FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2003

New Website for Health Communication Professionals
Offers Information, Materials, Networks, and Project Details

Health Communication Partnership Launches Interactive Site

BALTIMORE — Health communication professionals looking for information, materials, and links to the latest thinking on strategic communication related to HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, child survival, maternal health, infectious disease, and democracy and governance for health now have a new resource at their fingertips.

The Health Communication Partnership (HCP) just launched its website (www.hcpartnership.org) to help those working globally to strengthen public health through strategic communication programs. The HCP website offers late-breaking lessons learned from field programs worldwide.

HCP is a team of five leading institutions led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The website also provides forums for those working with HCP or in the field of health communication, advocacy, and community mobilization to share and learn from other similar programs.

In addition, the HCP website features the Media/Materials Clearinghouse (M/MC), an international resource for those interested in health communication materials; the Health Communication Materials Database (HCMD), the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of health communication materials categorized by subject, country, medium, language, or producer; and the Health Communication Materials Network (HCMN), a network of health communication specialists sharing ideas, information, and samples of health communication materials. Each day, the HCP website spotlights a different example of a health communication material from the M/MC's collection.

HCP is a global communication initiative led by Johns Hopkins' CCP in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, Save the Children, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, and Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. In addition to the five core partners, HCP works with leading Southern-based health communication organizations as well as global programming partners from the corporate sector, international media, academic institutions, and faith-based organizations. For a full list of HCP partners and collaborators, visit www.hcpartnership.org.