenges in the two countries (England/USA) are similar. This came out earlier in a training session when participants said that the three biggest obstacles to using social marketing in public health were: getting permission, getting enough time to do it right, and getting sufficient money to support it. I often hear the same three issues in America.
This morning I sat-in on a briefing session with senior-level representatives from a metropolitan PCT (Primary Care Trust) with a large, mostly disadvantaged population. The topic was guidelines for contracting with consultant firms. Senior NSMC staff did a brief orientation and review of social marketing; then presented a number of checklists and tips on “commissioning”—materials (and discussion) that I thought were really helpful. The “What Is Commissioning?” slides discussed the balance between advocating for the public and stewardship of tax revenues. The 10-point checklist established a number of characteristics that potential contractors should display, such as “evidence of systematic scoping (formative research) and development phase;” “evidence of working with multi-sector delivery coalitions,”—in other words, have they really done social marketing before and will they do it for me?
A briefing template takes the public health professional through a step-by-step plan for organizing the social marketing project. It helps to answer the question about whether the formative research (or the firm’s usual approach/product) will have the greatest effect on the project design or what partnerships or stakeholders need to be informed. In addition there were other tip sheets and “working in partnership” guidelines available.
The contracting process in England seems at least as rigid and proscribed as it does in the US. So I thought that the practical guidelines for an agency that was new to matching up social marketing interventions with a chorus of prospective consulting/contracting firms was really a good idea. I hope I am able to bring some of these ideas home and adapt them to our own situation and encourage others in other state and local health agencies to do the same thing. When they appear on the NSMC website (most are still in draft form), I will add a link to my blog.
##
Sunday, 22 July 2007
Hyde Park and Kensington Palace
LD 22 July
Day 23
Hyde Park and Kensington Palace
Today is a rest day, no work and no extensive touring around the country—just an afternoon trip to Hyde Park, Kensington Palace and the Mayfair embassy district.
These parks are really impressive. We took the tube to Green Park, just north of Buckingham, then walked a short distance to Hyde Park. The Speaker’s Corner is around to the northwest side and we found it packed with people, many of whom were listening to speakers decked out in various forms of costume or props (flags, pirate outfits, blue jeans, house dress, etc.) One speaker said “…that’s what women really want, a man to put them in their place….” We left before the riot started!!! (just kidding!) Others talked about race, religion and various topics—often without anyone stopping to listen.
After Speaker’s Corner we walked quite a distance through the park to the Kensington Palace, which contains the State Apartments, home to the royal family for 900 years. The building was quite ordinary on the outside (we didn’t go in), of dark brick. However, the gardens were extravagant and even contained some huge metal flowers to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.
Later we took the tube to Bond Street and turned southward to explore the Mayfair embassy district. The building here were quite unique and attractive—not just the embassies, but many of the others as well. The Qatar embassy was an old, red brick structure right on the street—reminiscent of an old school house.
Grovsnor Square includes several embassies, Canada, Italy and USA. The latter was encased in cement barricades and iron fencing. I don’t know if it is just construction or security measures, but it definitely changed the character of the area. Also there is a nice statue of FDR and a memorial to all those who died on 9/11.
##
Day 23
Hyde Park and Kensington Palace
Today is a rest day, no work and no extensive touring around the country—just an afternoon trip to Hyde Park, Kensington Palace and the Mayfair embassy district.
These parks are really impressive. We took the tube to Green Park, just north of Buckingham, then walked a short distance to Hyde Park. The Speaker’s Corner is around to the northwest side and we found it packed with people, many of whom were listening to speakers decked out in various forms of costume or props (flags, pirate outfits, blue jeans, house dress, etc.) One speaker said “…that’s what women really want, a man to put them in their place….” We left before the riot started!!! (just kidding!) Others talked about race, religion and various topics—often without anyone stopping to listen.
After Speaker’s Corner we walked quite a distance through the park to the Kensington Palace, which contains the State Apartments, home to the royal family for 900 years. The building was quite ordinary on the outside (we didn’t go in), of dark brick. However, the gardens were extravagant and even contained some huge metal flowers to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.
Later we took the tube to Bond Street and turned southward to explore the Mayfair embassy district. The building here were quite unique and attractive—not just the embassies, but many of the others as well. The Qatar embassy was an old, red brick structure right on the street—reminiscent of an old school house.
Grovsnor Square includes several embassies, Canada, Italy and USA. The latter was encased in cement barricades and iron fencing. I don’t know if it is just construction or security measures, but it definitely changed the character of the area. Also there is a nice statue of FDR and a memorial to all those who died on 9/11.
##
Saturday, 21 July 2007
Little church near Rugby
20 July 2007
Day 21
Rugby:
Today we traveled to Rugby, about 1 ½ hours northwest by train to visit my cousin Hugh and his wife, May. We had a wonderful reunion and discussed all the family things that have occurred since our last visit 3 years ago.
After a wonderful lunch (beef burgundy, scalloped potatoes, fresh vegetables, trifle (for dessert), assorted cheese with grapes and wine!) we piled into the car for a tour of the area. It turned out to be cool and quite cloudy in Rugby, but we enjoyed exploring some of the back roads and even stopped at a little pub in Ashby St. Ledgers, a little village with thatched-roof homes, to stretch.
A local gentleman suggested that we check out the Norman-built church. When he said it was always open and contained some drawings “over 1000 years old” I was hooked! It turned out to be wonderful advice! I found a website below that describes the little church better than I ever could. However, we immediately felt a sense of intimacy with the heavy, moldy gate, the dark-thick door and the small group of pew boxes inside the sanctuary. Unlike many of the other elaborate cathedrals we previously toured, this one was modest but somehow comforting—almost as if it invited us to sit quietly and consider all that has taken place over the centuries since its beginnings. Truly, this was a treasure of a find!
http://www.ashby-st-ledgers-church.info/
Day 21
Rugby:
Today we traveled to Rugby, about 1 ½ hours northwest by train to visit my cousin Hugh and his wife, May. We had a wonderful reunion and discussed all the family things that have occurred since our last visit 3 years ago.
After a wonderful lunch (beef burgundy, scalloped potatoes, fresh vegetables, trifle (for dessert), assorted cheese with grapes and wine!) we piled into the car for a tour of the area. It turned out to be cool and quite cloudy in Rugby, but we enjoyed exploring some of the back roads and even stopped at a little pub in Ashby St. Ledgers, a little village with thatched-roof homes, to stretch.
A local gentleman suggested that we check out the Norman-built church. When he said it was always open and contained some drawings “over 1000 years old” I was hooked! It turned out to be wonderful advice! I found a website below that describes the little church better than I ever could. However, we immediately felt a sense of intimacy with the heavy, moldy gate, the dark-thick door and the small group of pew boxes inside the sanctuary. Unlike many of the other elaborate cathedrals we previously toured, this one was modest but somehow comforting—almost as if it invited us to sit quietly and consider all that has taken place over the centuries since its beginnings. Truly, this was a treasure of a find!
http://www.ashby-st-ledgers-church.info/
Side Trips
July 18-19
Couple of side trips
Greenwich:
I had a afternoon meeting on Thursday near London Bridge (close to our “dorm”; so Linda and I decided take advantage of the good weather and head out to Greenwich, a short tube or boat ride down-river from London.
The Cutty Sark, the 19th century sailing vessel, was damaged and covered in plastic and scaffolding; so we dedicated to walk straight up to the Royal Observatory on the hill overlooking Greenwich town, the Naval College and far-off London.
I never really thought about it too much—how we take for granted being able to find out where we are on the face of the earth. Now we have Google maps, GIS devices—even exquisitely detailed maps are a relatively recent invention. Apparently, latitude (the distance north or south of the equator) is easy to determine through celestial navigation. Longitude, the location east or west of some fixed location (like Greenwich) is more difficult—especially without an accurate clock. The time distance between London and NYC, for example, is 5 hours, representing 75 degrees of longitude or 15 degrees for each hour. Determining the time in a far-off ocean using the stars/sun/moon is not to hard, but knowing the time back home is much more difficult in an era of pendulum and stone weighted clocks that are affected by the temperature, humidity and movement of the ship across the water. It wasn’t until someone developed a reliable timepiece and until the Admirality established Greenwich as the “prime meridian” that navigators could accomplish both requirements of determining their location. Fascinating!
So Linda and I took turns straddling the prime meridian; then toured the observatory where observers sat and charted the heavens to establish accurate celestial maps for use in navigation. Hence, the British ascendancy as the “ruler of the seas”. I have a whole new appreciation for the self-taught watchmaker who solved the problem and made it possible.
It’s an interesting analogy for the public health profession. Knowing where we are takes a thorough knowledge of where we started (prime meridian) and what has happened in the interim—how long we have traveled. I think it is a case for evidence-based interventions and good evaluation—the first providing a reference point and the latter, a measurement/observation of the facts.
As an instance of irony to this analogy, Linda and I got on the wrong train for the return trip and arrived at London Bridge station without a ticket. The gate attendant was kind enough to listen to our sad story and let us through—his smile indicating that this was not the first time it has happened.
Broad Street Pump and British Portrait Museum
It poured rather vigorously on Friday morning; so Linda and I decided to stick close to home and explore some indoor attractions. Fortunately, the weather broke just long enough for us to fit in a visit to the Broad Street Pump, just north of Piccadilly Circus.
In 1853 cholera ravaged London. John Snow, a local physician, noticed that the people on Brewery St. (who drank the beer) did not suffer as greatly as those who lived on Broad (now Broadwick) street who drank from a local well. Without fully understanding the germ theory or the oral-fecal route of disease transmission from sewage in the water, he took the handle off the pump in an effort to quell the outbreak. Hence, the beginnings of modern epidemiology and the name of this blog.
