Creating Culturally Responsive Mental Health Messaging for the Haitian Community

client

Heart of Florida United Way and AdventHealth

AdventHealth partnered with Heart of Florida United Way to expand “Be a Mindleader,” a program designed to destigmatize mental health and encourage conversations among children and adolescents.

Originally developed in English, the organization recognized a need to extend the program’s reach into Haitian Creole-speaking communities, where cultural nuances and stigma can create barriers to open dialogue and access to mental health resources.

Situation

Introduce mental health resources in a way that feels culturally relevant, accessible, and trustworthy for communities where mental health is often stigmatized or discussed privately.

Challenge

Grounded in both qualitative and quantitative research, we set out to trans-create the Be a Mindleader campaign for Haitian Creole-speaking audiences.

This included:

  • Adapting messaging to reflect cultural context and community norms

  • Developing conversation-starting materials for families and community leaders

  • Identifying trusted community channels to support distribution and engagement

  • Supporting a multi-channel campaign across trusted media platforms 

Strategy

  • Web: Launch of a culturally responsive campaign website in Haitian Creole

  • Collateral: Developed conversation-starting materials and toolkits for community-based organizations to support grassroots amplification.

  • Radio: 100 placements across three local Haitian Creole radio outlets (May 12 – June 8, 2025)

  • Out-of-Home: 8 billboards (2 digital, 6 vinyl) across four targeted zip codes (May 19 – June 29, 2025)

  • Transit: Four fully wrapped public buses serving high-density Haitian Creole-speaking routes

  • Digital Media: Placement in The Haitian Times

Execution Highlights

Community Reach & Visibility | Grassroots Activation | In-Language Access to Mental Health Messaging

  • Sustained visibility for mental health messaging across Haitian Creole-speaking communities through coordinated in-language distribution across trusted media and community channels

  • Activated community-based organizations, including churches and chambers of commerce, with toolkits and conversation-starting materials to support local amplification

  • Increased access to culturally and linguistically relevant mental health messaging through exposure in everyday community environments

Outcomes

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Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools