CASE STUDY
Communicating complex systems. How Impact Health scaled trust for the Healthy Opportunities Pilot.
After being selected as a regional lead for the groundbreaking Healthy Opportunities Pilot (HOP), Impact Health had weeks to introduce a new health network across 18 counties and make an unfamiliar model of care something communities could understand, trust and use.
Formation PR & Brand built a systems communications strategy that included a brand identity, and messaging and communications plan that equipped 60 community organizations to bring HOP to life. Later, when HOP funding faced potential removal from the state budget, that same communications foundation helped mobilize a broader advocacy effort and strengthen Impact Health’s case for the program’s future.
Client
Impact Health
A new approach to health beyond the doctor’s office.
Health is shaped by far more than what happens in a doctor’s office. Through HOP, Medicaid funds could be used to connect eligible people with nonmedical services such as food, housing, transportation and other supports that influence health.
Impact Health was selected to lead that work across Western North Carolina, coordinating a network of community organizations capable of turning a new model of care into something people could actually access.
HOP has served nearly 14,000 people in the region. But its stakes extend beyond individual health. The program offers a new model for how health care can be understood, delivered and funded by policymakers, providers and communities.
HOP needed to prove itself while it was still being introduced.
Impact Health was introducing an unfamiliar model of care while partners, providers and communities were still learning what HOP meant in practice. It needed to build understanding, establish credibility and create enough consistency across the network for the program to gain traction.
Then funding uncertainty changed the communications challenge. Impact Health was no longer only explaining how HOP worked. It also had to demonstrate why the model mattered and build a case for sustaining it.
The communications foundation needed to do both: help HOP take hold across Western North Carolina and incorporate advocacy to turn early evidence of its value into a compelling case for its future.
The network could carry the brand further.
The fastest path to trust was through people communities already trusted. Impact Health’s partners had the relationships. They needed a clear story, strong messaging and practical tools to put HOP into context for their audiences.
If partners could understand the story, explain it consistently and make it relevant locally, the brand could travel through the network — building participation, credibility and the proof points Impact Health would later need to make its case.
We designed a brand that partners could put to work.
The Impact Health brand had to work far beyond Impact Health’s own channels. Formation created a system communications and brand advocacy strategy that included a brand identity, narrative and messaging system that partners could understand, adapt and carry into their own communities without losing consistency.
That foundation shaped recruitment toolkits, presentations, rack cards, an explainer video and communications guidance designed to make HOP easier to introduce and easier to understand.
When funding came under threat, the work shifted from explaining HOP to defending its value. Formation extended the same messaging foundation into advocacy, developing crisis communications planning, media talking points, press materials and social content that gave Impact Health and its allies a clear, coordinated case for continued investment.
From launching the program to making the case for its future.
Spanning six months, the advocacy campaign significantly expanded HOP’s visibility, strengthened Impact Health’s digital audience and gave the organization a broader platform from which to make its case.
The bigger shift was organizational. Impact Health now had a system communications and advocacy foundation it could use to mobilize its network, respond to uncertainty and make a stronger public case for HOP.
That communications foundation continued to support Impact Health as its role expanded. In 2026, the organization was included in the North Carolina budget and selected to lead the NC Rural Health Transformation Program across the state’s 19 westernmost counties and the Qualla Boundary.
Dr. Laurie Stradley CEO, Impact Health
When the idea is complex, clarity builds trust.
Formation helps organizations turn unfamiliar programs, evolving missions and big ideas into brands and messages people can understand, trust and act on.