Sound Partners for Community Health was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) national program that funded efforts by local public broadcasters and their community partners to increase public awareness of health issues and to facilitate citizens and policy-makers in taking a more informed and active role in health issues at the local level.

These community collaborations produced original broadcast programming — short reports, in-depth features, call-in programs, issues-oriented drama and coverage of live forums or other events — and related outreach to the community. Funded activities occurred between November 1997 and July 2006.

Key Results

• Sound Partners funded 148 collaborations involving local broadcasters and other community organizations.
• Broadcast stations received more than 100 honors for excellence in community service and broadcasting, earning several Edward R. Murrow Awards, National Center for Outreach awards, top honors from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press and an Emmy® Award nomination.

According to national program staff, in 2007:

• Sound Partners stations increased their capacity to produce in-depth health coverage while community partners involved in outreach learned media skills to better present their stories.
• The Sound Partners program gave utterance to typically unheard voices of youth, immigrants and the working poor. Teenagers and non-English speakers served as producers, interviewers and hosts of a variety of radio formats, including public service announcements, audio diaries and documentaries that covered topics ranging from tobacco use among Hispanic teens to the benefits of exercise.
• Stations and community and media partners worked collaboratively to combine programming and outreach to be more effective than either could have been alone.

For more detailed results, including links to narratives about six Sound Partners sites, see Overall Results. For more about the partnering experience of local media and community organizations, see Lessons Learned.

Program Management
In 1997, RWJF and the Benton Foundation (a Washington philanthropy concerned with the value of communications for solving social problems) made a fiscal home for the program at the Benton Foundation. Consultants Mark Sachs of Silver Spring, Md., and Beth Mastin of Madison, Wis., served as program co-directors working from their offices.

Funding
The RWJF Board of Trustees authorized the program in October 1996 for up to $2 million. The board reauthorized the program for up to $7.8 million in July 2001.