last updated 15 May 2008

  CG&A Announces 2008 Awards!

  Projects in the Works

  View Past Editions of CG&A's IMPRESSIONS Newsletter

Published every other month, Impressions is CG&A's e-newsletter that provides timely public relations, issue management and marketing tips.

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CG&A is proud to announce that they have won the following Publicity Club of Chicago Golden Trumpet and Hermes Creative Awards for their work throughout the past year.

Publicity Club of Chicago

2008 Edwin J. Shaughnessy Quality of Life Award – Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network

2008 Golden Trumpet – Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network: Feature Video, "I Am. Are you?"

2008 Silver Trumpet – Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network: Community Relations, "I Am. Are you?" Campaign

2008 Silver Trumpet – Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network: New Media, "I Am. Are you?" Campaign

Hermes Creative Awards
2008 Platinum Award – Annual Report - Chicago Department of Aviation

2008 Gold Award – Chicago Mayor's Office of Special Events: Chicago Mayor's Hemispheric Forum

2008 Honorable Mention – Annual Report - Illinois Equal Justice Foundation

To see a full listing of CG&A's awards, visit here.

WFLD-TV's Robin Robinson (far left) and WGN-TV's Dean Richards (far right) present CG&A's Jeff Slutz and Scott Meis with the Edwin J. Shaughnessy Quality of Life Award for their work with Gift of Hope at the 2008 Publicity Club of Chicago Golden Trumpets ceremony.

CG&A successfully executed a statewide earned media plan for the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS), as part of the organization’s Lobby Day rally at the State Capitol. More than 600 charter school advocates traveled to Springfield to urge their legislators to lift the cap on the number of charters available in Illinois. In addition to pitching reporters in target communities in advance of Lobby Day, CG&A produced press materials, key messages and talking points for participants.

To help put a human face on INCS’ legislative initiatives, CG&A also reached out to parents, principals, and leaders of communities across the state to identify the most compelling, community-specific charter school success stories to leverage in the media. We rounded off our media outreach efforts by drafting post-Lobby Day letters to the editor for key charter school advocates, further highlighting the issue in newspapers statewide. In the last year alone and since teaming up with CG&A, INCS has doubled its coverage in print, television and radio media outlets.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS) presented Illinois State Senator Iris Martinez (D-Chicago) with its 2008 Trailblazer Award for her outstanding leadership in the development of Illinois charter public schools. Senator Martinez joined more than 600 advocates on Lobby Day to rally for a lifting of the statewide cap on charter public schools.

CG&A is working closely with Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights throughout 2008, handling media relations and outreach for the following events: Art Against AIDS, Celebration of Home & Garden, Midwest Light of Human Rights Awards and the Candlelight Ball.

The Heartland Alliance champions the human rights and improves the lives of men, women, and children who are threatened by poverty or danger. For more than 100 years they have been providing solutions—both through services and policy—that move individuals from crisis to stability and on to success.

To learn more, visit www.HeartlandAlliance.org.

Recently, CG&A managed the redesign of the Equal Justice Illinois Campaign (EJIC) Web site. The campaign is a bipartisan coalition of state leaders working to increase state funding for civil legal aid provided to Illinois residents. Working closely with the EJIC, CG&A updated the entire site, improved navigation and revamped the layout to make it more accessible for visitors and campaign supporters. The resulting site effectively communicates the goals of the campaign and provides supporters with updates on the latest campaign activities.

One important addition to the site is the “Call to Action” section that announces the latest campaign initiative to visitors of the site. The site leads supporters through a simple, step-by-step process that allows them to directly contact their elected officials and voice their support. The site also tracks users of the service, creating a network of supporters the EJIC can easily contact for help with their latest grassroots efforts. This allows the EJIC to disseminate information and conduct outreach in a more efficient and effective manner.

Visit www.equaljusticeillinois.org to learn more about the campaign and to visit the new site.

In conjunction with Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, CG&A recently produced a four-part video series addressing common myths and misconceptions about organ & tissue donation. The series debuted in April as part of Donate Life Illinois' National Donate Life Month outreach.

You can view part of the series below and visit Donate Life Illinois' YouTube channel here to view the subsequent parts.