I have to admit that the pump, a rather inconspicuous metal affair in the middle of the sidewalk on a corner of the street, holds a fascination for me. John Tierney, our former Deputy Director and mentor to many of us, frequently referred to it and often accompanied his wife on flea market forays with the intent to find “the handle on the Broad Street pump.” He found a likeness, and it now hangs in the Director’s Conference Room with the story of John Snow. By the way, there is a John Snow Pub just across the street in case a devout public health professional want to “hoist a pint” in Snow’s honor!
National Portrait Gallery
From here we went to the Portrait Gallery for a quick tour. I can’t say that I am an admirer of classic art, but the extensive collection displayed portraits from the modern to those many centuries old. We recognized some of the more famous names (Churchill, Gladstone, Johnson, Burns, Montgomery, etc.). My favorite was the display of Princess Diana—a collection of formal and informal poses with some almost “tomboyish” renderings. What a loss!
We also marveled at several paintings of the Houses of Commons and Lords commemorating some important event. One wall-sized painting showed 259 individual faces, each one distinctive and fully-rendered, an undertaking of 10 years work by the artist. Remarkable!
The weather finally broke into a sunny, arid afternoon; so we decided to walk down by the Embankment along the Thames and toward our “dorm”. It was a beautiful walk, punctuated by statues, riverboats, panoramic scenes of the waterfront on the opposite side, and, of course, other people hurrying home from work or out for a stroll. We were surprised to find ourselves back in the neighborhood in so little time—a 4 mile distance as we later determined. So we were more than ready for dinner in the local pub.
Couple of side trips
Greenwich:
I had a afternoon meeting on Thursday near London Bridge (close to our “dorm”; so Linda and I decided take advantage of the good weather and head out to Greenwich, a short tube or boat ride down-river from London.
The Cutty Sark, the 19th century sailing vessel, was damaged and covered in plastic and scaffolding; so we dedicated to walk straight up to the Royal Observatory on the hill overlooking Greenwich town, the Naval College and far-off London.
I never really thought about it too much—how we take for granted being able to find out where we are on the face of the earth. Now we have Google maps, GIS devices—even exquisitely detailed maps are a relatively recent invention. Apparently, latitude (the distance north or south of the equator) is easy to determine through celestial navigation. Longitude, the location east or west of some fixed location (like Greenwich) is more difficult—especially without an accurate clock. The time distance between London and NYC, for example, is 5 hours, representing 75 degrees of longitude or 15 degrees for each hour. Determining the time in a far-off ocean using the stars/sun/moon is not to hard, but knowing the time back home is much more difficult in an era of pendulum and stone weighted clocks that are affected by the temperature, humidity and movement of the ship across the water. It wasn’t until someone developed a reliable timepiece and until the Admirality established Greenwich as the “prime meridian” that navigators could accomplish both requirements of determining their location. Fascinating!
So Linda and I took turns straddling the prime meridian; then toured the observatory where observers sat and charted the heavens to establish accurate celestial maps for use in navigation. Hence, the British ascendancy as the “ruler of the seas”. I have a whole new appreciation for the self-taught watchmaker who solved the problem and made it possible.
It’s an interesting analogy for the public health profession. Knowing where we are takes a thorough knowledge of where we started (prime meridian) and what has happened in the interim—how long we have traveled. I think it is a case for evidence-based interventions and good evaluation—the first providing a reference point and the latter, a measurement/observation of the facts.
As an instance of irony to this analogy, Linda and I got on the wrong train for the return trip and arrived at London Bridge station without a ticket. The gate attendant was kind enough to listen to our sad story and let us through—his smile indicating that this was not the first time it has happened.
Broad Street Pump and British Portrait Museum
It poured rather vigorously on Friday morning; so Linda and I decided to stick close to home and explore some indoor attractions. Fortunately, the weather broke just long enough for us to fit in a visit to the Broad Street Pump, just north of Piccadilly Circus.
In 1853 cholera ravaged London. John Snow, a local physician, noticed that the people on Brewery St. (who drank the beer) did not suffer as greatly as those who lived on Broad (now Broadwick) street who drank from a local well. Without fully understanding the germ theory or the oral-fecal route of disease transmission from sewage in the water, he took the handle off the pump in an effort to quell the outbreak. Hence, the beginnings of modern epidemiology and the name of this blog.
I have to admit that the pump, a rather inconspicuous metal affair in the middle of the sidewalk on a corner of the street, holds a fascination for me. John Tierney, our former Deputy Director and mentor to many of us, frequently referred to it and often accompanied his wife on flea market forays with the intent to find “the handle on the Broad Street pump.” He found a likeness, and it now hangs in the Director’s Conference Room with the story of John Snow. By the way, there is a John Snow Pub just across the street in case a devout public health professional want to “hoist a pint” in Snow’s honor!
National Portrait Gallery
From here we went to the Portrait Gallery for a quick tour. I can’t say that I am an admirer of classic art, but the extensive collection displayed portraits from the modern to those many centuries old. We recognized some of the more famous names (Churchill, Gladstone, Johnson, Burns, Montgomery, etc.). My favorite was the display of Princess Diana—a collection of formal and informal poses with some almost “tomboyish” renderings. What a loss!
We also marveled at several paintings of the Houses of Commons and Lords commemorating some important event. One wall-sized painting showed 259 individual faces, each one distinctive and fully-rendered, an undertaking of 10 years work by the artist. Remarkable!
The weather finally broke into a sunny, arid afternoon; so we decided to walk down by the Embankment along the Thames and toward our “dorm”. It was a beautiful walk, punctuated by statues, riverboats, panoramic scenes of the waterfront on the opposite side, and, of course, other people hurrying home from work or out for a stroll. We were surprised to find ourselves back in the neighborhood in so little time—a 4 mile distance as we later determined. So we were more than ready for dinner in the local pub.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
An Eye to the Academics....
17-18 July
If you are wondering about the curious title, just hang on……
I have been meeting with some of the public health related faculty at Kings College London (KCL) as I previously reported. They include: Dr. Peter Duncan, my academic sponsor; Dr. Margaret Sills, Academic Director of the Higher Education Academy (Health Sciences and Practice) and Dr. Ann Wylie, Health Promotion Lead, KCL Undergraduate Medical Education Team, General Practice and Primary Care.
I don’t want to report further on individual conversations, but I would like to update everyone on the gist of the discussions as they occur.
Most recently I had a long conversation with one of these faculty about the potential role for the academic sector in social marketing research and training. The question is, if social marketing is wildly successful in England (as it well might be) who is going to train the public health professionals in this approach to project planning and intervention? I believe that there is a real strategic role for academia in this, both in the UK and in the US—one that I am not sure is fully envisioned.
What I did find is that there is a project at the English Dept of Health (DH) that is mapping out all the places where public health is being taught—maybe even what is being taught in each program. This would be a good place to start. I also discovered that there is a network of regional directors of public health teaching in England (everything seems so organized over here!) that could be brought in as partners to the social marketing effort. Most public health professionals are “certified” in England by the Faculty in Public Health (I am still trying to get all the names and acronyms straight); so it might be possible to explore getting social marketing included as one of the basic competencies in public health, or to have it included as one of the benchmark criteria used to regulate the profession. I don’t have all the details right, but the general plan is correct. I plan to follow up on this at the NSMC next week.
Also, I attended an informal discussion group sponsored by DEMOS, a London think-tank specializing in public health and policy work. The presenter, Perri, did an analysis of the behavior change related policies of may English government departments. Using a very conservative and restrictive methodology, he found that that DH had the most policies, followed by education and a few others. Some departments had none. He also looked at whether these policies were extensive and intensive (coercive) and constructed a “bossiness” index. He found that the social departments were twice as “bossy” as the other, most focused on the poor and low income populations and that they did not focus on policies where there was a significant economic “risk transfer” to the general population. Many of these policies and programs were communications campaigns to persuade (or dissuade) the target public from some behavior.
This report prompted a lot of discussion, including whether or not it matters about the programs unless we know how effective they were. In other words, is government really bossy and intrusive if the programs don’t really work? Good questions….and many others that I didn’t take notes on.
Once again I found it interesting that the same issues about policy, politics, government responsibility vs individual responsibility, effectiveness, paternalism, community duty, etc., etc. become issues in both England and the US—in spite of the differences in our governmental structures and cultures
Oh yes, the “eye” part……….The British Airways London Eye is the world’s tallest observation wheel—raising 135 meters above the bank of the River Thames across from Parliament. Linda and I took a bus to Waterloo, walked down to the river by the Royal Performance Center and took a ride on the Eye (15 pounds each). It is a wonderful experience and truly provides a bird’s eye view of London, one that is completely different from the ground level perspective. It moves slowly and without a perceptible vibration or a feeling of being up high. It is more the feeling a soaring in the air. Maybe that’s why the attendants say “Have a good flight” when people get on.
###
If you are wondering about the curious title, just hang on……
I have been meeting with some of the public health related faculty at Kings College London (KCL) as I previously reported. They include: Dr. Peter Duncan, my academic sponsor; Dr. Margaret Sills, Academic Director of the Higher Education Academy (Health Sciences and Practice) and Dr. Ann Wylie, Health Promotion Lead, KCL Undergraduate Medical Education Team, General Practice and Primary Care.
I don’t want to report further on individual conversations, but I would like to update everyone on the gist of the discussions as they occur.
Most recently I had a long conversation with one of these faculty about the potential role for the academic sector in social marketing research and training. The question is, if social marketing is wildly successful in England (as it well might be) who is going to train the public health professionals in this approach to project planning and intervention? I believe that there is a real strategic role for academia in this, both in the UK and in the US—one that I am not sure is fully envisioned.
