Identity and promotional campaign : Delaware County Children's Advocacy Center : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

Abstract

A Children's Advocacy Center is a facility where abused and neglected children can be interviewed and counseled in a warm, non-threatening environment. This non-profit organization was founded on the belief that child abuse is a community problem that no single agency can effectively handle by itself; therefore, trained professionals from different fields work together under one roof to respond to cases. These multi-disciplinary teams include trained interviewers, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, social service workers, mental health professionals, and forensic nurses.In counties where advocacy centers have already been implemented, investigations have proven to be more efficient because efforts to gather evidence are not repeated. As a result, children are less traumatized because they are not subjected to multiple interviews. In addition to investigating and prosecuting existing cases, the advocacy centers play an active role in educating the community about how to prevent future cases of victimization.Currently, Delaware County is developing a Children's Advocacy Center based on successful models across the country. Local community leaders are in the process of putting together an effective multi-disciplinary team to enhance their existing SMART team (Sexual Molest & Abuse Response Team). They have successfully purchased a facility to house the new advocacy center in the spring of 2006.When new organizations like the Children's Advocacy Center take shape, visual communicators can play an instrumental role in creating their personality. With a major in graphic design and a minor in marketing, I saw an opportunity to utilize my skills to create a memorable identity and promotional campaign for the non-profit center. In addition to designing a corporate logo, stationery, and website for the center, I wanted to increase community awareness and understanding about child abuse through the development of brochures, posters, and sample outdoor advertisements. In addition, I projected the center's new image onto promotional elements like bookmarks and T-shirts.Combining principles of both graphic design and marketing allowed me to produce a strong brand personality for the Children's Advocacy Center. After seeing the materials that I designed for the center, the Deputy Prosecutor and Child Abuse Awareness Committee in Delaware County were ecstatic. Though some of the pieces will likely undergo changes in content before being produced and distributed in the spring of 2006, a cohesive "look and feel" for the center was successfully established for the future campaign.This creative project taught me how to effectively integrate marketing and advertising tactics into visual design. Today, the worlds of advertising and design have grown so close that it has become dangerous to ignore one or the other, I cannot stress the importance of using them hand-in-hand to create effective solutions for clients.