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Online Toolkit
Online Toolkit

Our Online Toolkit contains all of the information, ideas, and materials you will need to plan your own Heart Truth event.

This Toolkit is designed to help you bring women and heart disease to center stage in your community through The Heart Truth® campaign and its Red Dress Project.

The Heart Truth Online Toolkit is funded by the Office on Women's Health, HHS (OWH).

Activity Ideas

These Activity Ideas can help you spread the word in your community.

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Background Information

Learn more about The Heart Truth campaign and how we are reaching out to women about the dangers of heart disease.

  • The Heart Truth: Campaign Overview

    Provides an overview of The Heart Truth campaign and its Red Dress Project, including campaign messages, components, and partner information.

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Promotional and Educational Materials

Use these downloadable materials to conduct your activity.

  • Heart Disease Risk Factor Infographics

    These infographics explain key modifiable risk factors—smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, being overweight or obese, physical inactivity, and diabetes or prediabetes—and steps women can take to protect their heart health.
  • The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women

    The 122-page, full-color, 20th anniversary edition of The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women provides the most recent information on women's heart disease and practical suggestions for reducing your own risk.
  • The Red Dress® Pin

    As the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness, the Red Dress Pin serves as a red alert for women.
    • Ordering Information (Available from WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, a partner of The Heart Truth.)
  • The Heart Truth for Women Brochure

    The campaign brochure features women telling their own stories about heart disease and provides information about risk factors and a checklist of key questions to ask your doctor.
  • The Heart Truth DVD

    This DVD contains a compilation of The Heart Truth's most popular video and broadcast segments, allowing you to feature The Heart Truth and the Red Dress during your outreach events. Segments include: The Heart Truth TV PSAs, The Heart Truth for Women Video, The Heart Truth featuring Mrs. Laura Bush, The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2004 Fashion Show, The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2005 Fashion Show, and Red Dress Collection 2005 Heart Health Introduction Video, Red Dress Collection 2006 Heart Health Introduction Video, The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2006 Fashion Show, Red Dress Collection 2007 Heart Health Introduction Video, and The Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection 2007 Fashion Show. All segments are closed captioned for the hearing impaired.

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Fact Sheets

These easy-to-read fact sheets give essential information women need to find out their risk of heart disease and take action to reduce it. Read them for your own information, or order multiple copies to share with women in your community and workplace.
  • The Heart Truth for Women: An Action Plan

    Gives women the information they need to talk with their doctor about their risk of heart disease and provides an action plan.
  • The Heart Truth for Women:  If You Have Heart Disease

    Explains what heart disease is, reviews screening tests, describes treatment options, lists heart attack warning signs, and gives you the key steps for developing your own plan.
  • The Heart Truth for African American Women:  An Action Plan

    Provides The Heart Truth facts and figures specific to African American women.
  • The Heart Truth Partners

    Provides information and listing of community, government, and nonprofit partners of The Heart Truth.

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Real Women Wear Red Poster

Features real women who have heart disease and conveys the message that "Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear—It's the #1 Killer of Women.®"

Questions To Ask Your Doctor/What's Your Risk?

A list of questions to ask your doctor and a quiz to find out your risk of heart attack.

Leading Causes of Death for American Women (2008)

A graph illustrating the five leading causes of death among American women.

Print PSAs

Print PSAs featuring various images of the Red Dress that can be used in magazines, newsletters, and newspapers. Downloadable photos and graphics, including the print PSAs, are available in the Image Library.

Real Women Photography

Red Dress Photography

Sample Media Alert

Customize this media alert, print it on your letterhead, and submit it to your local print, radio, and television media to promote your event.

Sample Media Pitch Letter

Customize this media pitch letter, print it on your letterhead, and submit it to your local television media outlets to request that they run a 3-part series on women and heart disease.

Sample Newsletter Article

Distribute this article to local publications or organization's newsletters in your community. It is ready to be submitted–just send a hard copy or an electronic file of the article to the publisher. You may also consider adapting it to include information about your planned event.

Sample Partner Outreach Letter

Community support and participation are a key part of successfully launching The Heart Truth campaign and promoting the Red Dress symbol in your area. You may use or adapt this sample letter to invite potential partners–health care organizations, civic groups, retail outlets, restaurants, and other businesses–to join you in raising awareness for women's risk of heart disease.

Sample Press Release

Customize this press release, print it on your letterhead, and submit it to your local television, radio, and print media outlets to promote your event.

Sample Proclamation

Customize this sample letter to request that a local or state official issue a proclamation about women and heart disease as part of a local or statewide observance. Use the sample as a model to write your letter and proclamation–consider inserting local statistics and facts regarding women and heart disease to localize your proclamation.

Examples of national observances include: February–American Heart Month; National Wear Red Day® (first Friday in February); May–National High Blood Pressure and American Stroke Month; and September–National Cholesterol Education Month. For a complete listing of national health observances go to http://www.healthfinder.gov/nho/default.aspx.

Ten Commandments for a Healthy Heart

These "10 Commandments" can be used to support a Red Dress Sunday/Sabbath event and may be posted in your weekly bulletin.

Talking Points for Red Dress Sunday/Sabbath

By hosting a Red Dress Sunday/Sabbath event, you can spread the word about heart disease to women in your faith community. Encourage women to wear red on Sunday/Sabbath and provide these talking points for clergy to share a message of health and hope. The NHLBI also has several educational materials that can be given out at this service, such as The Healthy Heart Handbook for Women, fact sheets, brochure, and poster. The Red Dress Pin is now available from WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, a partner of The Heart Truth.

Text E-mail Templates

Use these sample e-mails to send a message about the campaign to your organization's online network.

The Heart Truth Logos

  • The Heart Truth logo may be added to your collateral materials to indicate your partnership with the national Heart Truth campaign.  See Terms of Use for required trademark statement.  For more information, please review The Heart Truth logo usage guidelines.

    Click here to preview and download all variations of The Heart Truth logos.

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Last Updated: September 6, 2012

® The Heart Truth, its logo, The Red Dress, and Heart Disease Doesn't Care What You Wear—It's the #1 Killer of Women are registered trademarks of HHS.
® National Wear Red Day is a registered trademark of HHS and AHA.

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