Historic partnership between health, business, and community leaders through RESTART Task Force
The Cincinnati Chamber is partnering with The Health Collaborative to launch the Regional COVID Communications Center (RC3), an ongoing campaign to share information about COVID-19 prevention, community spread, testing availability, and other critical news to help individuals and businesses make smart decisions.
RC3 will be led by Regina Carswell Russo, CEO/principal strategist at RRight Now Communications. She will coordinate weekly public messaging activities, and build a network of allies and communicators who can share key facts and information with the public. RC3 is a non-partisan, fact-based communications effort intended to share the most important data, best practice protocols, and clear information about the pandemic in our region. The center will work directly with hospitals, medical professionals, the region’s business community, and key grassroots and community leaders.
In a report issued by the RESTART Task Force in April, Task Force leaders insisted that an ongoing locally-driven effort to communicate about COVID-19 would be needed at least throughout 2020 and perhaps beyond. The report also recommended an intense and intentional focus on protecting vulnerable populations. The RC3 will deliver on these recommendations.
“The RC3 is filling a need in our community,” said Carswell Russo. “We need clear and uniform information about how to keep our families safe and about how to prevent further spread of COVID-19. We will meet communities where they are to make sure this critical information is delivered.”
Dr. O’Dell Owens Michael Fisher Dr. Richard Lofgren Delores Hargrove-Young
Co-chairs of RESTART’s Public and Social Health Task Force – Delores Hargrove-Young (D.E. Foxx and Associates), Michael Fisher (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center), Dr. Richard Lofgren (UC Health), and Dr. O’Dell Owens (Interact for Health) – led the effort to create RC3 and participated in several community listening sessions to gather feedback and plan the effort. The Cincinnati Regional Chamber and Health Collaborative will provide ongoing leadership and support to the effort.
The RESTART Task Force consists of representatives from the business community who provide leadership to the Cincinnati region as it regains momentum from the COVID-19 pandemic. The task force is focused on areas of economic development, arts/culture/sports, commerce, public and social health, education, and government.
RESTART is a project of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, the Cincinnati Business Committee, and the Cincinnati Regional Business Committee.
The Health Collaborative is a nonprofit that leads data-driven improvements resulting in healthier people, better care and lower costs.