Strong Born—A First of Its Kind National FASD Prevention Campaign in Australia Led by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) in Collaboration with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs)

Abstract

The Strong Born Campaign (2022–2025) was launched by the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) in 2023. Strong Born is the first of its kind national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health promotion campaign to address Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) within Australia. Strong Born was developed to address a longstanding, significant gap in health promotion and sector knowledge on FASD, a lifelong disability that can result from alcohol use during pregnancy. Utilizing a strengths-based and culturally sound approach, NACCHO worked closely with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) to develop the campaign through co-design, as described in this paper. Since its inception, the ACCHOs have continually invested in driving change towards improvements in Aboriginal health determinants and health promotion. The Strong Born Campaign developed culturally safe health promotion tool kits designed for the community and health sector staff and also offered communities the opportunity to apply for FASD Communications and Engagement Grants to engage in local campaign promotion. The tool kits have been disseminated to 92 ACCHOs across Australia. This paper describes the development of the Strong Born Campaign and activities following its launch in February 2023 from an Indigenous context within Australia, as described by NACCHO.