More Related Content Similar to COM380Campaign Similar to COM380Campaign (20) 2. Executive Summary
“The Highmark Caring Place, A Center for Grieving Children, Adolescents and Their
Families, is a safe place where grieving children and families can come together and be with
others who understand what they’re going through” (HCP Website). The Highmark Caring Place
was started in 1996, and in 1997, the first location opened its doors in Pittsburgh. Since then,
three other locations have opened in Erie, Cranberry, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Since 1997,
the Highmark Caring Place has served countless family members in need.
The Highmark Caring Place does their best to help their families and grieving clients
through peer support, rather than through “counseling sessions.” Krista Ball, Manager and Child
Grief Specialist of Highmark’s Warrendale site, stresses the fact that Highmark Caring Place
provides peer support, not therapy sessions. This distinction is key to understand, especially
since parents and children in the midst of the grieving process are often looking for solutions to
their overwhelming sadness. While Highmark’s volunteers do their best to help their families
through this process, it is, in the end, a journey through which each family member must
experience and overcome personally, through love and support.
After sharing conversation with Krista, we were able to sort Highmark’s drawbacks into
two categories, internal and external. Internally, the overarching exigency that we were able to
uncover is the constant need for volunteers. Externally, Highmark continuously faces the
obstacle of promoting their services to families in need of help, since they have chosen not to
directly advertise to grieving families. Therefore, through direct and indirect advertising, we plan
on promoting Highmark’s services to the community of Western Pennsylvania.
6. Situational Analysis
The Highmark Caring Place has four primary locations in Western/Central Pennsylvania:
Pittsburgh, Erie, Lemoyne, and Warrendale. Since the opening of the Pittsburgh branch in 1997
(the first Highmark Caring Place), the program has served more than 30,000 family members and
community members. Following the Pittsburgh branch came Erie’s facility in 2001, Lemoyne’s
facility in 2003, and Warrendale’s facility in 2009.
The Highmark Caring Place allows open tours of their facilities as a way of raising
awareness for children’s grief. They also offer presentations and speaking engagements about
Highmark Caring Place and the grieving process of children. Combined, it is estimated that these
efforts reached more than 25,000 community members in 2008. They encourage families as well
as individual family members who are interested in their programs to call the nearest facility and
schedule a visit.
The Highmark Caring Place runs primarily from their volunteer base, along with an
executive board consisting of five licensed psychologists. Throughout the four locations in
Western/Central Pennsylvania, there are more than 570 volunteers, including a handful of paid,
fulltime staff members at each location. These volunteers have logged over 22,000 hours of
volunteer service during the last 18 years, which has an estimated value of $428,000.
This being the case, the Highmark Caring Place is constantly in search of new volunteers
who can provide fresh energy and new ideas to their organization. Krista Ball, Manager and
Child Grief Specialist at the Warrendale site, shared that one of their biggest impediments is
receiving enough help from volunteers. At the Warrendale site, about 200 volunteers are needed
constantly who are willing to provide their service. Krista also shared that even when their
8. Recommendations
After researching Highmark Caring Place and seeing the impediments involved in their
organization and programs, we came up with two main ideas to help Highmark raise awareness
of their constant need of volunteers, as well as market to grieving families about opportunities
that are available to them. Since Highmark works to provide a safe and comforting environment
for their families, their communication and ways of reaching their publics must be interpersonal.
First, we suggest creating an informational workshop event that could be catered to three
different settings, in order to reach our intended audiences. For each of these three workshop
settings, we would rent a space to conduct an informational workshop. The Highmark Caring
Place directors and volunteers would be invited to come and speak at each of these events about
their organization as a whole, as well as the services they offer to grieving families. We would
use a trifold set up display as well as an informational video and powerpoint. A call to action for
potential volunteers as well as an indirect call to action for potential grieving families would be
given, and materials would be provided for those interested in pursuing the program (volunteer
signup and grieving program sign up). We believe that using this workshop idea would be
compatible for three different settings: libraries, churches, and on college campuses. Granted, the
workshop would have to be catered to these different audiences, but would generally follow the
same guidelines.
