Neighborhood House Prepares to Launch
Ambitious New Initiative with a Strategic
Communications Plan
Overview
Client Profile
Neighborhood House has been serving
Seattle and King County’s low income
communities since 1906. Their mission is
to help diverse communities of people with
limited resources attain their goals for selfsufficiency, financial independence, health,
and community building.
Situation
Neighborhood House has a bold vision:
Help all 1,200 low-income children in West
Seattle’s High Point community graduate
from high school prepared for college,
work and life. The challenge? They needed
strategic, high-impact messaging to build
momentum and drive awareness with
donors, legislators, broad community and
program stakeholders.
Solution
Develop a Strategic Communications Plan to:
•Create compelling communications that
resonate with the community
•Unify internal teams at Neighborhood
House with a structured messaging
framework
•Clearly articulate the initiative’s value and
drive a memorable brand experience
Benefits
•Position Neighborhood House as a thought
leader and community advocate for early
childhood and youth education
•Help their diverse staff communicate with
external audiences in a consistent manner
•Stretch limited resources further by
focusing on a targeted set of outreach
efforts
“Realia’s Strategic Communications Plan gave our staff core reference
materials to do their jobs, and the plan helps us keep track of decision and
ideas. It’s a universal framework that I believe we can apply to other programs.”
Ray Li, Director of Strategic Initiatives, Neighborhood House
For over 105 years, Neighborhood House has served the diverse communities of Seattle.
Their programs and social services sustain King County public housing communities,
WorkSource centers and public schools. Staff bring extensive experience and a deep
understanding of the role language and culture play when reaching out to multilingual
communities.
Modeled after the success of Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone,
Neighborhood House embarked on an ambitious plan to launch a Promise Neighborhood
Initiative in West Seattle’s High Point low-income community. From their newly built,
highly-acclaimed High Point Center to their existing infrastructure of child/youth education
programs, Neighborhood House was uniquely positioned to help High Point’s children to
learn and succeed.
Approach
Realia worked with Neighborhood House to develop a Strategic Communications Plan
that included a Value Proposition framework as well as detailed outreach efforts in the
areas of PR, events, and communications. Realia President Melanie Morris consulted
with executive leadership to identify seven key audiences, from school administrators
to community businesses. Realia conducted several discovery meetings to learn about
Neighborhood House’s history and culture, uncover the organization’s key differentiators,
and understand the depth and value of the Promise Neighborhood Initiative. Realia also
carefully reviewed existing content and delved into an analysis of each audience’s needs
before developing a core set of Value Proposition messages.
“When I saw the inventory of the key audiences, it was eye-opening. I started to really
see the value of viewing each group separately and tailoring messages to resonate with
each of them,” said Ray Li, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Neighborhood House. “With
such an ethnically diverse staff, our internal team sometimes gets too caught up on the
process rather than the messaging. Realia brought the external perspective we needed to
complete the entire end-to-end process.”
“With such an ethnically
diverse staff, our internal team
sometimes gets too caught
up on the process rather than
the messaging. Realia brought
the external perspective we
needed to complete the entire
end-to-end process.”
Ray Li, Director of Strategic Initiatives,
Neighborhood House
Delivery Model
Project Outcomes
As with many non-profit organizations,
Neighborhood House operates on a lean
budget with limited staff to dedicate
to new initiatives. For the Strategic
Communications Plan, Realia identified
a targeted set of outreach initiatives
that maximized program resources while
minimizing costs. With Realia’s structured
plan, Neighborhood House was able to
get the newly hired program director up
to speed quickly, with a clear roadmap for
executing the outreach activities.
•Donors received consistent, compelling
messages through multiple channels
such as email, websites, and events
“An initiative of this magnitude really
benefits from such a strategic approach.
It helped us tie several related programs
together and tell our story in a way that
showed how Neighborhood House’s best
assets are directly helping the kids at High
Point,” said Ray Li.
Realia’s methodical project management
discipline kept the project moving forward
to a successful conclusion: A clear and
concise plan, offering best practices
and a realistic timeline that aligned
communications to the initiative’s major
planning milestones.
About Realia
Our consulting firm helps Seattle non-profits
increase their community impact through
strategic thinking, expert communications,
and flawless execution. For more info on our
solutions, visit www.RealiaCompany.com or
call (425) 466-5303.
•Diverse staff were unified by a single
source of information, giving them a
common starting point for planning and
execution
•Clients learned about the Promise
Neighborhood quickly and easily,
whether it was through a website,
newsletter, or meetings