By Nizia Alam, Office of Communications and Public Liaison at the National Cancer Institute
You have likely heard about the National Cancer Plan and maybe even attended the presentation about the plan at the 2024 NACCDO-PAMN Annual Meeting. You may even be subscribed to the National Cancer Plan Updates newsletter. But do you feel prepared to leverage the plan to enhance your communications strategy? If you’re looking for support on how to do this, you are in luck!
The National Cancer Plan Engagement Calendar, a strategic tool to guide and inspire your communication efforts and show how we are working together on a national scale to end cancer as we know it, has officially kicked off. The calendar serves as a framework for inspiring action, building new collaborations, and amplifying the impact of our collective work.
What is the National Cancer Plan Engagement Calendar?
The engagement calendar is designed to help you align your efforts with the broader goals of the National Cancer Plan. The calendar focuses on one empowering goal each quarter to feature in your communications and encourages you to share how it helps advance health-centric goals.
Here’s how the calendar is structured:
| Timeframe | Featured Empowering Goal | |
|---|---|---|
| September–November 2024 | Optimize the Workforce | |
| December 2024–February 2025 | Eliminate Inequities | |
| March–May 2025 | Maximize Data Utility | |
| June–August 2025 | Engage Every Person |
How you can get involved
Each quarter offers a unique opportunity to showcase your center’s contributions to the national effort against cancer. Use the quarterly themes as a guide for content planning, sharing activities related to each goal across your communication platforms—whether through social media, your website, blogs, podcasts, newsletters or other channels. Don’t forget to use hashtags #Every1HasARole and #NationalCancerPlan in your social media posts.
To support your content development, here are some valuable resources:
- National Cancer Plan website: Find examples for each quarter to spark inspiration and guide your content planning.
- NCI-Designated Cancer Center Communications Toolkit: Access sample messaging tailored to cancer centers, along with graphics related to the plan.
- The Cancer Letter: Read about NCI Office of Communications and Public Liaison Director Peter Garrett’s presentation about the plan at the 2024 NACCDO-PAMN meeting.
- Cancer Discovery: Explore Dr. Kimryn Rathmell’s commentary for deeper insights into the plan’s empowering, health-centric goals.
Our team will select activities to feature across the National Cancer Plan channels, including the Updates newsletter and website.
An example: Optimizing the Workforce
The first theme, “Optimizing the Workforce,” kicks off in September and is about showcasing how your center is building a diverse cancer workforce that reflects the communities served and meets the needs of all people with cancer. You can:
- Share profiles or interviews of people in your center who are early in their cancer career, or who are engaged in mentoring.
- Write blog posts describing how your center supports professional growth, training and career development.
- Create a social media post describing how you provide training and support that prepares professionals to bring advancements in cancer prevention, early diagnosis, treatment and care to underserved communities in your area.
For example, NCI’s message for this quarter may emphasize the following: “NCI is the nation’s largest funder of cancer research training and is committed to developing the next generation of cancer researchers. Training in all areas on the cancer continuum prepares devoted professionals for careers in the public and private sector to bring evidence-based cancer prevention, early diagnosis, treatment and care to communities across the country.” NCI would integrate this messaging in web content, social media posts and newsletter features during September-November 2024.
As part of the “Optimize the Workforce” theme, the President’s Cancer Panel will host virtual public meetings on Sept. 12 and 13. The meetings will address challenges and opportunities for improving the cancer clinical care and research workforce. Insights from the session will inform the panel’s report to the president, highlighting opportunities to support the development of the next generation of clinicians, researchers and other health care professionals critical to shaping the future of cancer care. Registration is required.
Upcoming:
We are developing a webinar series between PAMN and NCI, aligned with the topics of the National Cancer Plan engagement calendar. The first webinar will feature experts from NCI and cancer centers, offering tips and strategies for successfully communicating about your workforce.
If your cancer center has implemented effective strategies highlighting your workforce, we’d love to hear from you! Please email me at nizia.alam@nih.gov to potentially feature your initiative in our upcoming webinar.