Second, we suggest that Highmark Caring Place attends the 21st Annual Autumn Quilt
Show at Bradys Run Park in October of 2015. We suggest this because Highmark would have
the opportunity to show several of the quilts that they have made with their families, as well as
11. ● Northway Church
● City Reformed Presbyterian Church
● First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh
● Cornerstone Baptist Church
● Grace Church
The average will be one church per week, with one week consisting of two workshops at
two separate churches. This allows plenty of time for travel, accounts for any mechanical
malfunction that may occur with the transportation, and gives time for volunteers to set up the
workshop area. This also allows for time to create miniscule changes to the workshop set up,
depending on the venue the workshop takes place at.
October 2015:
During the month of October, Highmark Caring Place will attend the 21st Annual
Autumn Quilt Show hosted by the Beaver Valley Piecemakers. This quilt show’s date has yet to
be announced. This will allow Highmark Caring Place to reach out to the quilting community for
support and supplies. Also during October, as part of the campaign we will be revisiting the five
college campuses we administered the posters on to do some preliminary evaluation, as well as
follow up with any students who made initial contact with the organization in August.
November 2015:
November will be geared towards preparing for the library workshop, which will take
place at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. This allows time for initial setup, giving leeway for
any issues that may arise that require time to resolve. November will also be a month to touch
base with the churches we made contact with during the September phase of the campaign,
13. Budget
When considering all of the ways Highmark could market itself as an organization to
work for, as well as market their programs for grieving families to take advantage of, there are
limitations in terms of cost. However, when considering everything that could be accomplished,
we do not believe this budget to be a hindrance.
In order to have a promotional and informational video to be shown at our different
workshops, we suggest that Highmark hires a videographer. This, to be done well, will cost
about $50/hour. We averaged about five hours of coverage and editing, totaling around $250.
This video will be able to be used for several different occasions, so this cost does not require
upkeep.
We also plan to print posters that we could hang around college campuses. We would use
uprinting.com, a printing company that offers relatively cheap rates. We plan to print around 200
posters, at $2/poster, totalling $400. Books and pamphlets to hand out at our informational
workshops and the quilting fair would cost around $400, for 1,000 pamphlets.
We would also incorporate a trifold display into our presentations, which would cost
around $250 as well, for 4 different displays.
Gas for travelling to and from the workshops, churches, colleges, and libraries is included
into our budget as well, adding up to a total of $250, for 4 months.
Lastly, depending where we set up our workshops, we would need to pay room rental and
cleanup fees. For instance, at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, one of our target locations, is
around $150 for rental, cleanup, and electrical fees. We believe churches and college campuses
16. Tactics
The tactics for this campaign must all be centered around interpersonal communication.
Because of the brevity of this organization and what they do for families on a daily basis, any
other way would be insensitive. Therefore, when planning future aspirations for this company,
we must keep in mind that both Highmark Caring Place and the family members involved must
be interacting on a facetoface basis.
The first three tactics deal with our first objective, which is to directly raise awareness of
Highmark Caring Place and its employment/volunteer opportunities to the surrounding
community.
● Tactic #1: We will conduct an educational workshop on a college campus. This
will raise awareness to the collegeaged community, educating them on the
opportunities to help children in need, as well as opening work opportunities for
during or after college. Potential colleges to conduct this workshop at are: Geneva
College, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne University, and
Point Park University.
● Tactic #2: We will conduct an educational workshop in the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh. This event will be open to the community, and will encourage men,
women, and young adults to get involved with Highmark Caring Place by
becoming a volunteer.
● Tactic #3: At each of these workshop events, we will make provisions to have
posters, pamphlets, brochures with our key messages on hand. We will also have
applications readily available to our audiences. This will encourage our publics to
17. take action, after they become educated. We will also have paperwork that can be
filled out to start the volunteer process.
Our second set of tactics is dedicated to reaching potential grieving families indirectly.
Since Highmark Caring Place does not believing in directly advertising to families who are
grieving, our tactics must be subtle yet inspire a willingness to get involved and ask for help.
● Tactic #1: We will conduct several educational workshops at churches in the area. Such
churches include Northway, City Reformed Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist
Church of Pittsburgh, Cornerstone Baptist, and Grace Community Church. We are aware
that there is much loss in local churches, accompanied with hopeful solutions. Educating
churches in Western Pennsylvania will encourage families attending these churches,
suffering from loss of a loved one to look into what Highmark Caring Place has to offer.
