In the middle of my second year of college, I decided to challenge myself by entering a competition with a group of others. I had very little knowledge on strategic communication at the start of the competition, but I learned and grew from this experience.

1.
PRSSA Bateman Case Study Competition
Home Matters
Rosie Izzi, Leah Franklin, Kim Dang, Luke Marzalik
The Ohio State University
March 2015

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The Home Matters Solution
Home Matters is a national movement designed to ensure that every
American lives in a safe, nurturing environment with access to education,
healthcare, public spaces and community services. A key part of what Home
Matters is doing is helping to redefine the American Dream. Home Matters
believes the New American Dream is a societal commitment to improve and
balance quality of life and that home is the nation’s common denominator. (Home
Matters).
Situation Analysis
Launched in 2013, Home Matters has tirelessly been working to identify
the gap in public discourse. Fundamental societal challenges in our nation – from
health to education, to public safety, the economy and individual success – all
have a common denominator: their connection to Home. With a high-level holistic
approach to house, Home Matters underlines the link between Home and these
core societal issues such as health, education, safety, individual success and the
economy.
Home Matters seeks to impact the nation in many ways over the next ten
years. Those ways include decreasing homelessness, increasing affordable rent,
increasing homeownership and increasing the quality of homes and
communities. To accomplish these goals Home Matters focuses on the areas of
housing, community and economic development, education and learning.
Currently, more than half a million people in the U.S. do not have a home,
a quarter of whom are children. More than 50% of Americans are making

3. 3
detrimental sacrifices (getting an additional job, deferring retirement savings,
cutting back on healthy foods & health care, running up credit card debt and
moving to less safe communities or communities with worse schools) just to be
able pay their rent or mortgage.
Today there is a serious lack of federal, state and local funding. The
federal government does not see the housing crisis for what it is—a true national
crisis—and local governments can only do so much, especially with an indifferent
constituency. Additionally, housing non-profits are foreign to the public and don’t
fit all needs. As previously mentioned, the public is either generally unaware of
the situation or just doesn’t care as much as it should. There are few well-known
housing non-profits with the exception of Habitat for Humanity, which is
supportive of the Home Matters movement.
The time is now for Home Matters to become top of mind for Americans. A
combination of the recent recession as well as political climate lends itself to
successfully to creating an awareness campaign for Home Matters.
Strengths
Home Matters is an organization with a strong foundation of visionary
housing professionals. Additionally with backing from well-known organizations
such as Habitat for Humanity, there are obvious opportunities for strategic
partnerships. Finally, the current economic and political climates suggest that
Home Matters will be more successful than ever in its mission as long as
adequate awareness campaigns are executed.
Weaknesses

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It is not always easy to get people to care about situations that do not
directly affect them, so bringing the housing crisis to the attention of certain
publics will be a challenge. Additionally, for those the housing crisis affects, it
may not be easy to admit they need help or are a victim of the housing crisis,
thus it may be difficult to get them to participate in a campaign.
Opportunities
Because of the relative obscurity of the housing movement, there is
opportunity to mold the minds of those Home Matters reaches and tell them the
message of Home Matters first. Additionally, because this is a national crisis
there are many diverse markets to reach, allowing for the opportunity to reach all
types of Americans.
Threats
The current fragmented state of the housing non-profit sector could leave
those in need weary of being approached by another organization. Additionally,
as mentioned in the weaknesses, those who need help may not be so apt to ask
for help.
Home Matters is a force for good in America, and while it may have
weaknesses and face threats, it has enough strengths and opportunities to move
forward and succeed.
Secondary Research
When researching relevant topics to Home Matters, we focused on home
conditions and the housing crisis. We found firstly that housing is one of the
traditional areas of concern for public health, though it has been relatively

