Statement of purpose Evaluation of community engagement in the development and dissemination of a rural roadway safety campaign.

Methods/Approach We implemented ‘We’re On This Road Together,’ a health communication campaign that targeted rural drivers’ interactions with farm vehicles and had three main messages: Slow Down, Leave More Space, and Avoid Passing. Campaign development and implementation was guided by a community advisory board (CAB) who gave input and direction on campaign message design and dissemination at monthly meetings. They also led campaign activities (hanging banners, distributing swag--totes, car air fresheners, etc.).

To guide our future collaborations with CABs, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured telephone interviews with CAB members (n=8) in the summer of 2020. Interviews were recorded and audio files were transcribed by a third-party service. After transcription, a research team member coded the interview transcripts. Codes were then organized by common themes: 1) overall experience, 2) responsibilities & commitment, 3) perceived campaign success, 4) resources needed for project implementation, and 5) recommendations for improvement.

Results Interview length averaged 25 minutes (range: 16–41). CAB members reported overwhelmingly positive experiences, reasonable time commitment, and successful format and frequency of communication. They viewed the overall project a success and valued our team’s community engagement efforts. However, the CAB had recommendations for improving campaign impact and reach, including adding online/social media campaign elements, expanding diversity of CAB membership (age, occupation/industry), and team-building activities to increase group bonding.

Conclusions Formation of a community advisory board was successful and critical in message development, implementation, and overall impact of our rural road safety campaign.

Significance This project demonstrates how to engage community advisors in development and delivery of a road safety campaign, which can be applied to other injury and violence prevention campaign activities.