● Tactic #2: In October, we will attend the 21st Annual Autumn Quilt Show, hosted by the
Beaver Valley Piecemakers. Attending this quilt show is purely for indirect advertising
purposes. By bringing a handmade quilt that the families and volunteers at Highmark
have made, common ground will be made naturally.
● Tactic #3: At each of these educational gatherings and opportunities, we will make
provisions to have posters, pamphlets, and brochures including our key messages, readily
available to our audiences. This will encourage the families who are grieving to step
forward and take personal action, if and when they are ready.
18. Evaluation Plan
In December, the evaluation phase will take place. Since Highmark Caring Place already
has evaluation processes as a part of their program, we will take those into account as well. As
Highmark’s families complete the program, they complete evaluations to help the organization
be encouraged by what they did well on, and improve where they are lacking. After our
campaign, however, we must evaluate the work that we accomplished while partners with
Highmark Caring Place.
To do so, we will first ask the question, “Did we accomplish our objectives?” If so, we
succeeded. Our first objective was to increase volunteer involvement in Highmark Caring Place
by 25% by December of 2015. Since our first objective was actionfocused, we will monitor our
work by how many new volunteers we have brought in based on our efforts from workshops and
visual messages (posters, pamphlets, videos, etc.). To do this, we will do so by laidback
beforeandafter studies. We will be able to tell, first and foremost, by using direct observation to
see the rates of volunteer participation, and if it has risen or fallen. We will also conduct focus
groups with new volunteers and employees to gather their attitudes and thoughts of the program,
and what we could have done better. In these focus groups, we will have our new volunteers
answer questionnaires that will have a question regarding how they were referred to Highmark
Caring Place. If they list any of the means we conducted, we will be able to gauge our success.
Our second objective was to advertise the services and opportunities that Highmark
Caring Place offers to the Western PA community, enough to see a 25% increase of awareness
by December of 2015. Since our second objective was awarenessfocused, we will monitor our
progress by general beforeandafter studies, as well as controlled beforeandafter studies.
20. Consultant Background
Abby Bailey is a 22yearold graduating senior at Geneva College, majoring in
Communication, with a concentration in Public Relations. She has studied the field of
communications for three years, and will graduate from Geneva College on May 9, 2015. After
graduation, she plans to move back to Rhode Island for the summer and pursue the Public
Relations/Event Planning career. She has been apart of several Public Relations campaigns,
including one conducted for the Annual Festival of Trees hosted at Brady’s Run, as well as a
campaign for the Beaver County Anti Human Trafficking Coalition.
Mikayla Covington is a 19yearold junior at Geneva College, majoring in
Communication, with a concentration in Public Relations. She currently works as an intern for
Back To Jerusalem/China Care International, and is preparing to enter an internship in New York
City with Kravetz Public Relations for the summer. On campus, she is a part of the 20152016
Geneva College Public Relations Student Society of America executive board, where she serves
as treasurer. She has been a part of several projects, including Public Relations campaigns for the
Geneva College Music Department, and working in collaboration with Lincoln Park Performing
Arts Center to create a campaign for Arts Live Central. Post graduation (May 2016), she plans to
pursue a master’s degree within the field of Communication.
21. Appendix
Research Methodology
While researching for this project, we had the opportunity to share several phone
conversations with Krista Ball, Manager of Highmark’s Warrendale site. These conversations
helped us understand more about Highmark Caring Place as a whole, as well as their services.
One of the main differences that Krista made sure that we were aware of was how Highmark
Caring Place’s services are not therapy or counselling sessions, but rather peer support groups.
After establishing contact with the director at Highmark’s Warrendale site, Krista Ball
sent us a packet full of information from Highmark. In this packet was a DVD of Highmark itself
and 1520 brochures and pamphlets about grief and loss. After watching and reading through
these resources, we were able to gain a better grasp on the organization.
We also utilized the presence of their website, which is designed very well. Highmark
also has a Facebook page with over 3,000 likes. These tools, when researching the organization
as well as how involved they are with their clients, were incredibly helpful in researching them
before establishing contact.
