Comeback KC focuses on safer behaviors
Two prominent members of the Kansas City Jewish community are volunteering their communications expertise to help fight the rapid growth of COVID-19 in the metro area. Eric Morgenstern, CEO of Morningstar Communications, and Martha Gershun, author and nonprofit leader, have been helping Comeback KC develop and deliver messaging to keep our community safe during the coronavirus pandemic. Comeback KC urges everyone to comply with public health measures.
Comeback KC is a public-private collaboration to create a unified strategy to help the entire Kansas City region make a comeback from COVID-19. They coordinate closely with regional public health officials and other civic leaders.
Since the pandemic reached Kansas City in March, Comeback KC has encouraged area residents to wear masks, practice social distancing, get flu shots and assess their activity choices in light of science based COVID risk factors.
Their projects have included working with the Royals and Sporting KC on English and Spanish-language PSAs encouraging people to get flu shots, issuing safer socializing recommendations for holiday and family activities and circulating an Open Letter that was signed by more than 100 of the region’s most high-profile business, civic and nonprofit leaders pledging to require employees and customers to wear face masks at work and in their business facilities.
Most recently, Comeback KC helped to develop a web-based tool for people to assess the COVID-19 risk of everyday activities such as dining out, going to the grocery store or getting a haircut. The new tool, “KC Can I Do It?” (comebackkc.com/cani), combines real-time data from the Kansas City region with information from the national Covid Can I Do it (CCIDI) project to help individuals make safe decisions about their own lives.
“We are committed to promoting the science-based recommendations that we know will keep our community safer,” said Morgenstern, an executive communications consultant who helps leaders clarify their message, connect with the people who matter most and change attitudes and behavior. He founded Morningstar Communications along with his wife, Shanny, in 1997. “One of the essential principals in Judaism, is ‘pikuach nefesh,’ the obligation to do everything we can to save a life. Comeback KC will save lives.”
Gershun, who retired as executive director of Jackson County CASA in 2017 and is now a published author who consults and volunteers with a wide variety of area nonprofits, agrees. “We use every marketing tool at our disposal to reinforce the information from our public health officials. It’s been exciting to work with Comeback KC to promote these life-saving messages.”
For more information, go to www.comebackkc.com or follow on Facebook at @comebackkcpage or twitter @comebackkc.