Turning Community Voices into Public Health Impact

Awareness Campaigns, Graphic Design, Video Production

Our Challenge

The Let’s Talk Colorado campaign first launched in 2015 with the goal of reducing mental health stigma through community-based approaches. A decade later, after mental health and social resilience emerged as key priorities in Boulder County following a rigorous community feedback initiative, Boulder County Public Health received funding to implement a local version of this campaign.

For the last decade, public health in the U.S. has faced a growing credibility crisis. Federal leadership turmoil, fears of politicized and anti-science decision-making, and deep cuts to staffing, funding and global partnerships have eroded institutional trust and raised concerns about readiness for future crises.

Against this backdrop, Barefoot PR was tasked with updating the Let’s Talk Colorado campaign to address mental health stigma in Boulder County and to show residents that local, human-centered efforts can still be trusted and impactful.

Our Process

Barefoot PR began the engagement with a Listening & Learning phase to refine the goals and local application of the Let’s Talk Colorado campaign. This included a strategy session with Boulder County Public Health, a full review of campaign and agency collateral and a video planning session to establish the storytelling approach, production logistics and participant process. These insights informed a comprehensive project timeline to guide all deliverables.

Using this foundation, Barefoot developed a Campaign Roadmap to steer the campaign rollout. The roadmap outlined localized key messages tailored for Boulder County audiences, with attention to Spanish-language and cultural considerations, a three-month digital engagement plan, an influencer engagement strategy and an earned media plan.
To bring the campaign to life, Barefoot designed a suite of digital assets and produced a series of short-form videos featuring real Boulder County residents sharing their experiences with mental and behavioral health and accessing local services. During the video interview process, we approached the sensitive topic of mental health with care, creating a safe and comfortable environment and allowing participants to review their videos before publication.

From October through December, Barefoot implemented the campaign across organic social media, paid digital advertising and influencer partnerships. This included ongoing social content creation, A/B testing and optimization of paid ads, coordination with local micro-influencers and local media pitching. Following completion, Barefoot delivered a Campaign Impact Report summarizing the work, performance metrics and recommendations to guide future campaign efforts.

Our Solution

Barefoot PR addressed Boulder County’s dual challenge of reducing mental health stigma while rebuilding trust in public health by localizing the Let’s Talk Colorado campaign through a community-centered strategy. Starting with listening and learning, we worked closely with Boulder County Public Health to refine goals, adapt messaging and create a Campaign Roadmap that aligned the existing brand with local priorities and cultural considerations.

The key to our approach was ethical, authentic storytelling. By compensating and amplifying diverse community voices in short-form videos, partnering with values-aligned local influencers, and delivering consistent messaging across organic and paid channels, Barefoot transformed a statewide campaign into a credible, human and locally trusted movement for Boulder County.