Take the Lead Campaign

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

In January 2015, San Bernardino County Children and Family Services (CFS) and Performance Education & Resource Centers (PERC) launched the Take the Lead Media Outreach campaign in order to generate increased media coverage that highlighted the success stories and available services provided by the department. With limited staffing resources at local newspapers and a competitive Los Angeles market that prioritized coverage of the greater Los Angeles area, getting positive media coverage of San Bernardino County’s various Children and Family Services programs became an increasing challenge. The Human Services Communications team developed a long-term strategy to generate positive media coverage on these platforms and thus utilize the media to draw attention to the various programs and services for County residents. The communications team implemented a new approach toward building successful relationships which was beneficial in enhancing media presence at CFS events. In a less conventional approach, the communications team developed an approach which could generate positive media coverage whether or not media was present at a CFS event. The communications team essentially began to “Take the Lead” in their approach to generating media coverage. This overall approach toward working with the media was part of an overall goal of the Countywide Vision that calls for collaboration amongst members of various public and private sectors to assist children from cradle to career. Through this campaign the department was able to essentially have an ally in the media in its goal of educating the community about the need for loving foster and adoptive homes, child abuse prevention, and other resources available to children and their families.