Sojourner Home

Voice of a Cause

Integrating monthly public relations efforts into our partnership with Sojourner Home aimed to help a wider community audience understand the support services available and establish the organization as a trusted voice in the areas of supportive housing, domestic violence awareness, and family transition. In 2018, Sojourner Home paired up with another local agency, Willow Domestic Violence Center, to host 'Light Up the Night,' a candlelight vigil to honor survivors of domestic violence during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

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Leveraging the community participation story to draw attention to the topic and local resources on domestic violence, the event and mission were picked up by several media outlets. An event listing in the CITY Newspaper, live coverage by 13WHAM and Spectrum News, and a follow-up segment on domestic violence on Rochester in Focus. Shortly following this PR burst, Sojourner Home was contacted by News 10 WHEC to provide a community organization's perspective on another local story related to domestic violence.

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Celebrating the Community

Community members, donors, and volunteers who supported Sojourner Home were as much a part of the story of transformation as the organization's rebrand, renovations at the transitional housing homes, and the women and family graduates. In October 2018, Sojourner Home was baffled by the kindness of a local high school student and Eagle Scout who selected the nonprofit as the beneficiary of his Eagle Scout project. Dante Brinson collected and dropped off over 5,000 essential home and care items to one of Sojourner Home's women's shelters to support the women and children regaining their strength and independence through programming.

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After tracking Dante and his mother down on Facebook for permission to share his project with the media, I landed coverage for his compassion on WROC's Extraordinary People segment and had the opportunity to honor Dante's work with an on-site interview. The story gained traction on social media, too, with over 1,000 reactions, 50 encouraging comments, and 160 shares on the posts about Dante's donation and Sojourner Home's mission.

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Fast forward to March 2019, and Sojourner Home once again celebrated the community's involvement in providing a welcoming home and comfortable experience for women and children living and learning there. This time, the support came from more than seven local painting crews. The crews donated their time and talents to repaint the inside of Sojourner Home: The House of Strength. Rochester First (WROC) went onsite to capture the painting crews in action and Rochester in Focus welcomed Christy Post, Development Officer of Sojourner Home and Skye Bird, painting volunteer, to the news room to speak about the transformations happening at Sojourner Home.