Leads the community in ending domestic violence and child abuse, and rebuilding lives.  With a complete spectrum of prevention, intervention, and treatment programs, we also enlist the efforts of local residents, partners, and institutions, all of whom are striving with us to stop domestic violence and child abuse.

Project Description:

Our mission statement is: STAND! is a catalyst for breaking the multi-generational cycle of violence, promoting safe and strong relationships, and rebuilding lives. We provide services that surround the problem of family violence from multiple angles, intervening when violence strikes while also working to prevent its occurrence. Our services are divided into three clusters, as follows:

INTERVENTION includes our Crisis Line and our residential Emergency Shelter and Transitional Housing programs for victims of domestic violence (DV) and their children. Clients in these programs receive emergency intervention, legal advocacy and court accompaniment, daily support groups, and comprehensive case management. Children in our residential programs also receive specialized support and child care. We also station DV Liaisons at a variety of offices across the county including CalWORKS offices, health clinics, and police stations.

CLINICAL services include therapy provided by licensed or license-eligible clinicians to clients experiencing family violence, specialized programs for children suffering from emotional and behavioral difficulties, parenting classes for young and at-risk parents, and our Domestic Violence Treatment Program – counseling for those who have abused their partners.

PREVENTION includes school-based services that educate teens about healthy relationships; our Speaker’s Bureau, educating the community at large about STAND!’s work; the Bay Point First 5 Center, which provides parenting classes and other family activities in a one-stop resource center; programs mobilizing men in the community to end family violence; and more.

We would like assistance from an HBS Community Partners team to help develop our communications plan, specifically in the area of key messaging.  We want to establish a set of key messages for the unified organization that express our mission as well as the look and feel of our branding for our key audiences.

This project – developing a set of key messages to better position the agency as an innovator in our field and catalyst for change in the community – is a formal priority for the organization, and was defined by the CEO and Board of Directors. STAND! For Families Free of Violence (STAND!), in its current form, is the result of the forward-thinking 2010 merger between a domestic violence agency (STAND! Against Domestic Violence) and a child abuse agency (the Family Stress Center). Since the merger, the organization’s leaders have been engaged in a strategic planning process, clarifying and unifying the vision of the merged agency, focused on family violence and trauma dynamics. A detailed communications plan – encompassing the key messaging project – is a critical piece of our formal Strategic Plan. We believe that establishing a set of key messages will help us better engage our current supporters, build a broad base of new supporters, and position ourselves as a thought leader in the field of family violence service provision.

This work will build on previous work we did with brand consultants Addis Cresson when we re-named the agency STAND! Against Domestic Violence (formerly it had been Battered Women’s Alternatives). We are aware that there is some confusion and disconnection in our community’s perception of our agency. For example, some supporters still refer to the agency by its old name and some former supporters of the Family Stress Center are unaware that it was incorporated into STAND!. We have not had the resources to provide the quantity of clear and consistent messages necessary to establish ourselves in the community as strongly as we would like. Thus, this is a critical time for STAND! to establish our vision and our messages, in order to reconnect with our former supporters and connect with new supporters around our unified vision.

Goals and deliverables of the project include:

Deliverables:

• A set of key messages attuned to core audiences that will help us accomplish the goals and outcomes listed below.

 Goals:

• Position STAND! as more than the sum of its two merged parts, domestic violence and child abuse services.
• Differentiate STAND! from other family violence agencies and shelter providers.
• Position STAND! as thought-leader on issues of family violence, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, and teen dating violence.
• Build awareness of STAND! in the Contra Costa community
• Remove the stigma of talking about and addressing family violence

Outcomes:

• Increase donations by $200,000 (from individuals, foundations, corporations, and groups)
• Connect our work with the needs and interests of employers (corporate and business community)
• Establish ourselves as reliable, go-to experts on domestic violence, violence against women, intimate partner violence, teen dating violence, child abuse, and human trafficking among the media (local, regional, national)

Primary Audiences:

• Current supporters, corporate community, business and community organizations (Rotary associations, churches)
• Policy makers, community leaders, thought leaders (health care providers, educators, safety net providers)

Secondary Audiences: General public

Key messages should position STAND! as an innovative, inspiring, highly-regarded expert on and provider of solutions for family violence in the Contra Costa community and beyond.

Intrigued? Contact us here!