This is what I knew
The State of New York granted a NYC non-profit organization $1M in funding for a community safety program that had yet to clear immense hurdles in terms of buy-in and messaging. Just as some supporters were determined to create a safety net for neighborhoods that often went underserved, opposing stakeholders dug in to push back against political pressure, putting the entire effort in jeopardy.
This is what I did
Brought in as the only employee, I was asked to create collateral for a program that had yet to exist and recognized immediately that the need for a positive message would be crucial to the survival of the program. Through the meticulous negotiation of language and meaning, the messageing would need to bring people in, and not create antipathy. After months of meeting with everyone from clinicians to community leaders and politicians, I designed an overall strategy that changed the program’s ethos. Instead of focusing solely on treatment, the initiative would supply a framework for communication that allowed case workers to work with community officials as close partners, something no one thought possible.
This is how well it worked
The program framework I developed was based on the acronym ASK, which represented the core principles of the clinician’s efforts: to build attention, sensitivity and knowledge in the community. We deployed the message over print and digital channels, connecting with each audience segment and increasing the project’s impact by facilitating and advancing structured conversations – which made the project scalable and achieved buy-in.
