Situation

JSRN is a coalition of individuals committed to creating and implementing a bold local vision for early childhood in Jefferson Parish. JRSN is driven by the community’s need to improve opportunities and inspire change for children birth to age five in Jefferson Parish. 

Gambel Communications worked with Jefferson Ready Start Network (JRSN) to plan, promote and execute strategic launch of the Future Fund campaign aimed at key stakeholders, including legislators, business owners and leaders, community agencies, the media, childcare providers and parents/caregivers of young children. 

Research confirmed that there are over 28,000 children aged birth to five in Jefferson, of those almost 25,000 are eligible for publicly funded early care and education seats, however less than 4,000 children and families are currently using this resource. There is a need to raise awareness of this data, along with the importance of funding additional seats.  

The Louisiana Early Childhood Education Fund is a state matching fund that offers local entities in Louisiana a dollar-for-dollar match on investments made to expand access to quality early care and education for economically disadvantaged children. To be eligible for the ECE Fund’s state matching dollars, community network lead agencies can receive local funds from local municipalities, city governments, philanthropic organizations, businesses and individual donors. An award will not be made unless the local entity's financial commitment to the project proposed for funding provides matching funds from non-state and non-federal sources at a rate of at least one-to-one. Fund awards are reserved for projects that expand the number of early childhood care and education quality seats for families eligible for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) in type III early learning centers with a performance rating of “proficient” or above and at least one classroom with children 15 months or younger. 

The Jefferson Ready Start Network partnered with Jefferson Community Foundation to create a local funding program – the Future Fund – in order to take advantage of the state match. The Jefferson Parish School District is the lead agency for the Jefferson Ready Start Network. The work of the Ready Start Network is directed by a coalition of Thought Partners (community leaders from multiple sectors) and supported by a Core Leadership Team (early childhood stakeholders). 

Strategy

The success of the Future Fund campaign required education and awareness to businesses and community members. Gambel built an editorial plan to achieve this goal and worked alongside JRSN and its thought partners to develop an integrated, cross-channel approach to media and community relations, using social media, community speaking engagements and earned PR coverage to educate and inform, while driving donations to the fund.

As part of its ongoing public relations and communications efforts with JRSN, Gambel executed all media relations efforts, earning extensive coverage in print, online media, television and radio. In addition, Gambel secured public speaking opportunities with key stakeholder groups, consulted on a social media strategy and developed corresponding marketing materials to support the program launch. 

The editorial campaign included not only the launch of the Future Fund program, but also corresponding awareness of funds received, programs to be implemented to target groups (Latino) as well as the support by local government and elected officials, including a video series with Jefferson Parish councilmembers. 

Results

As a direct result of Gambel’s media and community relations efforts as well as social media strategy, JRSN received the following measured results:

• Total Media Mentions: 25 

• Total Potential Earned Reach: 34.2 MM 

• Total Social Engagement: 235 

Below is a list of other key outcomes that Gambel’s efforts with JRSN achieved: 

• Raised more than $500,000 from council, businesses and community members – which with the ECE state match will reach over $1 million towards new seats for economically disadvantaged children of Jefferson Parish 

• Created new revenue streams for early childhood education  

• JRSN leadership recognized for multiple awards including City Business Ones to Watch and City Business Women of the Year