Organizational Analysis:
Highmark Caring Place has done an amazing job and creating and maintaining
relationships with other organizations and businesses, including local school districts. Because
they are affiliated with the national entity of Highmark insurance, they also have a large selection
of financial sponsors and backers, which works in their favor when taking financing and
budgeting into consideration. They also maintain good relationships with other counseling and
psychological services. Because they are a nonprofit organization, Highmark Caring Place does
22. not view other grief counseling centers as competition, because the field as a whole
acknowledges that different people grieve in different ways, and therefore require different
methods in order to start the healing process. These strong relationships, which Highmark Caring
Place nurtures on an annual basis, help the organization to maintain program participants, and
receive recommendations and referrals from other facilities.
The structure of Highmark Caring Place is distinct, as the Highmark Caring Place falls
under the Highmark insurance company. The director of the Highmark Caring Place is Terese
Vorsheck, a licensed psychologist who is responsible for directing services, initiatives, and
strategies for all four locations. Beneath the director are four program managers, one at each of
the four locations of the Highmark Caring Place. These program managers are responsible for
overseeing their location and making sure that things run smoothly and within protocol. The final
level of administration are the volunteer coordinators, of which there are four (one for each
location). These volunteer coordinators are responsible for processing the paperwork for
volunteers, providing information to volunteers as needed, and coordinating the training
necessary in order for volunteers to begin working with grieving children and families.
While they do have a very structured, distinct administration team, Highmark Caring
Place is a nonprofit organization; therefore, all facilitations are conducted by volunteers.
Volunteers are also responsible for food services, clean up, and other group activities associated
with the therapeutic sessions. These volunteers are not paid, nor do they receive any tangible
benefits from Highmark Caring Place for their services. The volunteers are, however, put
through a 26week training program in order to prepare them for dealing with the grieving
23. children and families, which many volunteers find to be beneficial even after they finish their
time with Highmark Caring Place.
The public opinion of Highmark Caring Place is a very positive one. Because of their
policy that they do not reach out to grieving families, but instead only work with people who
seek out help on their own, they have very positive impacts on the families that go through the
program. Their website features many testimonials from children and parents who have
participated in the program, describing the pleasant volunteers and the community that they
helped create. Not only are the grieving children and families who go through the program
impressed with their experience, but the volunteers who work with Highmark Caring Place are
also giving spectacular reviews of their experiences, which are also available on the website.
One of the most unique aspects of Highmark Caring Place is that they use quilting as a
tool to help grieving children and families heal during their time within the program. They help
construct quilt blocks that are based upon the member of the family that has passed away, as a
tactic for helping deal with grief and related emotions. These quilts provide a comforting
presence, especially to younger children, and give them something to hang onto when the going
gets tough. The quilts are unique to Highmark Caring Place, and set them apart from many other
group therapy conductions.
Primary Public Analysis:
Our primary public are potential volunteers in the Western Pennsylvania area. After
researching their identification, we believe that the public is either latent or aware; they are
aware that there is loss and grief in the communities around them, but do not know how to get
involved to help.
24. The issue involved with potential volunteers is that even though they might share interest
in becoming involved, there is no compensation. Therefore, when advertising the benefits and
opportunities of working at Highmark, many potential candidates would say no, simply because
there is no compensation.
As for the relationship between Highmark and potential volunteers, it shares a very
positive one. Krista noted that Highmark does not have any opposition or competition from the
surrounding community that she knows of. However, potential volunteers might not want to join
Highmark’s team simply because of the severity of emotions and process involved. Not many
young college kids or recent graduates have time to invest in children or parents who are truly
struggling emotionally.
The primary way we would establish a relationship with potential volunteers is through
college campus and library workshops in the surrounding areas. College workshops would
include: Geneva College, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne University, and
Point Park University. The library we will start conducting a workshop is the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh. For the older age groups, we would follow up our conversations with phone calls or
emails.
For personality preferences, we prefer that potential volunteers of Highmark Caring Place
be emotionally stable, yet sensitive to the issue of loss. They must be rational while possessing
the ability to lead and counsel others. They must understand the ministry involved with
nonprofits, being that most positions are not paid.
