Company: New York City Public Schools
Agency: Fleishman-Hillard
Timeframe: 2005-2006
An ordinary visit for an allergy shot evolved into a full-fledged PR campaign for Barbara Cutler when her doctor, Paul Ehrlich, commented that he needed to do something for
children in the New York community who suffer from asthma.
What Ehrlich didn't realize was that his patient had the potential to do just that. "She looked at me and said, 'If you're really interested in doing something, you better mean
it because I work at Fleishman-Hillard,'" Ehrlich says.
The concept was ideal: "We had a solid and top-notch doctor making a difference and an agency who can make it happen," says Michael Rinaldo, co-chair, Global Healthcare
Practice at Fleishman-Hillard.
With Cutler as executive director of the campaign, and Ehrlich as medical director, FH launched the pro bono Project E.R.A.S.E.: Eradicating Respiratory Asthma in Schools to
help children Excel, with an aim to send specialists into needy city schools to provide poor children with diagnosis, treatment advice and asthma management -- at no cost to
parents, the children or schools.
"We've worked in the New York community for many years and felt we needed to do something to develop ties within the community," Rinaldo says.
"E.R.A.S.E.ing the Divide: Giving Underprivileged NYC Kids A Clean Slate in Fighting Asthma with Fleishman-Hillard" had three objectives:
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Identify for the pilot program two NYC public schools with a high incidence of asthma and African-American and Hispanic children, ages 5-14, from NYC's poorest and most
affected communities;
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Reduce school absences, hospitalizations and ER visits of participants; and,
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Develop an easily replicable model with the potential to be used in multiple NYC schools--and ultimately regional and nationwide schools as well.
Gasping For Air
Oftentimes asthma's economic impact can result in stress on several levels: for parents and/or caregivers, who often miss work to attend to asthmatic children, losing wages and
exacerbating already precarious economic situations; for schools that lose federal funding each day a student misses school; and for taxpayers who pay millions of dollars each
year for increased hospitalizations and emergency room visits. "As we started looking at it, the issue resonated with everyone here so well because it cuts so far beyond health
care--improving health for kids," Rinaldo says. "We could have a tremendous impact on academic performance, help them integrate within a social setting and, hopefully, help them
change the direction of their life and help them deal with an issue they're dealing with everyday."
Significant research elements included interviews with experts from relevant industries and organizations, as well as evaluations of peer-reviewed studies, government reports,
news articles and existing programs. Primary and secondary research confirmed that the asthma hospitalization rate is four times higher than the national average among NYC's
lowest-income communities, and that children receive much of their care from overwhelmed emergency physicians who primarily treat the acute manifestations of asthma. Research also
verified that specialists working in inner cities have improved health results and reduced healthcare costs, Rinaldo says.
Following tours of the public schools in East Harlem, the Bronx and the Lower East Side -- the areas with the highest episode of asthma -- the team chose the latter due to its
critical conditions: Area asthma programs were scarce despite the high volumes of asthma; the location was one mile from Ground Zero, where the lingering effects of poor air
quality after September 11 resulted in proven clinical deterioration in pediatric asthma patients; and ongoing construction in the surrounding area caused a severe increase in
airborne particles. The two pilots schools chosen, P.S. 140 and P.S. 142, abridged the high construction zones of FDR Drive and the Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge.
Going Back To School
Key strategies consisted of concentrating on the two schools identified; partnering with schools where students are in regular attendance and can be contacted consistently;
sending asthma specialists into schools to ensure optimal outcomes; and involve the community and structure the program as a public/private sector initiative.
"The first thing we recognized is that there are a lot of programs out there that are well intentioned but don't address the problem as intensively as necessary," Rinaldo
says.
"The principal must buy in" to the program as well, Cutler adds. "If you don't have a very strong principal that really wants to do this, you can forget this program." An
internal source such as a "parent/coordinator" who can identify the students suffering from asthma and monitor their appointments and progress is equally important in bulking up
the program, she says.
In the beginning, "it was difficult to get the parents to come in and form a trusting relationship, especially with a doctor," says Rhonda Levy, principal at P.S. 142. "This
year we've made a lot of progress. Parents and kids are very involved, and I think the agency is very much upfront with always being available."
On a broader level, the team was building a relationship with the city, Rinaldo says. Fleishman-Hillard developed a sound relationship with city executives, including
councilmen, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and NYC School Chancellor, Joel Klein, who was a "supporter of the program from the very beginning," and called it "a smart approach to a
serious problem." Klein's seal of approval gave the firm an advantage to "get into the schools and make the program happen," Rinaldo adds.
