inferno Helps The Exchange Club Family Center Speak Up Against Child Abuse

For years, inferno has worked with The Exchange Club Family Center to help them speak up for victims of child abuse and domestic violence. We’ve helped design their annual report, produced their newsletter, and provided PR support to get the word out about their efforts in the Memphis community.

When The Family Center decided to create a campaign for Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, our PR team rose to the challenge – and #SpeakUpMEM was born. The message behind the #SpeakUpMEM campaign was to explain that talking about this issue must go both ways – it applies to victims who must have the courage to speak up, as well as others who need to understand that this is a real problem that happens in our community every day.

More than just a hashtag, the #SpeakUpMEM campaign included:

• Social Media: Throughout the month of April, The Family Center shared social media posts highlighting key statistics about child abuse. Additionally, posts encouraged Memphians to share a photo and/or video of themselves with tape on their mouth that had “Silence Hurts” written across the tape in black. The videos were meant to show the person ripping the tape off to signify breaking the silence and speaking up for those who cannot.

• Video Content: In addition to the three videos we produced for The Family Center, explaining the campaign and how to participate, the University of Memphis Student Government Association created their own #SpeakUpMEM video to support the campaign.

• Media Outreach: Our PR team reached out to local outlets/publications in hopes of securing coverage to further promote the campaign. One of the pitches successfully resulted in a WREG Live at 9 segment, featuring The Family Center Executive Director, Jennifer Balink, and Clinical Director, Catherine Collins.
• Website Page: Ultimately, the goal of the campaign was to increase awareness about the prevalence of child abuse and to encourage the Memphis community to act. We created a website page for visitors to learn about the campaign, as well as donate money to The Family Center, which would help restore victims to themselves and to the community, providing hope for a better future.

In total, our PR team’s efforts for this campaign resulted in more than $7,500 in publicity value for The Exchange Club Family Center. Social media engagement and audience increased significantly during this time period, with more than 36,000 total impressions and 31 new page likes. It is our hope that, because of our efforts, messages of The Family Center reached those who need it the most.