What I did find is that there is a project at the English Dept of Health (DH) that is mapping out all the places where public health is being taught—maybe even what is being taught in each program. This would be a good place to start. I also discovered that there is a network of regional directors of public health teaching in England (everything seems so organized over here!) that could be brought in as partners to the social marketing effort. Most public health professionals are “certified” in England by the Faculty in Public Health (I am still trying to get all the names and acronyms straight); so it might be possible to explore getting social marketing included as one of the basic competencies in public health, or to have it included as one of the benchmark criteria used to regulate the profession. I don’t have all the details right, but the general plan is correct. I plan to follow up on this at the NSMC next week.
Also, I attended an informal discussion group sponsored by DEMOS, a London think-tank specializing in public health and policy work. The presenter, Perri, did an analysis of the behavior change related policies of may English government departments. Using a very conservative and restrictive methodology, he found that that DH had the most policies, followed by education and a few others. Some departments had none. He also looked at whether these policies were extensive and intensive (coercive) and constructed a “bossiness” index. He found that the social departments were twice as “bossy” as the other, most focused on the poor and low income populations and that they did not focus on policies where there was a significant economic “risk transfer” to the general population. Many of these policies and programs were communications campaigns to persuade (or dissuade) the target public from some behavior.
This report prompted a lot of discussion, including whether or not it matters about the programs unless we know how effective they were. In other words, is government really bossy and intrusive if the programs don’t really work? Good questions….and many others that I didn’t take notes on.
Once again I found it interesting that the same issues about policy, politics, government responsibility vs individual responsibility, effectiveness, paternalism, community duty, etc., etc. become issues in both England and the US—in spite of the differences in our governmental structures and cultures
Oh yes, the “eye” part……….The British Airways London Eye is the world’s tallest observation wheel—raising 135 meters above the bank of the River Thames across from Parliament. Linda and I took a bus to Waterloo, walked down to the river by the Royal Performance Center and took a ride on the Eye (15 pounds each). It is a wonderful experience and truly provides a bird’s eye view of London, one that is completely different from the ground level perspective. It moves slowly and without a perceptible vibration or a feeling of being up high. It is more the feeling a soaring in the air. Maybe that’s why the attendants say “Have a good flight” when people get on.
###
Presentation for NSMC Associates
LD 16-19 July
WOW, the 15th was my last entry, and here it is the 19th already. So much for a “daily” record!!!!
On Monday, 16 July I gave an all day seminar to the NSMC associates and some core staff on the US perspective on social marketing. There were about 15 participants in all; including field staff from various PCTs and other organizations. As I understand it, NSMC contracts with professionals, either individuals or from other agencies, as associates to help with the planning and implementation of the overall project. I used RI case studies (clinical preventive services, hospital quality, emergency preparedness, etc.) as examples but also discussed some projects from my colleague Heidi Keller in WA State DOH as well as some examples from colleagues at the University of South Florida.
Given the comments following the presentation, I would say that the group liked the discussion of “marketing social marketing” the best. This is an exercise that I have used many times in the past to get emerging social marketers to use the approach to overcome obstacles faced when trying to conduct social marketing projects. Just like colleagues in the US, the group noted getting permission from their bosses, getting funding and being given a reasonable amount of time to go through the social marketing process were the most common obstacles. I felt a little lost trying to apply this exercise to the English public health structure (with the NHS, SHA, PCTs, DH etc.) but the group was very gracious and helped me through it.
I got a lot of great questions and some challenges (Can we call it social marketing if there is no service or “product” offered? What is the exchange in this circumstance? ) It was really stimulating.
One of the key objectives of my presentation was to confirm the realization that social marketing is not just about communication, but about a mix of the 4 P’s (product, price, place, promotion) and about behaviour change, not just about knowledge and awareness. The group agreed that this continues to be an issue in England, just as it is in the US and perhaps elsewhere.
WOW, the 15th was my last entry, and here it is the 19th already. So much for a “daily” record!!!!
On Monday, 16 July I gave an all day seminar to the NSMC associates and some core staff on the US perspective on social marketing. There were about 15 participants in all; including field staff from various PCTs and other organizations. As I understand it, NSMC contracts with professionals, either individuals or from other agencies, as associates to help with the planning and implementation of the overall project. I used RI case studies (clinical preventive services, hospital quality, emergency preparedness, etc.) as examples but also discussed some projects from my colleague Heidi Keller in WA State DOH as well as some examples from colleagues at the University of South Florida.
Given the comments following the presentation, I would say that the group liked the discussion of “marketing social marketing” the best. This is an exercise that I have used many times in the past to get emerging social marketers to use the approach to overcome obstacles faced when trying to conduct social marketing projects. Just like colleagues in the US, the group noted getting permission from their bosses, getting funding and being given a reasonable amount of time to go through the social marketing process were the most common obstacles. I felt a little lost trying to apply this exercise to the English public health structure (with the NHS, SHA, PCTs, DH etc.) but the group was very gracious and helped me through it.
I got a lot of great questions and some challenges (Can we call it social marketing if there is no service or “product” offered? What is the exchange in this circumstance? ) It was really stimulating.
One of the key objectives of my presentation was to confirm the realization that social marketing is not just about communication, but about a mix of the 4 P’s (product, price, place, promotion) and about behaviour change, not just about knowledge and awareness. The group agreed that this continues to be an issue in England, just as it is in the US and perhaps elsewhere.
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Day Trip to Canterbury
LD14Jly
Day 15
Trip to Canterbury
I have to admit that this is a lot harder than I thought, both the demands of keeping up with the activities at NSMC and the touring. I will just have to do my best….
Today we decided to take the train to Canterbury in Kent. We caught the train right at London Bridge station and arrived about 1 ½ hours later in this medieval wonderland after some interesting sights of the countryside to the east of London.
After a short walk, we came to the West Gate Towers, one of England’s best-preserved medieval fortified gatehouses. The arch beneath leads into St. Peter’s street (which becomes High St. then St. George’s St. later on), a busy pedestrian mall lined with shops, pubs and historical attractions. We stopped briefly to consider the river cruises and view the famous “dunking stool” (if you confessed you were a witch you were burned; if you didn’t you were drowned!).
The highlight was the Cathedral, of course, most famous for as the place where Archbishop Thomas Beckett was murdered (I believe the date was 1070). It rests in it’s own enclosed compound, surrounded by lawn and out buildings. There was an Evensong scheduled for that day; so we were not permitted to tour the entire building, but later caught part of the service and were able to hear the choir and the organ. We also toured the crypt, a dark, cool place with some ancient paintings and many stations for lighting candles.
A walkway surrounds the cathedral and provides a lovely survey of the exterior. We also happened on the Chapter House, a large, rectangular room where a volunteer guide told us that the monks congregated here each morning for brief prayers and to discuss the operations of the monastery.
Next we walked to the end of High St. and found the Roman wall surrounding the city. Only about a quarter of the structure still exists, at least for walking, but it give a nice view of the town, including the John Dane park, a lovely place for a stroll through trees, flowers and monuments. In an interesting way, the wall divides the medieval town from the bustling traffic and commercial activities on the outside, in much the same way that the original wall protected the town from the various assaults from without.
Finally, we arrive at Canterbury castle, a very old Norman Keep, mostly in ruins, but providing some interesting views of the architecture and building methods of the day—many of which seems surprisingly sophisticated, given the available materials and intricacies of the windows, towers and other elements.
We continued to wander around the inner town for some time before settling on a restaurant for dinner—one located just beside the river than meanders through the community. The terrace at the rear was sheltered, overhead, with a trellis and grape vines, many of which had cluster of green, immature grapes dangling overhead. We enjoyed a very tasty dinner, then made our way back to the train and home to London (after 11 local stops along the way!).
Day 15
Trip to Canterbury
I have to admit that this is a lot harder than I thought, both the demands of keeping up with the activities at NSMC and the touring. I will just have to do my best….
Today we decided to take the train to Canterbury in Kent. We caught the train right at London Bridge station and arrived about 1 ½ hours later in this medieval wonderland after some interesting sights of the countryside to the east of London.
After a short walk, we came to the West Gate Towers, one of England’s best-preserved medieval fortified gatehouses. The arch beneath leads into St. Peter’s street (which becomes High St. then St. George’s St. later on), a busy pedestrian mall lined with shops, pubs and historical attractions. We stopped briefly to consider the river cruises and view the famous “dunking stool” (if you confessed you were a witch you were burned; if you didn’t you were drowned!).
The highlight was the Cathedral, of course, most famous for as the place where Archbishop Thomas Beckett was murdered (I believe the date was 1070). It rests in it’s own enclosed compound, surrounded by lawn and out buildings. There was an Evensong scheduled for that day; so we were not permitted to tour the entire building, but later caught part of the service and were able to hear the choir and the organ. We also toured the crypt, a dark, cool place with some ancient paintings and many stations for lighting candles.
A walkway surrounds the cathedral and provides a lovely survey of the exterior. We also happened on the Chapter House, a large, rectangular room where a volunteer guide told us that the monks congregated here each morning for brief prayers and to discuss the operations of the monastery.
Next we walked to the end of High St. and found the Roman wall surrounding the city. Only about a quarter of the structure still exists, at least for walking, but it give a nice view of the town, including the John Dane park, a lovely place for a stroll through trees, flowers and monuments. In an interesting way, the wall divides the medieval town from the bustling traffic and commercial activities on the outside, in much the same way that the original wall protected the town from the various assaults from without.
