The Social Norms Approach is a prevention strategy that corrects misperceptions of risky behaviors and focuses on the healthy behaviors that already exist in groups. Research shows that most people overestimate risky or unhealthy habits and under-perceive normative healthy behaviors, and that decreasing the over-perception of unhealthy or risky behaviors improves health outcomes. Please join us for the two-part interactive webinar series for prevention practitioners in HHS Region 2, Social Norms in Substance Misuse Prevention. During these sessions, participants will explore the fundamental principles and key concepts behind the social norms approach and begin imagining a process in their own communities that uncovers and promotes the positive norms that already exist. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, share experiences with planning and implementing the approach in various settings and receive practical guidance for applying social norms theory to creating a culture of health and well-being in their communities.

Attending both Session 1 and Session 2 is recommended, but not required.

At the end of this 1.5 hour webinar, participants will be able to:

• Describe what are more and less effective approaches to health communication and social marketing
• Identify the data needed to build a social norms campaign
• List elements of a social norms marketing print ad

Presenter Bio: Lauri Solomon is a training and technical assistance specialist with the Education Development Center.  She has more than 25 years’ experience in public health working on a variety of initiatives including the prevention of substance misuse, sexually transmitted infections, and teen pregnancy. Lauri has been providing technical assistance and training on the application of the social norms approach since 1999. She also holds a doctorate in social justice education and works to bring an equity lens to all aspects of her work.