Safer Homes, Stronger Starts
Across the country, opioid response work is reshaping how families, schools, health systems, and communities show up for one another. Parents and caregivers need clear guidance on risks in their homes. Clinicians need messaging that supports care and reduces stigma. Educators and nonprofits are working to reach youth and communities under strain, while funders and public agencies are accountable for equity, outcomes, and trust.
Safer Homes, Stronger Starts treats communications and capacity-building as core infrastructure in this work, so education and public health can move in sync, speak with shared messages, and drive measurable change for the people they serve.
Stronger Opioid Response Starts Here
A new white paper from Collaborative Communications and Fors Marsh highlights the opportunity to treat communication, engagement, and evaluation as core infrastructure in the opioid response—alongside programs and services. Grounded in epidemiological data and decades of public health and communications research, it shows how aligning education and public health can strengthen prevention, expand access to care, reduce stigma, and support lasting behavior change.
Using California as a proof point, Safer Homes, Stronger Starts: Data-Informed Messaging & People-Centered Care in California’s Opioid Response shows how integrated communications and capacity-building can work in complex, high-accountability environments where cross-sector trust is essential. It introduces an approach for partners seeking campaigns, coalition-aligned messaging, or evaluation that connects outreach to behavior change.
At the core is a simple idea: when caregiver education, school-based programming, and peer influence reinforce the same safety behaviors, prevention is stronger and more durable. Coordinated efforts across classrooms, clinics, and communities can reduce misuse, improve safe storage in homes, and support lasting shifts in social norms.
How We Support Teams Doing the Work
We work as thought partners and provide strategic communications solutions for public agencies, nonprofits, academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and family-serving groups.
- Testing and refining messages so communities understand what to do and why it matters
- Developing communications with parents, caregivers, youth, and clinicians
- Designing multilingual and culturally responsive outreach
- Aligning partners and coalitions around shared language and priorities
- Connecting communications efforts to measurable outcomes such as awareness, help-seeking, and safer behaviors
- Building internal capacity to sustain communications beyond a single grant or funding cycle
Explore Our Capabilities
Fors Marsh brings applied behavioral research, message testing, and evaluation expertise that helps teams understand how people process information, make decisions, and change behavior.
Collaborative Communications brings deep experience working with California families, educators, and community organizations to translate complex work into trusted, people-centered communications.
Together, we support efforts that must meet multiple expectations at once.
One-Pager
A concise introduction to how this partnership supports opioid response work across systems and communities.
White Paper
Evidence and insights on embedding data-informed, people-centered communications into high-accountability initiatives.
Insights Blog
Read about the public health, community-work partnership mission and efforts.
Contact Us
If you fund, lead, deliver, or advocate for opioid response work in California and need communications support that strengthens trust and impact, we are ready to partner.
Begin with a focused consultation grounded in your priorities, accountability requirements, and community context.