Finally, we arrive at Canterbury castle, a very old Norman Keep, mostly in ruins, but providing some interesting views of the architecture and building methods of the day—many of which seems surprisingly sophisticated, given the available materials and intricacies of the windows, towers and other elements.
We continued to wander around the inner town for some time before settling on a restaurant for dinner—one located just beside the river than meanders through the community. The terrace at the rear was sheltered, overhead, with a trellis and grape vines, many of which had cluster of green, immature grapes dangling overhead. We enjoyed a very tasty dinner, then made our way back to the train and home to London (after 11 local stops along the way!).
Site visits 12-13 July
12-13 July
Days 13 and 14
Some new acronyms that may crop up from time to time:
PCT – Primary Care Trusts (covering all parts of England and receive budgets directly from the Department of Health (DH). PCTs are responsible for primary care in an area)
SHA – Strategic Health Authorities (Created by the Government in 2002 to manage the local NHS on behalf of the Secretary of State and monitor performance and standards.)
A&E – Accident and Emergency (the equivalent of US ERs or emergency departments)
SITE VISITS
Brighton-Hove
Early on July 12th , Linda and I journeyed to Brighton to join up with member of the NSMC core team scheduled to give training in social marketing. Brighton is a recreation/resort destination of about 250 year-round residents on the south coast of England about 2 hours from London by train. (By the way, the trains here are really on-time, comfortable and not too expensive—about £20 round trip to Brighton). Linda went shopping and touring.
The group gathered at the Brighton-Hove PCT and included about 20 local representative and 5 core NSMC staff (plus me). As I understand it, the NSMC is contracted by DH for 10 demonstration sites, including training of site staff. So this was a “typical” training. The group included: physicians, nurses, nutritionists, health educators, a midwife, advisers, managers, communications officers, coordinators, teachers, trainees and other various professional and organizational representatives. For many this appeared to be the first intensive training in social marketing.
Rowena (Dr. Rowena Merritt) lead the training and used a rather nicely organized and comprehensive workshop agenda. It covered:
This thing called social marketing
Defining behavioural goals (SMART objectives)
Understanding the target audience
Moving beyond promotion-using all 4 P’s
Strategic social marketing
Ethical considerations
Taking an action plan back to work
One of the exercises I liked extremely well was a group collage on the target audience. The instructions asked us to think about our customer (in our case a teen mom who was not breast feeding) and to cut/paste items from various newspapers and magazines on to a sheet of newsprint. We thought of our customer “Jordan” as:
16 years old
White
Living with mother in a tenement house
Divorced parents (since age 9)
Experienced a period in child custody
Smokes
Childs father not around
Passion for handbags
Baby’s name “Brad” tattooed on her arm
Low self-esteem
At risk of another pregnancy
Tied to the house
No clear direction in life
Etc.
Then we choose and discussed pictures and headlines that seemed to reflect this customer. It really made the exercise come alive. Other groups focused on binge drinking young males, smoking teens, HIV risk men and obese teens.
Some broader observations:
One attendee mentioned that research found that only 30% of 4-year-old know their surname, but 70% recognized McDonalds
Several attendees objected to the “Road Crew” program in Wisconsin that provided limos for young men who binge drink on the weekend (27% reduction in crashes) because it promotes binge drinking. They didn’t seem to have a problem with needle exchance (to prevent HIV).
Typical of my experience in the US, a few of the more experienced professionals had difficulty stepping into the social marketing mindset of exploration and “scoping.” Sometimes they would respond to proposals with a kind of “we tried that audit won’t work” sort of comment.
This experience make me wonder how to provide sufficient training and technical assistance to public health professionals doing social marketing in local health agencies—both in the US and the UK. I think it is an important issue that brings together government, academia and practice-based organizations.
After the training, I rejoined Linda and took a bus to the Brighton city center with access to the beach and oceanfront. It was not a typical Brighton-esque day; rather it was cloudy, quite windy and showered from time to time. We only had the opportunity to walk out onto the Brighton pier and have a beer in the outside corner of a pub—sheltered from the fierce wind. The beach and line of houses went on forever both to the east and west of where we sat. The “sand” appeared to be more like marble-sized pebbles and I thought, for a moment to gather a sample for a friend who collects such things. But with no plastic baggie and facing another driven shower, I decided to try again at another location (sorry Brick).
Dudley
The next day, 13 July, I accompanied Rowena to Dudley, a community of about 300,000 in the “Black Country” a region near Birmingham (2 hours by train) known for its industry and historical “black smoke” emanating from factories. We arrived at the modest train station and got a ride to the PCT building.
This was a simple introductory visit involving some orientation and technical assistance. This welcoming group was smaller (about 4 participants) and included a senior manager and her 4 young field staff—mostly nutritionists, I believe. The only previous exposure to social marketing was a briefing by a NSMC leader. The key issue was obesity and access to fruits and vegetables (5-a-Day).
The site proposal clearly outlined the problem as multiple pockets of “deprivation” including widespread socio-economic and health issues. The field team currently conducts “let’s get cooking” program for residents of these areas (and others), but feels that one of the problems is access to fresh foods (as an alternative to packaged and fast foods). We encourage them to use the cooking programs as a way to gather scoping data and building partnerships.
As we worked through the social marketing process (as an orientation) I was impressed by the amount of available data at the community level. Later, they provided us with several extremely well-produced and comprehensive reports about Dudley’s demographic profile, population changes, health inequalities and obesity problem. When the discussion ended, the group agreed to schedule an all-day training on social marketing in the near future. It was clear that this professional staff, like many others in the UK (and certainly in the US) needs training support and technical assistance to launch successful social marketing interventions.
As another broader comment, I have found that my observation about using social marketing to find “an emotional hook” between the product and the customer to be well received both here and in the US. Public health people tend to get focused in on the health issues (maybe as a consequence of the epidemiologic, scientific and clinical orientations). An acknowledgement that people are emotional creatures and that it is ok for us to incorporate that into our planning, seems to be welcomed, maybe even liberating, by most.
###
Days 13 and 14
Some new acronyms that may crop up from time to time:
PCT – Primary Care Trusts (covering all parts of England and receive budgets directly from the Department of Health (DH). PCTs are responsible for primary care in an area)
SHA – Strategic Health Authorities (Created by the Government in 2002 to manage the local NHS on behalf of the Secretary of State and monitor performance and standards.)
A&E – Accident and Emergency (the equivalent of US ERs or emergency departments)
SITE VISITS
Brighton-Hove
Early on July 12th , Linda and I journeyed to Brighton to join up with member of the NSMC core team scheduled to give training in social marketing. Brighton is a recreation/resort destination of about 250 year-round residents on the south coast of England about 2 hours from London by train. (By the way, the trains here are really on-time, comfortable and not too expensive—about £20 round trip to Brighton). Linda went shopping and touring.
The group gathered at the Brighton-Hove PCT and included about 20 local representative and 5 core NSMC staff (plus me). As I understand it, the NSMC is contracted by DH for 10 demonstration sites, including training of site staff. So this was a “typical” training. The group included: physicians, nurses, nutritionists, health educators, a midwife, advisers, managers, communications officers, coordinators, teachers, trainees and other various professional and organizational representatives. For many this appeared to be the first intensive training in social marketing.
Rowena (Dr. Rowena Merritt) lead the training and used a rather nicely organized and comprehensive workshop agenda. It covered:
This thing called social marketing
Defining behavioural goals (SMART objectives)
Understanding the target audience
Moving beyond promotion-using all 4 P’s
Strategic social marketing
Ethical considerations
Taking an action plan back to work
One of the exercises I liked extremely well was a group collage on the target audience. The instructions asked us to think about our customer (in our case a teen mom who was not breast feeding) and to cut/paste items from various newspapers and magazines on to a sheet of newsprint. We thought of our customer “Jordan” as:
16 years old
White
Living with mother in a tenement house
Divorced parents (since age 9)
Experienced a period in child custody
Smokes
Childs father not around
Passion for handbags
Baby’s name “Brad” tattooed on her arm
Low self-esteem
At risk of another pregnancy
Tied to the house
No clear direction in life
Etc.
Then we choose and discussed pictures and headlines that seemed to reflect this customer. It really made the exercise come alive. Other groups focused on binge drinking young males, smoking teens, HIV risk men and obese teens.
Some broader observations:
One attendee mentioned that research found that only 30% of 4-year-old know their surname, but 70% recognized McDonalds
Several attendees objected to the “Road Crew” program in Wisconsin that provided limos for young men who binge drink on the weekend (27% reduction in crashes) because it promotes binge drinking. They didn’t seem to have a problem with needle exchance (to prevent HIV).
Typical of my experience in the US, a few of the more experienced professionals had difficulty stepping into the social marketing mindset of exploration and “scoping.” Sometimes they would respond to proposals with a kind of “we tried that audit won’t work” sort of comment.
This experience make me wonder how to provide sufficient training and technical assistance to public health professionals doing social marketing in local health agencies—both in the US and the UK. I think it is an important issue that brings together government, academia and practice-based organizations.
After the training, I rejoined Linda and took a bus to the Brighton city center with access to the beach and oceanfront. It was not a typical Brighton-esque day; rather it was cloudy, quite windy and showered from time to time. We only had the opportunity to walk out onto the Brighton pier and have a beer in the outside corner of a pub—sheltered from the fierce wind. The beach and line of houses went on forever both to the east and west of where we sat. The “sand” appeared to be more like marble-sized pebbles and I thought, for a moment to gather a sample for a friend who collects such things. But with no plastic baggie and facing another driven shower, I decided to try again at another location (sorry Brick).
