News Release

AARP, RWJF, Unveil Improved Site to Combat Nursing Crisis

June 25, 2009

The Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA), a joint initiative of AARP, the AARP Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, recently announced the launch of their newly energized and improved web site at www.championnursing.org.

CCNA aims to eliminate the nursing shortage, expand nursing education programs, and increase the nation's capacity to retain nurses in order to secure quality, affordable health care for every American.

The Foundation and AARP chose Forum One as a strategic partner to help lead its web site redesign. The primary objective of the redesign was to better engage users by improving the site's functionality and interactivity, both for the organization's staff and its stakeholders.

CCNA wanted to tell a compelling story, make pertinent resources easier to access, and provide the means and incentive for visitors to learn more about -- and join the fight against -- the U.S. nursing shortage. The redesign was also an interim step towards a larger overhaul of the CCNA web site set for later this summer.

To this end, Forum One transformed CCNA's dull, flat web page into a dynamic and interactive site complete with an improved navigational framework, compelling user interface, and powerful capabilities for sharing and community building.

The redesigned site includes a Resource Library that can be searched and filtered by topic and resource type. Users can locate exactly what they need, when they need it, making CCNA's valuable collection of publications actionable, rather than simply available.

The Policy Watch and Newsroom pages help users actively track news stories and public policy practices related to nursing. Users can view these updates, along with the newest blog posts, from the front page.

The site also offers various ways to get informed and involved without having to leave the computer. Users can sign up for CCNA email alerts, download fact sheets, find coalition and council members, contact CCNA leadership and state team representatives, read blog posts, submit comments, and navigate directly to the AARP web site for additional information and advocacy opportunities.

Together, the new features work to drive progress and increase CCNA's online impact. The revamped information architecture, built on top of the Drupal open source content management system, creates a seamless user experience and helps to meaningfully engage the organization's target audiences.

Already, CCNA is making a splash with its new site. The organization has noticed a dramatic increase in activity -- with an average of 500 visitors per day -- and plans to build on its initial success with a second phase of redesign later this summer.

Forum One Communications is a web strategy and development firm based in Alexandria, Va. Since 1996, Forum One has helped hundreds of organizations use internet technology to solve the world's most pressing problems. For more information, visit www.forumone.com.

Contact

Tim Shaw