CASE STUDY

Urban Resource Institute: PALS

Survivor Speakers for 5 2 URI Press Conference 010 (2)

The Challenge

Urban Resource Institute (URI) is the nation’s largest provider of domestic violence shelter services and a major provider of shelter for homeless families. In April 2024, URI partnered with New York City’s Department of Homeless Services (NYC DHS) to launch the city’s first pet-inclusive shelter for homeless families. The project was inspired by URI’s People and Animals Living Safely (PALS) program for survivors of domestic violence, which pioneered pet-inclusive shelter units for survivors after learning that 50 percent of them would not leave an abusive home unless they could take their pet with them.

URI retained The TASC Group to help promote this announcement. More specifically, URI retained TASC to generate a high volume of coverage in impactful local and hyperlocal outlets about the launch of Uplift Families Residence, URI’s partnership with NYC DHS and URI’s innovative approach to trauma-informed care for individuals impacted by domestic violence.

Our Strategy

Collectively, TASC identified and pitched over 300 reporters representing 30+ unique media targets. We paired traditional outreach via email with daily news desk calls. Our primary goal was to secure a high volume of coverage on local broadcast stations immediately before and after the announcement. To ensure that URI and NYC DHS were adequately prepared to speak about the Uplift Families Residence, our team worked closely with senior leadership on both teams to provide real-time media training and in-depth briefings before each opportunity.

Results

TASC secured approximately 32 unique media placements for URI and NYC DHS about the launch of New York City’s first pet-inclusive shelter for homeless families at Uplift Families Residence. URI had specifically requested local broadcast opportunities, so TASC secured event coverage on all major local broadcast channels including CBS 2 (which featured a digital exclusive), NBC 4 (which attended the event in person), FOX 5, PIX11, ABC 7, NY1 Noticias and BronxNet. Some of our team’s radio, print and online hits included 1010 WINS and placements in The New York Amsterdam News, City & State, NYN Media and Bronx Times.

All of our team’s secured placements featured foundational messaging for URI and PALS, information about NYC DHS’s role in the project and high-quality images and video from the announcement. Additionally, this coverage boosted URI’s SEO significantly, gave the URI team organic media placements to re-share and amplify on social media, brought awareness to a vital public resource that most New Yorkers were not aware existed at all and promoted the May 2 announcement far and wide. Ultimately the coverage secured by TASC on behalf of URI and NYC DHS generated an estimated 172 million media impressions and $835K worth of publicity.

172 MILLION

MEDIA IMPRESSIONS

MEDIA COVERAGE