Dudley
The next day, 13 July, I accompanied Rowena to Dudley, a community of about 300,000 in the “Black Country” a region near Birmingham (2 hours by train) known for its industry and historical “black smoke” emanating from factories. We arrived at the modest train station and got a ride to the PCT building.
This was a simple introductory visit involving some orientation and technical assistance. This welcoming group was smaller (about 4 participants) and included a senior manager and her 4 young field staff—mostly nutritionists, I believe. The only previous exposure to social marketing was a briefing by a NSMC leader. The key issue was obesity and access to fruits and vegetables (5-a-Day).
The site proposal clearly outlined the problem as multiple pockets of “deprivation” including widespread socio-economic and health issues. The field team currently conducts “let’s get cooking” program for residents of these areas (and others), but feels that one of the problems is access to fresh foods (as an alternative to packaged and fast foods). We encourage them to use the cooking programs as a way to gather scoping data and building partnerships.
As we worked through the social marketing process (as an orientation) I was impressed by the amount of available data at the community level. Later, they provided us with several extremely well-produced and comprehensive reports about Dudley’s demographic profile, population changes, health inequalities and obesity problem. When the discussion ended, the group agreed to schedule an all-day training on social marketing in the near future. It was clear that this professional staff, like many others in the UK (and certainly in the US) needs training support and technical assistance to launch successful social marketing interventions.
As another broader comment, I have found that my observation about using social marketing to find “an emotional hook” between the product and the customer to be well received both here and in the US. Public health people tend to get focused in on the health issues (maybe as a consequence of the epidemiologic, scientific and clinical orientations). An acknowledgement that people are emotional creatures and that it is ok for us to incorporate that into our planning, seems to be welcomed, maybe even liberating, by most.
###
Meetings and standards
London Diary 11 July 2007
Day 12 (with some references to days 6 and 7)
Catching up……
It’s time I dealt with catching up with my journal of events—especially those dealing with some meetings and site visits Brighton and Dudley.
I attended NSMC meetings on July 4th, 10th and 11th on various topics. The organization is quite impressive and reflects in both the content and the conduct of the various meeting. For staff meeting, the chair rotates from person to person—given people leadership experience and a shift in the ambience of each meeting.
The social marketing effort is organized into six different programs—each headed up by a key staff person:
1 – Practitioner development, support and events
2 – Government interventions, technical assistance and support
3 – Standards development, innovation and learning
4 – Communications, resources and events
5 – Research, intelligence and insight
6 – Health inequalities
The meetings are divided into parts such as: standing items, climate scan/intelligence, upcoming meetings/events, update reports (on each of the 6 program areas) and other items. The interaction makes for good discussion of new items and updating each other on a broad range of activities. I found them to be quite interesting and informative. Of course, I still have a lot to learn about the overall project and my participation in the meetings really helps.
I also attended a meeting of the National Social Marketing Standards Development Steering Group. By “standards” it means competencies and certifications for social marketing. One of the representatives from the MSSSB (Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body) reported on preliminary efforts to develop standards for social marketing. My understanding is the MSSSB is the lead agency for such development, given its charter regarding professional standards (see below)
The MSSSB was established by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in September 2001 in order to develop world-class benchmarks of best practice for the Marketing, Marketing Communications, Sales and Telesales occupational areas. The benchmarks will form the basis for all Government funding of Marketing and Sales related courses. MSSSB will work with key stakeholders to help develop a national educational and training framework that support these professions. http://www.msssb.org/
One of the staff also prepared a nice draft table that cross-walks the NSMC benchmark criteria (http://217.154.246.74:8209/images/CoreFiles/BenchmarkCriteriaTOOLDec2006.pdf) and 10-point checklist with key standards, organizational policies and references in the literature (e.g. Ed Maibach’s People and Places, BMC Public Health c.2007). It made a very systematic link between the NSMC framework for social marketing and both the literature and the regulatory bodies.
n.b. Maibach’s article has a great bibliography and makes a very useful observation about social marketing in the US. “Much of what is called ‘social marketing’ by practitioners and academics is not marketing, however, because neither products nor services are developed, distributed, or promoted. Rather, most of what is referred to as social marketing in public health involves exclusively the provision of information, and is therefore more correctly characterized as communication.”
There were many other useful discussions during this meeting—too many to go into here. Clearly, there is an emphasis on building partners at all levels of government, community and academia. Also I met Dr. Sue Peattie, from the marketing department at Cardiff Business School, Wales. Among many other publications, she and her husband wrote an article in 2003 about reducing social marketing’s dependence on commercial marketing theory (Marketing Theory, Sep, 2003).
After this discussion, I recommended that the group consider the larger context of public health in the standards (competencies) process—such as the 7 areas of health education competencies developed by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) www.nchec.org. It would be a way of assuring the public health expertise as well as the social marketing expertise of the workforce.
###
Day 12 (with some references to days 6 and 7)
Catching up……
It’s time I dealt with catching up with my journal of events—especially those dealing with some meetings and site visits Brighton and Dudley.
I attended NSMC meetings on July 4th, 10th and 11th on various topics. The organization is quite impressive and reflects in both the content and the conduct of the various meeting. For staff meeting, the chair rotates from person to person—given people leadership experience and a shift in the ambience of each meeting.
The social marketing effort is organized into six different programs—each headed up by a key staff person:
1 – Practitioner development, support and events
2 – Government interventions, technical assistance and support
3 – Standards development, innovation and learning
4 – Communications, resources and events
5 – Research, intelligence and insight
6 – Health inequalities
The meetings are divided into parts such as: standing items, climate scan/intelligence, upcoming meetings/events, update reports (on each of the 6 program areas) and other items. The interaction makes for good discussion of new items and updating each other on a broad range of activities. I found them to be quite interesting and informative. Of course, I still have a lot to learn about the overall project and my participation in the meetings really helps.
I also attended a meeting of the National Social Marketing Standards Development Steering Group. By “standards” it means competencies and certifications for social marketing. One of the representatives from the MSSSB (Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body) reported on preliminary efforts to develop standards for social marketing. My understanding is the MSSSB is the lead agency for such development, given its charter regarding professional standards (see below)
The MSSSB was established by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in September 2001 in order to develop world-class benchmarks of best practice for the Marketing, Marketing Communications, Sales and Telesales occupational areas. The benchmarks will form the basis for all Government funding of Marketing and Sales related courses. MSSSB will work with key stakeholders to help develop a national educational and training framework that support these professions. http://www.msssb.org/
One of the staff also prepared a nice draft table that cross-walks the NSMC benchmark criteria (http://217.154.246.74:8209/images/CoreFiles/BenchmarkCriteriaTOOLDec2006.pdf) and 10-point checklist with key standards, organizational policies and references in the literature (e.g. Ed Maibach’s People and Places, BMC Public Health c.2007). It made a very systematic link between the NSMC framework for social marketing and both the literature and the regulatory bodies.
n.b. Maibach’s article has a great bibliography and makes a very useful observation about social marketing in the US. “Much of what is called ‘social marketing’ by practitioners and academics is not marketing, however, because neither products nor services are developed, distributed, or promoted. Rather, most of what is referred to as social marketing in public health involves exclusively the provision of information, and is therefore more correctly characterized as communication.”
There were many other useful discussions during this meeting—too many to go into here. Clearly, there is an emphasis on building partners at all levels of government, community and academia. Also I met Dr. Sue Peattie, from the marketing department at Cardiff Business School, Wales. Among many other publications, she and her husband wrote an article in 2003 about reducing social marketing’s dependence on commercial marketing theory (Marketing Theory, Sep, 2003).
After this discussion, I recommended that the group consider the larger context of public health in the standards (competencies) process—such as the 7 areas of health education competencies developed by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC) www.nchec.org. It would be a way of assuring the public health expertise as well as the social marketing expertise of the workforce.
###
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Diary of Fulbright Experience in UK
Robert Marshall
Fulbright #385 to UK
June 30 – August 12, 2007
Disclaimer:
The purpose of this informal diary is to memorialize my observations and reflections during my 6-week stay in the UK. The intent is not to evaluate or rate any individual, program or organization; neither should these comments be taken to represent the positions, personal or official, of any person or organization. They are entirely my own creation and in the unavoidable event that they upset someone, I offer my most sincere apologies. Having said that, I hope that these observations will record both my personal and professional experiences during the Fulbright Senior Specialist program in the UK and will serve to remind myself and convey to others how fortunate I feel to have been given this opportunity for a professional and academic exchange, to meet these wonderful people and to visit so many fascinating places. I will try to remain faithful to a roughly daily entry, but already see how that may be a challenge after a long day of traveling to different public health sites or cultural attractions.
LONDON DIARY
June 30, 2007, Day 1:
We arrived at Heathrow Airport on Saturday at 6:30am after a long but uneventful night in the air. The sun came up at 5am and shined through the cabin windows; it was ‘way too early, according to our US timeclock, to be seeing the sunshine.
After a long hold on the runway, and a long line in immigration/customs, we headed for the “underground.” Somehow the £8 for the “tube” seemed more reasonable than the £40 each for a cab or shuttle. (I just learned how to make the English “pound” symbol!) We transferred at Kings Cross to the Northern line and made our way to the Borough Station —dragging our suitcases of course-- for a 5-minute walk to the “dorm”. It was a huge, fortress-like building on the street with a green, tarnished-copper tower roof.
I call it a dorm because during the school year, it houses students at the King’s College, London—which seems to be located all over this part of town—are area called Southwick, which is directly south of London Bridge, about a 15 minute walk from here. Part of the Fulbright procedure is for the sponsoring university to make housing available to the visiting scholar: so after a brief check in, we went into the cavernous inner courtyard, to the “block 9” entrance and up the elevator to the 4th floor.
