goals and ideas for Safe Harbor

As a way to review both what I learned from our visit from Safe Harbor and what I’ve learned from the text so far, I’m going to link what we discussed with Julie at SH with what the text describes as some of the goals and elements of a PR program.  The first goal the text mentions is “Enhancing visibility and name recognition” which is going to be an important goal for Safe Harbor this fall, particularly involving the newly renamed Relationship Education Project, formerly the Megan Project. This program focuses on teen dating violence education and awareness, particularly through direct interaction with area high schools. The new name and acronym REP need to be promoted and made more recognizable since many still know the program as the Megan Project. The purpose for the name change was to convey that the target audience is teen boys and girls, whereas the Megan Project might create the misconception of being focused on females only. Julie said the website repsc.org would ideally be geared toward teens but also appealing to parents and adults.

Another issue with enhancing visibility that Julie discussed is that Safe Harbor has a large coverage area and it is often a challenge to gain visibility in all the counties. For example, she mentioned possibly doing more in the Easley/ Pickens area to bring more awareness to Pickens County. One way to expand into those areas that are maybe less informed is to utilize their local media. If we do put on a fundraiser in Easley, inform the Pickens County Newspaper.

An additional goal the text describes is “improving and increasing service delivery and awareness of public concerns.” Relating to Safe Harbor, Julie discussed hoping to open another shelter in the future in Oconee County, which would provide increased space and services for victims in the Upstate. This, of course, takes funding and support, which comes from increased awareness. Domestic violence is a public concern, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, represented by the color purple. Julie mentioned that it is often hard to increase awareness during October because it is also Breast Cancer Awareness month, but we also discussed several ways, including many on the Clemson campus because purple is one of our school colors, in which we could promote purple, accompanied by info on domestic violence.

Julie also discussed also identifiying a college-aged audience by possibly having an event on Clemson’s campus for educators to come speak about college dating violence, which might also focus on seeing the signs of abuse in a friend’s relationship and how to help a friend.  Also, I think that we can keep in mind that though we are Clemson students and it will be easier for us to plan something at Clemson, we could also potentially help Julie get the wheels in motion for an event at another local university as well, since there are several in the area.

Here are a couple of ideas about promotion of REP and Domestic Violence Awareness Month:

One idea for making REP more visible in the high schools is to contact the schools about having a logo link on their websites to the REP website so the name/project continues to be visible within the schools beyond just a classroom presentation. Also, REP could set up at a high school sporting event, probably football game, and just have some information and materials, possibly some giveaways, that way they could be drawing in and informing both students and parents about the program and what they will talk about in the classroom. As far as materials go, an eye-catching brochure that is simple and not too wordy and will be appealing to teens.

Another idea for promoting Domestic Violence Awareness Month could be to use local media. I looked into if any of the local networks had a daytime/ morning show, because typically on those sorts of shows they bring in guests to talk about community events, etc. News 7 has a mid-morning show called Your Carolina, and though I haven’t watched it, it seems like a good platform for guests. One idea would be to have Julie go on and talk about some background on domestic violence, and then the events that have been planned for October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. There are many events, but if she highlighted a few, like the golf tournament, the display in the mall, and the charity dinner night, and then referred viewers to the website for a full list of events and more information, and then if Your Carolina also put a link of their website it would help more people be informed about all the events.