Hopping Aboard Child & Family Services

Families in Buffalo are suffering every day from lack of food, housing and education, and struggling with issues related to violence and drug/alcohol abuse. Where can these people in our community seek help? Who can they turn to? Child & Family Services has dedicated its resources to meet the needs of children and families by fostering safe and healthy environments for children and families in local homes, schools, workplaces and communities. This semester, I hopped on board their mission and became a Public Relations Intern. Going into the position, I was excited because I’ve always wanted to be a part of an organization whose main goal is to help people in my community. However, I was nervous because this was my first time working in an office setting and I didn’t know what kind of work environment and load to expect. Settling in the past couple weeks, my nerves have calmed and I’ve been busy with working on a ton of new projects and learning a bunch of new faces. I was given the opportunity to write a few press releases since I’ve been there, both for internal and external communication purposes. I wrote a release about an employee who won an award for her work in the organization, as well as two different releases for the organization’s upcoming events. My bosses loved the articles, but had really great constructive criticism feedback that helped me make them even stronger, and taught me how to write further publications. Child & Family Services’ Haven House, which is responsible for housing and helping domestic violence victims and their families, is hosting their annual “Fashion Show with a Twist” event during October to kick off domestic violence awareness month. I learned about which variables were essential to include in the release, and how to get people interested in the event. I’ve also practiced some PR and marketing strategies by hanging flyers around the Buffalo community in local coffee shops and restaurants, as well as started selling bracelets for donations for Haven House and made social media postings to get the word out. It’s really cool being on the inside of things for such a large, incredible event and interesting to learn all the different parts that go into it. I’m excited to see how the event unfolds this October, as well as the rest of my semester with Child & Family Services!