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neglected over recent decades (Health Knowledge). We also found that the lack
of affordable housing and threat to many families of losing their home because of
debts they are unable to meet has become an increasing problem. This often has
substantial negative bearings on mental and sometimes physical health (Health
Knowledge). Additionally, according to the 2000 Ohio Census, we found that 73.1
percent of Columbus residents were under the age of 44. Of that, 14.5 percent
were single mothers, and 36.1 percent were married. As for the housing tenure in
Columbus, according to the 2013 census (between 2009 and 2013) 53.1% of
people did not own their homes (State & County QuickFacts). The overall
population for Columbus was estimated at 855,553 people.
Additionally, we researched specific neighborhoods in Columbus and
found that the Driving Park area is an urban residential area. It contains
Columbus’ oldest park, which features educational signage depicting the culture
and history of the neighborhood (Livingston Park). The median household
income in the area is $33,827, which is lower than Columbus’ overall average of
$40,463. The percentage of single-mother households (among all households) in
the neighborhood is 29.6%, which is much higher than Columbus’ average of
15.5%. Additionally, the percentage of the population below poverty level in this
area is higher than Columbus at 31.7% versus Columbus’ 23.2%. Finally, below
is a graphic representation of education levels in this neighborhood comparing to
Columbus as a whole (Near South Neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio).

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Primary Research
For our primary research we conducted a survey of the target audiences
via social media. With over 40 responses, 64% of our respondents were between
the ages of 20 and 30, which fits our target audience for millennials. Additionally,
the survey told us that in the last month 41% of the participants had visited their
local library in the past month, making this an ideal location for some sort of
event. The survey also told us that what makes a house a home from their
perspective is not only friends and family, but also a strong educational
environment.
We also conducted a small focus group of millennials in the greater
Columbus area. One of the questions asked was, “If babysitting were provided at
a non-profit event, would you attend?” All seven participants said yes.
Additionally, all but one participant said they believe that some organization
would help with housing if they were in dire need. Finally, all seven participants

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stated they felt that it was extremely important that education be stressed in a
household in order for it to be a home.
Target Audiences
1. Millennials (persons born between 1997 and 1992)
2. Young parents–especially moms
Problem Statement
The overarching problem Home Matters has is making thought leaders,
government officials and the public more broadly invested in the housing crisis.
Goal Statement
The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness of Home Matters and its
mission, encourage target audiences to join the Home Matters Movement,
encourage target audiences to follow Home Matters on social media and share
content, provide information to the general public about how they may become
more involved and help their local Home Matters housing non-profit, build
awareness and understanding of the financial needs and the uses of funding by
Home Matters in respective communities and encourage the general public to
visit www.HomeMattersAmerica.com and donate to the cause.
Key Messages
Our key message for this campaign was simply, “Your Home Matters”.
When this message was tested with the focus group, five participants agreed that
the message was clear and concise. The remaining two participants noted they,
“just liked it.”
Tactics

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As previously stated our goal is to raise awareness of Home Matters and
its mission, encourage target audiences to join the Home Matters Movement,
encourage target audiences to follow Home Matters on social media and share
content, provide information to the general public about how they may become
more involved and help their local Home Matters housing non-profit, build
awareness and understanding of the financial needs and the uses of funding by
Home Matters in respective communities and encourage the general public to
visit www.HomeMattersAmerica.com and donate to the cause. With that in mind,
while sticking to a strict budget, we decided that implementing an event at a local
library to raise awareness to our target audiences would be the best opportunity
for Home Matters in Columbus.
After researching Columbus neighborhoods we determined that the
Driving Park branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library would be the most
successful location for an event to be held. The library is a new-build with
construction complete in July 2014 and is a local hangout spot for young adults in
the community. Additionally, as demonstrated in the secondary research, this
neighborhood would benefit greatly from Home Matters’ involvement.
The event that took place was a speaking event with our local Home
Matters representative as well as other representatives from local housing non-
profits such as Home Port to provide an hour-long workshop for single or
struggling parents and guardians as to how they could improve their current
situation through local organizations and national ones, such as Home Matters.
We also were able to secure free baby-sitting on the premises for those who

9. 9
attended the event via the service Fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega. These men and
women are students at The Ohio State University and donated their time to
watch the children, giving the parents an hour of focus on the event. We provided
$10 gift cards to Kroger to the first 25 families in attendance as a token of our
appreciation for them spending an hour of their time with us. The gift cards also
served as an additional incentive for people to come.
To spread the word for the event, we posted flyers at every Columbus
Metro Library, posted the event flyer to local Facebook groups as well as pitched
local media. You can find the flyer and press release in the appendix.
Budget
For this campaign, we had a budget of $250. All of that money was used
for the gift card incentives. We used the resource room at The Ohio State
University and print the flyers and the library room we rented was free as we are
library cardholders.
Timeline
As mentioned in the rules for the competition, we did all planning until
February. Unfortunately all rooms were unavailable in the Driving Park Branch of
the library until March 2, so that is when we implemented our event.
Results
This campaign was a lesson in client relationships. Our local Home
Matters liaison was less than helpful and actually detrimental to our campaign.
Despite the fact that the library was full at the time of the event, we could not
actually announce that the event had begun because he was over 30 minutes