The demographics of these potential volunteers will be simple. They may be male or
female in the Western Pennsylvania area. They must be over 21 years of age and have a clean
25. criminal record. Since we will be marketing to colleges and universities in this area, these
requirements will not be hard to meet.
Secondary Public Analysis:
Our secondary public are grieving families in the Western Pennsylvania area. After
researching their identification, we believe that the public is aware; they are in need of help in
dealing with loss and grief, but have not heard of Highmark Caring Place, or do not know how to
get involved.
The issue involved with indirectly marketing to grieving families is the fact that they feel
that they are alone. Although they may even share their loss and grief with others, their mindset
is that no one could possibly understand what they are going through. Everyone has different
grieving processes and differences; families or children often shut themselves off from the world
after a loved one has died, not seek help.
The relationship between Highmark and grieving families is positive, but delicate. Like
previously stated, families and children are often skeptical of counselling or therapy because it is
a painful process. Although Highmark is not either of these services, they might be equated with
them anyway, in grieving individuals’ minds.
The primary way we would establish a relationship with potential families is through
informational workshops at churches, including Northway, City Reformed Presbyterian, First
United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh, Cornerstone Baptist, and Grace. We would also attend
Beaver County Piecemakers’ 21st Annual Autumn Quilt Show and bring one of Highmark’s
quilts to display. Since Highmark does not reach out to grieving families, communication is
26. harder to establish. However, through workshops and informational settings, a relationship can
be built.
We do not have any personality preferences for potential grieving families. They must, of
course, first, be going through the grieving process. But second, they must be ready to discuss
their feelings and find solutions.
Demographically, we are primarily looking for children and teens, since Highmark
Caring Place services this age group in the loss of family members. However, their peer support
groups and quilt making sessions are open to the parents as well. The families must be local to
the Western Pennsylvania area.
Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics:
Goal: To help the Western Pennsylvania community become more aware of the needs and
opportunities of Highmark Caring Place.
Objective #1: To increase volunteer involvement by 25% in Highmark Caring
Place from the surrounding community by December of 2015.
Strategy #1: To market Highmark Caring Place’s services and opportunities to
the Western Pennsylvania community through facetoface communication.
Tactic #1: To conduct educational workshops on college campuses to
raise awareness to the collegeaged community, educating them on work
opportunities during or after college.
Tactic #2: To conduct an educational workshop in the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh. This event will be open to the community, and will encourage
27. men, women, and young adults to get involved with Highmark Caring
Place by volunteering their time and efforts.
Strategy #2: To market Highmark Caring Place’s services and opportunities to
the Western Pennsylvania community through visual conduits of advertising.
Tactic #1: To advertise to potential volunteers, we will display posters,
pamphlets, and brochures including our key messaging. We will also have
applications readily available to our audiences to take action.
Objective #2: To advertise Highmark Caring Place’s services and opportunities to the
Western Pennsylvania community as a whole, in order to see a 25% increase of
awareness by December of 2015.
Strategy #1: To market Highmark Caring Place’s services and opportunities to
the Western Pennsylvania community through facetoface communication.
Tactic #1: To conduct educational workshops at churches in the area, such
Northway, City Reformed Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist
Church of Pittsburgh, Cornerstone Baptist, and Grace Community.
Tactic #2: To attend the 21st Annual Autumn Quilt Show, hosted by the
Beaver Valley Piecemakers. We will bring a quilt from Highmark.
Strategy #2: To market Highmark Caring Place’s services and opportunities to
the Western Pennsylvania community through visual conduits of advertising.
Tactic #1: To indirectly advertise to families, we will have posters,
pamphlets, and brochures displaying our key messages. We will also have
brochures available to inform families on how to start attending sessions.
28. Activity Log
DATE WORK LOCATION
1/26/15 Step 1 Brig
2/9/15 Established contact with HCP Alex’s
2/17/15 Step 2 Phone date
2/28/15 Conversation with Krista Ball Schoolhouse
3/4/15 Step 34 McKee
3/18/15 Step 56 Brig
4/2/15 Step 78 Alabama
4/27/15 Step 9 & Campaign wrap up Riverview
4/29/15 Finish Paperwork &
Powerpoint
Riverview