The room is quite functional, with twin beds and a ship-style bath—one where the shower is not separated from the rest of the facilities, the water just goes all over the place—not that the place is that big to start with. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the ample hot water felt good after a long day of travel.
Since it as about 6am US time, we flopped on the bed and took a nice long nap to recapture our energy for the day. When we arose, we walked in a light rain (which sometimes got worse) north to London Bridge, the eastward past the Shakespeare theater and national theater along the Thames River. It is a spectacular sight! At the Waterloo Bridge, we took the stairs to the street and located the administration building for Kings College London (KCL), my academic sponsor. Its all looks so different from Brown and most other universities I’ve been to—probably because of the central urban setting. There we lines of multistoried buildings down most adjoining streets, but nothing that looked like a campus or “quad” in our sense of the word. Of course, I may just be showing my American ethnocentrism and may discover yet more wonders of this incredible place.
I have to admit, that after a long, long walk and dinner at a local pub (there are certainly plenty of those over here; we already made a list!) we turned in well-fed and with high expectations for our next day in London.
July 1, 2007, Day 2:
We weren’t nearly as rested as I thought and got off to a late start on Sunday, which turned out to be a cool, blustery and dry day. (One gent offered that he had not seen a rainy day in London in the past 20 years!). After a leisurely breakfast, including on the largest and best cups of coffee I have EVER had, we decided to take another even longer walk to a shopping center near a place called Canada Waters. (Unusual place names in this part of the world! One “tube” stop is called “CockFosters” and another is “Elephant and Castle.”) We walked for about 2 hours, cutting northeasterly across the Southwark section of London and through a residential peninsula area called Rotherhithe. This was filled with upscale condos and multi-family townhouses and other residences scattered between lovely parks and gardens. I later asked a passerby in the area about how to say this name, and still haven’t a clue. Anyway it was beautiful—the area, I mean (so was the “pint” in a local pub after a long walk).
We found the shopping center hidden behind a gigantic bowling alley and a couple of “American-style” restaurant/bars (like TGI Friday’s). The shopping was quite civilized, with a couple of dozen (or so) stores and a food court. The biggest attraction was the TESCA store, the modest equivalent of WalMart in the US. We purchased a pressed coffee maker, some coffee, a small desk fan, and a few other items, then backtracked to that American-style bar (this is where the “pint” came from that I mentioned earlier). Afterwards, we headed towards the Canada Waters underground station and learned that the name comes from a small lake formed by a canal from the Thames. That explained some of the drawbridges and other aquatic features we passed on our previous walk. After a short tube ride, we walked with our TESCO plastic bags back to the Great Dover Street Apartments, and tried out the fan (it worked good after I put it together!)
We crossed the street to the Truman Pub for dinner and access to the free wireless internet connection. We sent a couple of note home and got an immediate response from our daughter Alexis, wishing us well. After dinner, we walked north again to the London Bridge, then eastward along the Thames toward the Tower Bridge. It is truly magnificent at night, with the lights shining and the Tower of London in the background. They must have known we were there, because there was a 15 minute display of fireworks on the far side of the bridge, adding to the beauty of the evening. On the walk home, we found a restaurant for breakfast and planned to visit it soon—who knows, maybe tomorrow.
July 2, 2007, Day 3:
As Robbie Burns said, “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang oft’ agley. So we did not make the restaurant for breakfast but enjoyed some fresh “pressed” coffee in the kitchen next door and took our time getting out into the Monday bustle. We did walk up to the restaurant, but they stopped serving breakfast; so we went to a nearby breakfast bagel sandwich kiosk on the Thames and enjoyed the lovely view. I had already contacted Rowena, one of the program managers at the NSMC project and said that we were planning to stop by; so we hopped on the tube and made our way to Grovsnor Gardens.
The “Gardens” is a triangle-shaped park surrounded by rows of stately stone offices and just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. (My dream of tea with the Queen may not be so far fetched after all.) Rowena met us on the 4th floor and spent a hour and a half orienting me to the project. As it turns out, England has nearly 50 million people who are the focus of the project. (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own Departments of Health—some of which are doing similar projects). England is plagued by many levels of public health from the national ministry to the regional agencies and local health departments—even local service areas for the National Health Service. Thus, it faces many of the same problems of fragmented governmental levels as the US. Rowena and I traded professional stories and anecdotes for a while, getting to know each other. I found that we communicated quite well and were able to focus on some common professional ground rather quickly. We did some preliminary planning for field trips to Brighton and Cambridge next week. She introduced us to the others in the office, Denise, Steve, Patrick (Communications) and Aiden (the IT guy) and, of course, Sarah, the executive assistant—the ones who always seem to run the show.
Rowena had to attend a meeting so Linda and I left to explore the neighborhood a little before returning to the “dorm” for shorts and t-shirts. We later walked across the London Bridge to the northern side, then westward along the Thames pedestrian walk. At the Southwark Bridge we recrossed the river and stopped in a local pub (surprise) for dinner. I had steak and ale pie, both delicious and filling. We stopped on the way home to pick up some groceries and get ready for tomorrow.
July 3, 2007, Day 4
And what a day tomorrow turned out to be. We had cereal and “pressed” coffee in the communal kitchen and enjoyed a brief chat with some “pigment” scientists holding an exhibition at the Royal Society hall near Pall Mall.
After breakfast, I walked to the London Bridge station and took the tube to “work” at Grovsnor Gardens. Oh, yes, I purchased one of the Oyster cards that work electronically and give a discount rate (about ½ ) on the tube and busses. So the tube was less expensive but still hot and humid. After about a half-hour (and two changes) I arrived at Victoria station and walked the block to Number 20.
Aiden set up a desk and computer (with email and internet access—hooray!) in a vacant spot, but I hardly got a chance to use it before getting invited to a meeting to discuss “standards.” As it turns out, standards really refers to competency criteria in social marketing. This was one of Veronica’s assignment with help from Simon who was seconded (pronounced sec-KON-ded, meaning on loan) from another department. Veronica seemed very well oriented to the subject and brought some articles from various journals to inform the discussion. I offered to review one by Ed Maibach (GWU) about a framework for differentiating between the roles of communication and marketing as tools for public health. I thought it was quite useful and offered an excellent bibliography! I was quickly drawn into another meeting, but a subsequent conversation focused on adding a few items to the NSMS benchmarks—such as ethics, science research and a couple of others. The purpose of this is to offer a starting place for competency standards in social marketing for the NSMS—if not a larger collaborative of interests.
In the next meeting, Clive Blair-Stevens (NSAMC Deputy) briefed a colleague from Australia on the NSMS. Liz King works for the AUS Dept of Health and Aging in Sidney with some strong interests in youth and alcohol prevention. It was amazing to hear the similarities among the three of us about agencies, governments, policies, finances and other challenges. Clive described the roots of the NSMC in the Choosing Health documents and subsequent recommendations. Some of the success resulted from being there at the right place at the right time with the right people—especially at the senior and ministerial level. Of course, I imagine there was some hard, prolonged work that made this possible. He described how many government agencies were separated into policy, communication and research/development offices—often without much coordination or communication between them. He regards social marketing and the NSMC as a way of overcoming those challenges. They are planning a World Social Marketing Conference in April of 2008.
Next, I met with Dr. Peter Duncan, my “official sponsor” at Kings College London (KCL). We enjoyed a long talk about our backgrounds and the major challenges of our respective roles. He asked me to work on an approach to basic social marketing training for undergraduate students; I mentioned the CDCynergy materials and the NTCSM website from USF. He also asked me to talk individually with several of his colleagues in health promotion, research networking, preventive health practice and medical education. I am really looking forward to the interaction and expect to learn more than I offer in these discussions—since this is the way things have been going so far.
Wednesday July 4, 2007, Day 5
Is it a cultural faux pas to celebrate the 4th of July in England?
NSMC Team Meeting
[ Temporarily lost document: will add when retrieved].
Thursday, July 5th, 2007
Day 6
To Cambridge
Today we arose early and caught the train to Cambridge. It went through several neat-sounding towns like “Bishop’s Stanforth” and such over the 1 ¼ hour ride. Cambridge turned out to be everything one could imagine. The station bustled with people of all age; some clearly involving parents with young people checking out universities. We walked about a mile into the town and arrived at the market place, packed with people and stalls offering food and various retail goods.
After a quick lunch, we took the 2-hour walking tour of the area with Nancy, a 70-ish resident of the area. She took us to the nearby church with a Norman tower dating back many centuries. Nearby way the laboratory where Watson and Crick figures out the double-helix DNA and where the first splitting of the atom occurred. She mentioned how many Noble laurets were educated or worked at Cambridge—no wonder, with 32 independent colleges in the university. We explored the many side streets and peeked in of the college greens of Trinity College, Kings College, Clare College and several others.
The highlight of the trip (for me at least) was the Kings College Chapel, a wonderously elaborate structure of stone set in the middle of the campus. Nancy explained how some of the mason carved a little likeness of their face amongst some of the elegant sculpture along the walls. The ceiling alone is the largest unsupported stone-vaulted structure in the world, with 2000 tons of stone arching many stories over the sanctuary in a fan or web-like design. The wooden screen between the chapels (walnut) bore he initial of Henry VIII and even Queen Anne Boleyn—one of his ill-fated wives.
The real highlight for me came later with the service of choral music, including the traditional choir of boy sopranos. I’ve never quite heard a sound so beautiful and haunting. The execution was perfect and yet wonderfully penetrating and moving. My goose bumps cropped up prolifically—one of my sometimes reactions to excellent music.
