Another year with Opportunity NYC
One of our favorite clients, Opportunity NYC, recently got some good news. The two-year anti-poverty pilot program sponsored by the Mayor’s Office and the Center for Economic Opportunity got more funding and will run for a third year. We’ve had a great time working with them for over a year and are thrilled to keep going for another one.*
They’ve let us have a lot of fun creating marketing materials to help keep participants excited and engaged. One of our campaign goals is to inspire people to take advantage of the program by sharing the stories of other participants who’ve done well, and some of the participants’ stories are pretty impressive. Breaking out of generational poverty is a rough and emotional endeavor, but these families are doing it. (We created a couple video testimonials about these families that you can watch on the ONYC website: http://www.opportunitynyc.org.) 
We got to go to community holiday parties last year and photograph participant kids in action and covered in glitter at the arts and crafts table. That was a highlight. Another highlight was learning that attendance at workshops and events, calls to the help hotline and overall participation in the program have grown thanks in part to the postcards, newsletters, calendars, flyers, fact sheets, talking points, website and other stuff we’ve developed for them as part of an overall communications plan.
Keep an eye out for Opportunity NYC in the news. It’s going to be another great year.
*Opportunity NYC is a conditional cash-transfer program that basically encourages underprivileged families to complete certain activities—taking their kids to the dentist, working full time, etc.—in exchange for small cash payments. Programs like this have had tremendous success in reducing poverty in Latin America and this is the first of its kind in the U.S.
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