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Wesley Family Services is a large therapeutic support and behavioral healthcare agency headquartered in Southwestern Pennsylvania that provides support services to more than 30,000 people annually. Its clients include children, adults, and families who are navigating the challenges of mental health, an intellectual and developmental disability, educational support, or a community-related need.
Wesley Family Services’ leaders are experts in their fields but lacked the time and media expertise to promote their organization. Although the agency has a large breadth of programs and geographic reach, there was little public awareness of its work. So Ceisler Media and Issue Advocacy was hired to tell Wesley Family Services’ story several years ago and help increase its client base.
First, the Ceisler Media team met regularly with Wesley’s program directors to become familiar with the unique services each program and department has to offer. We learned their challenges and their success stories.
With 50 separate programs, Wesley has many stories to tell. Our team worked to determine the appropriate platform and audience for each – whether that be earned media, social media or curated content like blogs and newsletters.
We worked to develop creative advertising materials, flyers, brochures, graphics, and rack cards for Wesley’s marketing campaigns that elevated the profile of the agency’s programs and staff members.
One campaign centered on an 11-year-old special needs student whose stunning version of Miley Cyrus’ hit song “The Climb” became a Facebook sensation, drawing more than 100,000 hits. Our team reached out to Ms. Cyrus, who was kind enough to send the young Wesley student a present. We were able to create a communications strategy around the presentation of that gift. We planned and secured an exclusive local news story on WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh’s ABC affiliate) that reached the exact audience Wesley was targeting. The story subsequently garnered national exposure on more than 25 local news stations across the country.
When Wesley Spectrum merged with Family Services of Western Pennsylvania back in 2017, our team led the internal and external messaging, provided strategic guidance, and implemented a media strategy to secure positive press coverage.
Additionally, we collected and wrote content for the newly merged agency’s website to create a cohesive voice for all of the organization’s programs. We developed an agency-wide crisis communications plan, which included media training for their leadership team to help them respond to any media inquiries during an emergency.
Overall, since our work with Wesley began, Ceisler Media’s efforts have helped the agency double its followers on social media, receive a stream of favorable media coverage, and increase its client base.