CASE STUDY
United Way of NYC: Choose Healthy Life
The Challenge
United Way of New York City (UWNYC), one of the largest and oldest United Way chapters in the country and a longtime client of The TASC Group, partnered with the nation’s leading Black clergy, including Senator and Rev. Raphael Warnock, Rev. Calvin Butts and Rev. Al Sharpton, and Quest Diagnostics to launch the Choose Healthy Life Black Clergy Action Plan. The initiative’s goal is to address systemic health disparities in the Black community. Choose Healthy Life aims to increase COVID-19 testing, vaccine awareness and preventative health education through the Black church, operating in 50 churches across five cities: New York, Newark, Detroit, Atlanta and District of Columbia. As lead implementation partner, UWNYC wanted to generate national media attention around the campaign and position UWNYC’s CEO as a national thought leader on the issue of racial health disparities during the pandemic.
Our Strategy
TASC led strategic communications planning for the initiative’s partnership announcement in November and future events. We crafted messaging to effectively communicate the scope and impact of Choose Healthy Life and developed multiple press releases as well as an op-ed for UWNYC leadership and other Choose Healthy Life partners to position them as experts on combating health disparities. TASC targeted key national and local media outlets to secure attention for the initiative.
Results
TASC secured coverage that garnered over 100 million media impressions including hits in CNN, The New York Times, Associated Press, MSNBC, The Grio and ABC News. We also secured a cover story featuring UWNYC’s CEO and leading Black clergy in the 2021 issue of City & State, as well as an op-ed in the New York Daily News. TASC’s work resulted in CNN live-streaming the initiative’s MLK Day virtual conclave which featured Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, head of President Biden’s COVID Task Force, and over one hundred Black clergy members nationwide. We generated media attention for all launch events, including a Harlem Hospital event where Rev. Sharpton received the COVID-19 vaccine. TASC crafted and fine-tuned joint messaging for all of the partners. TASC’s efforts successfully bolstered the national profile of Choose Healthy Life, amplified UWNYC’s essential role as the initiative’s lead implementation partner and empowered communities of color to get COVID tested and participate in vaccination programs.
100 MILLION
MEDIA IMPRESSIONS
MEDIA COVERAGE
