Developing a New Research and Knowledge Centre with Canada's Leader in Women's Health
Strategic Planning | Narrative Development and Communications Strategy | Content Creation and Editing
Challenge
Women’s College Hospital (WCH) approached Curious Public to help them develop and launch a new research and knowledge centre focusing on women’s aging. WCH wanted the new centre to be more than science and put research into action to generate knowledge and raise awareness in the broader community about the unique health and societal issues facing women aged 50+ . Our role was to clarify the institute’s scope, goals and objectives, create a core narrative for the centre, and advise on strategic initiatives to launch the institute.
Insight
We collaborated with the team’s policy consultant to develop the institute’s strategic direction and research focus. From our collaboration, we created a “manifesto” for the institute that outlined its goals, objectives, and initial activities to help focus the WCH planning team and generate buy-in. This was doubly important as the WCH team prepared for future fundraising from the larger WCH community. The document also led to the institute’s title, Women’s Age Lab.
We then held in-depth interviews with the Lab’s planning team, the hospital’s senior leaders, and outside experts to understand the institution’s goals, needs, and potential impact. Our insights from these interviews became the basis for the institute’s core narrative. The narrative zeroed in on the core issue that older women’s health has been consistently overlooked by the healthcare community and general public — from research to treatment options and access to health services and social programs.
Result
WCH launched the Women’s Age Lab — the first and only of its kind — in 2021. The Lab’s mission is to address the imbalance in women’s health by supporting the healthy aging of women and reimagining a system and society where older women and their distinct well-being and health needs are recognized and addressed.
The narrative we created drove the tone and themes of all subsequent communications about the Lab, informed our copywriting for the initial splash page and current website, and our detailed communications and social media strategy used for the launch.
Since its launch, national and global publications, including Forbes magazine, have prominently featured the Women’s Age Lab.