Before heading for the train again, we stopped for a pint at the Eagle, the bar frequented by Watson and Crick, indeed the scene of their announcement about DNA. It was also recognized as one of the regular haunts of the RAF flyers during WWI and WWII.
Friday July 6th, 2007
Day 7
Office meeting and staff lunch
Saturday July 7th, 2007
Day 8
Excusion to St. Albans.
One of the colleagues at NSMC suggested an excursion to St. Albans, about 25 miles north of London, to view some Roman ruins. So today, Linda and I set out from London Bridge Station on the train toward a new destination.
We arrived at the St. Albans station after about 35 minutes and walked the mile into town. Again, we found a market square filled with people and stalls offering food, produce and many retail items. The tourist information office gave us a walking tour map and we set out toward our first destination.
The huge cathedral at St. Albans consists of several individual sections and chapels dating back to 1077AD. The oldest Norman section uses bricks “recycled” from the nearby Roman ruins. Subsequent sections were erected (and destroyed) by various nobels and kings during wars, neglect and pilferage to replenish the royal treasury. Central to the church is the shrine of St. Albans, the destination of many pilgrims during its day and destroyed by Henry VIII in 1539 and reconstructed in modern times.
Two highlights of the visit included a wedding in the “Lady Chapel” dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the 14th century, and a rehearsal by the cathedral choir, again including the boy sopranos.
Leaving the cathedral, we found our way to the roman ruins at Verulamium, set in the midst of a verdant expanse of park area. The ruins included both occasional walls, long sense stripped of the finished stone outer surfaces (something we noticed during a previous trip to Hadrian’s Wall on the border with Scotland), as well as an excavated roman city (Roman Theatre) located about ¼ mile away. The “hypoclaust” presents a stone mosaic floor from Roman times, including an enclosed underfloor heating system.
It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and dry breeze and we decided not to push on any further; so we walk back to the town and returned to the train station. After the short ride back to London, we ate in a local pub and decided to replenish our strength for the following day.
Sunday July 8, 2007
Day 9
Something a little different today. Linda got a brochure on “Walks Around London” and we decided to take advantage of one dealing with a place known as “Little Venice.” This is an area in “northwest” London (?) around the Grand Union Canal, which connects the Docklands of London with Birmingham—a 3 weeks+ journey by horse-drawn canal boat.
We took the Bakerloo Line to Warwick Ave. and met up with a group of about 50 other participants. The area was quite upscale and lovely, with row upon row of stucco-faced attached homes. Shortly, we moved into the even more upscale detached mansions, which the guide informed us were often inhabited by movie stars and other famous people and cost in the many millions of pounds. Give the prices and exchange rate in London, about 2 to 1, I readily believed it.
It wasn’t always like this. Apparently in years past this area hosted many of London’s upscale bordellos. Several of the streets were named after Randolph Churchill (Winston’s father), and the addresses (13 Randolph Terrace) were often shortened to “number 13 Randy”—hence the origin of the term “randy” in the English language.
As we walked among the various neighborhoods, the architecture changed repeatedly from Victorian, to Edwardian to post WWII and even more modern. The highlight was the canal, lined with canal boats and house boats—including some refitted as restaurants, pubs, flower shops and sightseeing craft. We crossed back and forth on these delightful wrought iron bridges and stairs, getting a good chance to look down on the boats passing underneath. At one point on the tour, the guide pointed to an apartment house with the name “Fleming House.” He told the story about how Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin at the nearby Paddington Hospital, won the Nobel prize and had this complex named in his honor.
One thing I have discovered about touring (especially 2-hours on foot) is that enough can sometimes be too much, so at the end of the tour, Linda and I rested for a few minutes in a famous pub, with a pint, of course, gathering our energy for the tube ride home. Fortunately, the Bakerloo line goes right to Elephant and Castle station, which is on a short walk from our “dorm”. By the time we had dinner in the pub across the street, we were well-ready for bed and preparing for early Monday morning.
Monday-Tuesday, July 9-10
Day 10-11
Under the weather…..
Fulbright #385 to UK
June 30 – August 12, 2007
Disclaimer:
The purpose of this informal diary is to memorialize my observations and reflections during my 6-week stay in the UK. The intent is not to evaluate or rate any individual, program or organization; neither should these comments be taken to represent the positions, personal or official, of any person or organization. They are entirely my own creation and in the unavoidable event that they upset someone, I offer my most sincere apologies. Having said that, I hope that these observations will record both my personal and professional experiences during the Fulbright Senior Specialist program in the UK and will serve to remind myself and convey to others how fortunate I feel to have been given this opportunity for a professional and academic exchange, to meet these wonderful people and to visit so many fascinating places. I will try to remain faithful to a roughly daily entry, but already see how that may be a challenge after a long day of traveling to different public health sites or cultural attractions.
LONDON DIARY
June 30, 2007, Day 1:
We arrived at Heathrow Airport on Saturday at 6:30am after a long but uneventful night in the air. The sun came up at 5am and shined through the cabin windows; it was ‘way too early, according to our US timeclock, to be seeing the sunshine.
After a long hold on the runway, and a long line in immigration/customs, we headed for the “underground.” Somehow the £8 for the “tube” seemed more reasonable than the £40 each for a cab or shuttle. (I just learned how to make the English “pound” symbol!) We transferred at Kings Cross to the Northern line and made our way to the Borough Station —dragging our suitcases of course-- for a 5-minute walk to the “dorm”. It was a huge, fortress-like building on the street with a green, tarnished-copper tower roof.
I call it a dorm because during the school year, it houses students at the King’s College, London—which seems to be located all over this part of town—are area called Southwick, which is directly south of London Bridge, about a 15 minute walk from here. Part of the Fulbright procedure is for the sponsoring university to make housing available to the visiting scholar: so after a brief check in, we went into the cavernous inner courtyard, to the “block 9” entrance and up the elevator to the 4th floor.
The room is quite functional, with twin beds and a ship-style bath—one where the shower is not separated from the rest of the facilities, the water just goes all over the place—not that the place is that big to start with. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the ample hot water felt good after a long day of travel.
Since it as about 6am US time, we flopped on the bed and took a nice long nap to recapture our energy for the day. When we arose, we walked in a light rain (which sometimes got worse) north to London Bridge, the eastward past the Shakespeare theater and national theater along the Thames River. It is a spectacular sight! At the Waterloo Bridge, we took the stairs to the street and located the administration building for Kings College London (KCL), my academic sponsor. Its all looks so different from Brown and most other universities I’ve been to—probably because of the central urban setting. There we lines of multistoried buildings down most adjoining streets, but nothing that looked like a campus or “quad” in our sense of the word. Of course, I may just be showing my American ethnocentrism and may discover yet more wonders of this incredible place.
I have to admit, that after a long, long walk and dinner at a local pub (there are certainly plenty of those over here; we already made a list!) we turned in well-fed and with high expectations for our next day in London.
July 1, 2007, Day 2:
We weren’t nearly as rested as I thought and got off to a late start on Sunday, which turned out to be a cool, blustery and dry day. (One gent offered that he had not seen a rainy day in London in the past 20 years!). After a leisurely breakfast, including on the largest and best cups of coffee I have EVER had, we decided to take another even longer walk to a shopping center near a place called Canada Waters. (Unusual place names in this part of the world! One “tube” stop is called “CockFosters” and another is “Elephant and Castle.”) We walked for about 2 hours, cutting northeasterly across the Southwark section of London and through a residential peninsula area called Rotherhithe. This was filled with upscale condos and multi-family townhouses and other residences scattered between lovely parks and gardens. I later asked a passerby in the area about how to say this name, and still haven’t a clue. Anyway it was beautiful—the area, I mean (so was the “pint” in a local pub after a long walk).
We found the shopping center hidden behind a gigantic bowling alley and a couple of “American-style” restaurant/bars (like TGI Friday’s). The shopping was quite civilized, with a couple of dozen (or so) stores and a food court. The biggest attraction was the TESCA store, the modest equivalent of WalMart in the US. We purchased a pressed coffee maker, some coffee, a small desk fan, and a few other items, then backtracked to that American-style bar (this is where the “pint” came from that I mentioned earlier). Afterwards, we headed towards the Canada Waters underground station and learned that the name comes from a small lake formed by a canal from the Thames. That explained some of the drawbridges and other aquatic features we passed on our previous walk. After a short tube ride, we walked with our TESCO plastic bags back to the Great Dover Street Apartments, and tried out the fan (it worked good after I put it together!)
We crossed the street to the Truman Pub for dinner and access to the free wireless internet connection. We sent a couple of note home and got an immediate response from our daughter Alexis, wishing us well. After dinner, we walked north again to the London Bridge, then eastward along the Thames toward the Tower Bridge. It is truly magnificent at night, with the lights shining and the Tower of London in the background. They must have known we were there, because there was a 15 minute display of fireworks on the far side of the bridge, adding to the beauty of the evening. On the walk home, we found a restaurant for breakfast and planned to visit it soon—who knows, maybe tomorrow.
July 2, 2007, Day 3:
As Robbie Burns said, “the best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang oft’ agley. So we did not make the restaurant for breakfast but enjoyed some fresh “pressed” coffee in the kitchen next door and took our time getting out into the Monday bustle. We did walk up to the restaurant, but they stopped serving breakfast; so we went to a nearby breakfast bagel sandwich kiosk on the Thames and enjoyed the lovely view. I had already contacted Rowena, one of the program managers at the NSMC project and said that we were planning to stop by; so we hopped on the tube and made our way to Grovsnor Gardens.
