College of Communication and Information Works to Help Kentucky Moms

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 22, 2021) — Service is a big half of the University of Kentucky College of Communication and Information’s mission, so when two members of the school realized about a chance to help a statewide nonprofit group with their neighborhood outreach and advertising and marketing wants, they introduced their experience collectively to make it occur.

KY-Moms MATR (Maternal Assistance Towards Recovery) exists to assist pregnant and parenting moms scuffling with substance use dysfunction. The group serves the Commonwealth by connecting these ladies to neighborhood outreach and training alternatives, substance use dysfunction prevention and case administration providers.

To obtain these objectives, nonetheless, KY-Moms should promote themselves to potential purchasers and neighborhood companions. “They’re there to assist the mothers; however, so as to try this, they want to attain out to neighborhood organizations and medical doctors’ places of work, ask for donations for sponsorships, and design catchy promotional supplies that may be shared on social media,” mentioned Allyson DeVito, senior lecturer within the UK School of Information Science.

This introduced a problem — the group is staffed by case managers and prevention specialists, who do not need a background in advertising and marketing and neighborhood outreach. This led Katie Stratton, KY-Moms program administrator, to attain out to the University of Kentucky for recommendation. She was shortly related to DeVito.

Through her CIS 300: Strategic Business Communication class, DeVito had expertise in maximizing the restricted sources of nonprofit organizations. She has partnered with the $100 Solution Project previously, tasking her college students to construct advertising and marketing methods with simply $100. Now, the problem was hers.

“I knew as quickly as I spoke to Katie about KY-Moms that I needed to ask our superior CI Communications Director Catherine Hayden about getting concerned as a result of of her expertise and all of the wonderful initiatives she works on every day for our faculty,” DeVito mentioned. The two spent months planning the logistics, connecting regional places of work and creating an accessible presentation. The digital workshop came about in late October and outlined expertise comparable to web site design, e-newsletter creation, e mail writing, social media advertising and marketing and networking expertise.

Hayden introduced a important matter about fundamental design ideas and breakout periods on utilizing free enterprise instruments for issues like graphic design, social media scheduling, writing/enhancing and appointment scheduling. DeVito introduced a breakout session on efficient e mail and press launch writing.

Two KY-Moms MATR workers additionally introduced greatest practices on different matters together with making neighborhood connections and advertising and marketing methods in addition to a breakout session on media relations, primarily based on the profitable methods of one location’s work with their native media retailers.

As a end result of the one-day seminar, KY-Moms MATR has since tailored its advertising and marketing method, using newsletters and free enterprise instruments to make flyers, enterprise playing cards and social media photographs, Stratton mentioned. She is hopeful that these efforts will lead to extra referrals for providers from neighborhood members.

“It was a superb feeling to have the opportunity to take what we usually do every day or train in a classroom setting and say, ‘Here are some ideas and issues you are able to do that may assist together with your job to assist Kentucky mothers and their children,’” DeVito mentioned.

Learn extra about KY-Moms MATR at this hyperlink: https://dbhdid.ky.gov/dbh/kymomsmatr.aspx.

https://uknow.uky.edu/campus-news/college-communication-and-information-works-help-kentucky-moms