Selling Hope through the Power of Video
Creating buy-in for Carbondale Elementary School's implementation of the Full-Service Community Schools model by selling hope to a spectrum of audiences.
Skills: Copywriting, Videography, Video Editing, Public Relations, Graphic Design
Staff and Partner Testimonials:
Telling the stories from the community schools program is easier when the people making the impact paint the picture. From bankers to social workers and everyone in between, we captured the part they play in Carbondale's community school model.
My contributions include interviewing subjects, filming and editing the videos, and sending the final videos to our fundraising website developers.
Pack the Pantry Food Drive:
After realizing our monthly food allotment from the St. Louis Food Bank was not enough to meet our students’ needs, our community school program teamed up with the University of Illinois Extension and the Carbondale Kroger to Pack the Pantry.
My contributions to this video include writing the script, filming and editing, and distributing the final video on social media.
This project caught the attention of our local news station, leading to two stories about our community schools program.
The donations from this food drive totaled more than double our monthly allotment from the St. Louis Food Bank.
The publicity from this event also inspired other organizations in our community to organize their own food drives, collecting donations for our program.
Student Introduction to the Family Resource Center:
Our family resource center was ready to start caring for our students. To make students familiar with the space, the services available, and how to access them, we put together this introduction video.
My contributions to this video include designing graphics, filming, and editing.
Summer Meal Program:
Every summer, we make a goal to feed as many kids as possible through our summer meal program. This is a promotional video I produced to reach the maximum amount of families through social media.
My contributions to this video include filming and editing, interviewing subjects, designing graphics, and distributing the final product on social media and email.
The video received 7,800 views and 57 shares in a district with only 1600 students. The program served 15,000 meals to Illinois students in one summer.
Other Work for Carbondale Elementary
My top-viewed press releases:
My top graphic design projects:
Why Selling Hope?
When chatting with a colleague one day, I mentioned how challenging it was to pivot from marketing to public relations because I "have nothing to sell." My metrics of success and methods for convincing an audience to perform a desired behavior were thrown out the window. He responded by saying, “You’re selling Hope. Hope in the public school system. That it can effectively educate our youth. That it can bring together our community and that it can produce contributing members of society by the time their high school graduation rolls around.” It was an eye-opening statement. One that guides my work to this day.
Create buy-in by selling hope.