The “Gardens” is a triangle-shaped park surrounded by rows of stately stone offices and just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. (My dream of tea with the Queen may not be so far fetched after all.) Rowena met us on the 4th floor and spent a hour and a half orienting me to the project. As it turns out, England has nearly 50 million people who are the focus of the project. (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own Departments of Health—some of which are doing similar projects). England is plagued by many levels of public health from the national ministry to the regional agencies and local health departments—even local service areas for the National Health Service. Thus, it faces many of the same problems of fragmented governmental levels as the US. Rowena and I traded professional stories and anecdotes for a while, getting to know each other. I found that we communicated quite well and were able to focus on some common professional ground rather quickly. We did some preliminary planning for field trips to Brighton and Cambridge next week. She introduced us to the others in the office, Denise, Steve, Patrick (Communications) and Aiden (the IT guy) and, of course, Sarah, the executive assistant—the ones who always seem to run the show.
Rowena had to attend a meeting so Linda and I left to explore the neighborhood a little before returning to the “dorm” for shorts and t-shirts. We later walked across the London Bridge to the northern side, then westward along the Thames pedestrian walk. At the Southwark Bridge we recrossed the river and stopped in a local pub (surprise) for dinner. I had steak and ale pie, both delicious and filling. We stopped on the way home to pick up some groceries and get ready for tomorrow.
July 3, 2007, Day 4
And what a day tomorrow turned out to be. We had cereal and “pressed” coffee in the communal kitchen and enjoyed a brief chat with some “pigment” scientists holding an exhibition at the Royal Society hall near Pall Mall.
After breakfast, I walked to the London Bridge station and took the tube to “work” at Grovsnor Gardens. Oh, yes, I purchased one of the Oyster cards that work electronically and give a discount rate (about ½ ) on the tube and busses. So the tube was less expensive but still hot and humid. After about a half-hour (and two changes) I arrived at Victoria station and walked the block to Number 20.
Aiden set up a desk and computer (with email and internet access—hooray!) in a vacant spot, but I hardly got a chance to use it before getting invited to a meeting to discuss “standards.” As it turns out, standards really refers to competency criteria in social marketing. This was one of Veronica’s assignment with help from Simon who was seconded (pronounced sec-KON-ded, meaning on loan) from another department. Veronica seemed very well oriented to the subject and brought some articles from various journals to inform the discussion. I offered to review one by Ed Maibach (GWU) about a framework for differentiating between the roles of communication and marketing as tools for public health. I thought it was quite useful and offered an excellent bibliography! I was quickly drawn into another meeting, but a subsequent conversation focused on adding a few items to the NSMS benchmarks—such as ethics, science research and a couple of others. The purpose of this is to offer a starting place for competency standards in social marketing for the NSMS—if not a larger collaborative of interests.
In the next meeting, Clive Blair-Stevens (NSAMC Deputy) briefed a colleague from Australia on the NSMS. Liz King works for the AUS Dept of Health and Aging in Sidney with some strong interests in youth and alcohol prevention. It was amazing to hear the similarities among the three of us about agencies, governments, policies, finances and other challenges. Clive described the roots of the NSMC in the Choosing Health documents and subsequent recommendations. Some of the success resulted from being there at the right place at the right time with the right people—especially at the senior and ministerial level. Of course, I imagine there was some hard, prolonged work that made this possible. He described how many government agencies were separated into policy, communication and research/development offices—often without much coordination or communication between them. He regards social marketing and the NSMC as a way of overcoming those challenges. They are planning a World Social Marketing Conference in April of 2008.
Next, I met with Dr. Peter Duncan, my “official sponsor” at Kings College London (KCL). We enjoyed a long talk about our backgrounds and the major challenges of our respective roles. He asked me to work on an approach to basic social marketing training for undergraduate students; I mentioned the CDCynergy materials and the NTCSM website from USF. He also asked me to talk individually with several of his colleagues in health promotion, research networking, preventive health practice and medical education. I am really looking forward to the interaction and expect to learn more than I offer in these discussions—since this is the way things have been going so far.
Wednesday July 4, 2007, Day 5
Is it a cultural faux pas to celebrate the 4th of July in England?
NSMC Team Meeting
[ Temporarily lost document: will add when retrieved].
Thursday, July 5th, 2007
Day 6
To Cambridge
Today we arose early and caught the train to Cambridge. It went through several neat-sounding towns like “Bishop’s Stanforth” and such over the 1 ¼ hour ride. Cambridge turned out to be everything one could imagine. The station bustled with people of all age; some clearly involving parents with young people checking out universities. We walked about a mile into the town and arrived at the market place, packed with people and stalls offering food and various retail goods.
After a quick lunch, we took the 2-hour walking tour of the area with Nancy, a 70-ish resident of the area. She took us to the nearby church with a Norman tower dating back many centuries. Nearby way the laboratory where Watson and Crick figures out the double-helix DNA and where the first splitting of the atom occurred. She mentioned how many Noble laurets were educated or worked at Cambridge—no wonder, with 32 independent colleges in the university. We explored the many side streets and peeked in of the college greens of Trinity College, Kings College, Clare College and several others.
The highlight of the trip (for me at least) was the Kings College Chapel, a wonderously elaborate structure of stone set in the middle of the campus. Nancy explained how some of the mason carved a little likeness of their face amongst some of the elegant sculpture along the walls. The ceiling alone is the largest unsupported stone-vaulted structure in the world, with 2000 tons of stone arching many stories over the sanctuary in a fan or web-like design. The wooden screen between the chapels (walnut) bore he initial of Henry VIII and even Queen Anne Boleyn—one of his ill-fated wives.
The real highlight for me came later with the service of choral music, including the traditional choir of boy sopranos. I’ve never quite heard a sound so beautiful and haunting. The execution was perfect and yet wonderfully penetrating and moving. My goose bumps cropped up prolifically—one of my sometimes reactions to excellent music.
Before heading for the train again, we stopped for a pint at the Eagle, the bar frequented by Watson and Crick, indeed the scene of their announcement about DNA. It was also recognized as one of the regular haunts of the RAF flyers during WWI and WWII.
Friday July 6th, 2007
Day 7
Office meeting and staff lunch
Saturday July 7th, 2007
Day 8
Excusion to St. Albans.
One of the colleagues at NSMC suggested an excursion to St. Albans, about 25 miles north of London, to view some Roman ruins. So today, Linda and I set out from London Bridge Station on the train toward a new destination.
We arrived at the St. Albans station after about 35 minutes and walked the mile into town. Again, we found a market square filled with people and stalls offering food, produce and many retail items. The tourist information office gave us a walking tour map and we set out toward our first destination.
The huge cathedral at St. Albans consists of several individual sections and chapels dating back to 1077AD. The oldest Norman section uses bricks “recycled” from the nearby Roman ruins. Subsequent sections were erected (and destroyed) by various nobels and kings during wars, neglect and pilferage to replenish the royal treasury. Central to the church is the shrine of St. Albans, the destination of many pilgrims during its day and destroyed by Henry VIII in 1539 and reconstructed in modern times.
Two highlights of the visit included a wedding in the “Lady Chapel” dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the 14th century, and a rehearsal by the cathedral choir, again including the boy sopranos.
Leaving the cathedral, we found our way to the roman ruins at Verulamium, set in the midst of a verdant expanse of park area. The ruins included both occasional walls, long sense stripped of the finished stone outer surfaces (something we noticed during a previous trip to Hadrian’s Wall on the border with Scotland), as well as an excavated roman city (Roman Theatre) located about ¼ mile away. The “hypoclaust” presents a stone mosaic floor from Roman times, including an enclosed underfloor heating system.
It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and dry breeze and we decided not to push on any further; so we walk back to the town and returned to the train station. After the short ride back to London, we ate in a local pub and decided to replenish our strength for the following day.
Sunday July 8, 2007
Day 9
Something a little different today. Linda got a brochure on “Walks Around London” and we decided to take advantage of one dealing with a place known as “Little Venice.” This is an area in “northwest” London (?) around the Grand Union Canal, which connects the Docklands of London with Birmingham—a 3 weeks+ journey by horse-drawn canal boat.
We took the Bakerloo Line to Warwick Ave. and met up with a group of about 50 other participants. The area was quite upscale and lovely, with row upon row of stucco-faced attached homes. Shortly, we moved into the even more upscale detached mansions, which the guide informed us were often inhabited by movie stars and other famous people and cost in the many millions of pounds. Give the prices and exchange rate in London, about 2 to 1, I readily believed it.
It wasn’t always like this. Apparently in years past this area hosted many of London’s upscale bordellos. Several of the streets were named after Randolph Churchill (Winston’s father), and the addresses (13 Randolph Terrace) were often shortened to “number 13 Randy”—hence the origin of the term “randy” in the English language.
As we walked among the various neighborhoods, the architecture changed repeatedly from Victorian, to Edwardian to post WWII and even more modern. The highlight was the canal, lined with canal boats and house boats—including some refitted as restaurants, pubs, flower shops and sightseeing craft. We crossed back and forth on these delightful wrought iron bridges and stairs, getting a good chance to look down on the boats passing underneath. At one point on the tour, the guide pointed to an apartment house with the name “Fleming House.” He told the story about how Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin at the nearby Paddington Hospital, won the Nobel prize and had this complex named in his honor.
One thing I have discovered about touring (especially 2-hours on foot) is that enough can sometimes be too much, so at the end of the tour, Linda and I rested for a few minutes in a famous pub, with a pint, of course, gathering our energy for the tube ride home. Fortunately, the Bakerloo line goes right to Elephant and Castle station, which is on a short walk from our “dorm”. By the time we had dinner in the pub across the street, we were well-ready for bed and preparing for early Monday morning.
Monday-Tuesday, July 9-10
Day 10-11
Under the weather…..
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