10. 10
late to the hour-long event. He was critical to the event because not only was he
our speaker but he also had the gift cards. Also, there was a lack of two-way
communication between us as he would not answer emails or calls regarding the
event, thus we did not know our budget, or if he would even be in town for the
event until the Friday before which made it extremely difficult to pitch the media.
All-in-all, despite the attendance of the Home Port representative, no one else
came to the event, because it had started so late among many other factors.
If we were to do this again, we would have established clear expectations
with our liaison and secured a budget as soon as possible instead of relying on
him to come through for us. Had the event gone as planned, we believe it would
have been very successful. As previously mentioned it was in a good
neighborhood that was convenient for our target audience. Additionally, prior to
the event we had spoken with the Librarians who mentioned that there were
some people hanging around the library, waiting for the event to start.

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Appendix
Page 12………………………………………………………Flyer
Page 13………………………………………………………Press Release
Page 14………………………………………………………Works Cited

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@HomeMattersUSA www.facebook.com/HomeMattersAmerica
Find us online!

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FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Media
Contact:
Rosie
Izzi
Home
Matters
(419)-­‐309-­‐0443
Rosie.Izzi.2@gmail.com
Home
Matters
to
speak
on
challenges
and
provide
resources
for
struggling
parents
Home
Matters
to
give
talk
at
Driving
Park
Branch
of
the
Columbus
Metropolitan
Library
COLUMBUS,
Ohio—The
all-­‐new
housing
movement,
Home
Matters,
will
be
hosting
an
event
at
the
Columbus
Metropolitan
Library’s
Driving
Park
Branch
on
East
Livingston
Avenue
for
all
Columbus-­‐area
parents.
Home
Matters
will
shine
light
on
how
homes
can
be
improved
physically
and
emotionally
for
a
better
living
environment
that
will
guarantee
protection
and
emotional
stability
for
families.
Ways
to
improve
and
identify
hazards
within
the
home
will
be
discussed
during
the
event.
Additionally,
resources
will
be
provided
by
Home
Matters
to
get
parents
in
touch
with
local
NeighborWorks
offices
for
additional
information.
“Home
is
the
bedrock
of
a
child’s
foundation,”
said
Nathan
Minerd,
Chief
Communicator
for
Columbus’
branch
of
Home
Matters.
“Home
is
where
it
all
starts
and
so
we
want
to
arm
parents
with
tools
to
be
as
successful
as
possible.”
Home
Matters,
invites
all
mothers,
fathers,
and
guardians
to
the
Driving
Park
Branch
of
the
Columbus
Metropolitan
Library
on
March
2
from
6-­‐7
p.m.
Free
babysitting
will
be
provided
to
all
parents
and
$10
gift
cards
to
Kroger
are
provided
for
the
first
25
families.
About
Home
Matters
Home
Matters
is
a
national
movement
that
was
launched
in
2013.
They
aim
to
change
the
“American
dream”
to
one
that
ensures
that
families
are
provided
with
a
home
that
develops
healthy
habits,
helps
further
education,
promotes
success,
contributes
to
a
safer
neighborhood
and
is
affordable.
Home
Matters
ensures
that
homes
with
these
attributes
will
improve
the
lives
of
every
individual
and
citizens
as
a
whole.
For
more
information,
please
visit
http://www.homemattersamerica.com.
-­‐###-­‐

14. 14
Works Cited
"Demographic Statistics." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
"The Health Problems Associated with Poor Housing and Home Conditions,
Inadequate Water Supplies and Sanitation." Health Knowledge. Health
Knowledge, n.d. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
"Livingston Park." The City of Columbus. The City of Columbus, n.d. Web. 25
Jan. 2014.
"Near South Neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio." Near South Neighborhood in
Columbus, Ohio (OH), 43205, 43206, 43209, 43215 Subdivision Profile.
City-data.com, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.