Madison Ave. Collective

Abstract

There’s a statewide initiative in Oregon to address societal problems such as crime, substance abuse, and mental illness. Our client, Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC), wanted to address those issues: keeping children from slipping through the cracks by connecting families with the education and resources needed to overcome the challenges they face.

Initially funded by the region’s coordinated care organization, IHN-CCO, this project partners with hospitals, social service organizations, public health and education efforts, and a local parenting education collaborative.

After doing the research to understand the core challenge, the MAC took an iterative approach, working with our client to develop a strategy, naming and identity, and messaging system that represents the coordinated effort of multiple organizations, balances government objectives, and fulfills technical requirements and HIPAA compliance.

The result? An effective brand identity and website that serves the needs of its audience and delivers on its objectives.

Strategy

Challenge

Crime, substance abuse, and mental illness are widespread problems, and they bear a significant impact on the communities they affect. When state officials launched an initiative to address these issues on a regional basis, our client took up the challenge.

Goal

LBCC and its partners wanted to align healthcare, parenting education, and early childhood services (prenatal to age five) in the counties of Linn, Benton, and Lincoln in Oregon: providing families with the resources to respond to challenges at any point on their journey.

Discovery

We were deeply struck by the fact that societal problems like crime, substance abuse, and mental illness don’t come out of nowhere. Every incident has a backstory, though we may not know it’s brewing until it makes a headline.

If we could address these issues before they emerge, we could make a difference. But how do you solve a problem that hasn’t yet surfaced?

The answer lay in education. We realized that if we can equip parents with the resources to overcome any challenge, we can keep vulnerable children from slipping through the cracks.

The problem is, there’s a stigma to needing help. People don’t want to feel like they need parenting classes, especially if they’ve already been doing this a while. Providing resources is not enough: it does no good if those who need help don’t reach out.

That’s when we identified early outreach as the strategic lynchpin. If parenting education begins at pregnancy, when families are eager for information and hopeful about the future, we can normalize support, connect families with resources, and be there for them down the road as challenges emerge.

Execution

Although this project is driven by several major regional institutions, it cannot afford to feel institutional. To resonate with parents, we knew the brand needed to feel human.

After a broad exploration of options, we recommended the name Pollywog to convey tenderness, transition and growth. We gave the brand a living, growing feeling to evoke the optimism and transformation of young children and new beginnings. The identity system we developed included a comprehensive guidelines document (see brand book.)

Based on our research, we made lead capture a major objective of the project’s website (see pollywogfamily.org). Wherever a parent may be in their journey, we want to bring them into the system so they can access the resources they may need down the road.

During the development process, we worked with our client’s lead development company to integrate the website with the CCO’s HIPAA-compliant database.