The team executed its Project E.R.A.S.E. strategy with an eye-catching print campaign, posting materials and posters in the schools, distributing postcards describing both the
program and asthma triggers to parents, and producing "tip sheets" from the doctor to parents and teachers. Project E.R.A.S.E. medical and executive directors spoke at school
functions to a parental audience and held doctor/parent group meetings. All materials were translated into appropriate languages.
Fleishman-Hillard assembled a team of both private and public personalities, and, in early December 2005, it jumpstarted Project E.R.A.S.E. with a press conference that
included E.R.A.S.E. medical and executive directors, the principals from the two pilot schools, Jefferson -- via video message -- and Klein, who toured both schools. "Having the
chancellor come into the building is something to see," Ehrlich says. The segment aired on the CBS-TV2 evening and radio spots ran on 1010 WINS. Media coverage has stayed
consistent ever since.
Additionally, the team garnered attention with a new Web site, projecterase.org, which offered information about both the program and asthma. The team also unveiled a music
therapy program from the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine of Beth Israel Hospital. The program harmonizes pediatric asthma with medical treatment.
Breaking The Bank
An unending challenge to Project E.R.A.S.E. remains funding. "Everything that has happened in the schools has been by the Fleishman Hillard network, which is fine -- we took on
that responsibility -- but the challenge for us to impact more kids, the ability to get into more schools and to keep the program going is tied to finding companies to jump on
board," Rinaldo says.
Now that Project E.R.A.S.E. has acquired some visibility, "we're really hitting our stride and starting to get into more corporations and places like we never have," Cutler
says.
Along with accumulating corporate sponsors, FH would ultimately like additional firms to join the campaign "to see the program reach its greatest potential," Rinaldo says.
"Fleishman-Hillard will always be proud to be the founding sponsor, but we didn't think it would just be Fleishman-Hillard forever."
Project E.R.A.S.E. met -- and surpassed -- its objectives. The campaign successfully established and completed its pilot program at P.S. 140 and P.S. 142 for the 2005-2006
school term, concurrently reducing school absences, hospitalizations visits and emergency room visits. Based on just 25 students and the most-current-known rates from 2002 rates
of $7,600 per hospitalization visit for children ages 5-14, Project E.R.A.S.E. saved NYC about $141,000, on hospitalizations alone, exclusive of ER visits.
The program has expanded into two schools in the Lower East Side, and "next year we're hoping to start up in Brooklyn, depending upon funding," Cutler says.
Project E.R.A.S.E. is the kind of program that the PR industry should be trying to embrace, Rinaldo says. "There's a lot of issues out there we can't solve, or that don't have
treatments that can cure as well as societal issues that look impossible to get beyond," he says. "Asthma's not one of those.
"If you look at the strategies here, PR does things very well: building relationships, educating the public, doing programs that work at the grassroots level. If we're looking
for how PR agencies make a difference in society, then we need to get behind projects like this," Rinaldo adds.
CONTACTS:
Barbara Cutler, 212.453.2361, [email protected]; Michael Rinaldo, 212.453.2436, [email protected]; Paul Ehrlich, 646.245.9303, [email protected]; Rhonda Levy,
212.598.3800, [email protected]
Best Practices
It took more than a good cause to make the E.R.A.S.E. campaign a success. Michael Rinaldo, co-chair of the Global Healthcare Practice at Fleishman-Hillard, highlights two key
components that complemented the PR team's strategy and achieved maximum results:
1. Bring in the big boys: The team involved professional allergists and respiratory specialists in order to be successful. Project E.R.A.S.E. emulated a private practice,
becoming a 365-day-a-year program with its doctors accessible between weekly visits -- even during the summer months. State regulations prevent physicians from prescribing
medicine, giving injections or doing invasive testing in schools, so Project E.R.A.S.E. specialists collaborated with the children's primary care physicians regarding treatment
options.
2. Create staying power: The strategy required a program that not only identified with the children but essentially produced an ongoing presence in the schools. Weekly doctor
visits to monitor patients' progress helped to build trust among the schools, patients, parents and doctors. "We didn't think we'd be successful unless we developed solid
relationships with schools," Rinaldo says.
Falling Short
For any PR professionals overcoming a similar funding obstacle, Fleishman-Hillard's Michael Rinaldo has one recommendation: Sell those results to get firms on board. Project
E.R.A.S.E. has a two-pronged selling point. The program is in the early stages, so the ability for a company to come in is uncomplicated, and the visibility is great. The program
also has the capability to impact either a national or regional market because the issue of childhood asthma is apparent in all areas of the country. "On the other hand, if you'd
like to have an impact in a local market, we can target down to local markets--there is a lot of flexibility that a sponsor can get," Rinaldo says.