Our Year In Review
2022 was an eventful year for everyone, but it was particularly big for our team at Denny Civic Solutions. In January, we welcomed social media strategist Darya Kharabi to our team. In May, we launched our ‘How-To’ Series of downloadable guides. In September, we launched our newest service offering: branding packages.
And in October…well in October, John wore his Halloween pants.
But as we look back on the past year, the real yardstick we use to gauge our success is our clients’ success. And we helped our clients have one heck of a successful year:
Ballot PA: It was a packed 2022 for Ballot PA’s work to repeal Pennsylvania’s closed primary system. In April, the Senate State Government Committee held a first-of-its-kind hearing on SB 690, with several key partners testifying. In May, on Primary Day, the Ballot PA Voteswagon stopped by key polling places in southeastern PA. August saw a House State Government Committee meeting on HB 1369. In September, we worked with the effort to launch Ballot PA Vets, a partner effort engaging veterans on the issue of repealing closed primaries, and helped organize major vet-targeted events in Pittsburgh and Lancaster. We also helped recruit and engage a high-profile group of veteran Co-Chairs for the Ballot PA Vets campaign. As if that weren’t enough, we also helped organize and host a series of “leadership breakfasts” with key civic leaders across the state. Whew! Step by step, we are making this happen.
Black Women’s Policy Center: Did you know that in Pittsburgh Black women make just 54 cents on the dollar compared to white men? In June, we worked with the Black Women’s Policy Center and their partners at YWCA Greater Pittsburgh and the Women and Girls Foundation to launch the Pay Equity Pledge, a cornerstone piece of their Level Up Greater Pittsburgh Gender Pay Equity Campaign, at an event hosted by Carlow University. The Pledge calls on businesses across the region to commit to five concrete steps to help eliminate the gender and racial pay gaps.
Chuck Noll Foundation for Brain Injury Research: Named for the four-time Super Bowl winning, Hall of Fame Steelers coach Chuck Noll, the Foundation, managed by DCS, made 4 new grants to early stage brain research to improve diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of concussions. This was all made possible by a record-breaking fundraising effort in the amount of $1.2 million in 2022.
Draw The Lines PA: Our client Draw the Lines PA proved to be an absolutely critical player in the Pennsylvania redistricting battle that concluded in March. Their Citizens’ Map, compiled with input from more than 7,200 citizen mappers from across the state, reached the final round of consideration by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. DTL helped make this Pennsylvania’s most transparent redistricting process ever, and the Citizens’ Map was endorsed by Gov. Tom Wolf and commended by PA Supreme Court Justice Max Baer.
Family Care Act: In addition to supporting groundbreaking national paid leave efforts in 2022, our friends at the Family Care Campaign accomplished something truly special around the General Election this fall. We worked with the campaign to launch a first-of-its-kind Candidate Paid Leave survey, asking candidates across the state about their positions on paid family and medical leave. The result? More than 100 candidate responses, published online as a publicly-accessible guide for voters to access in the run-up to the election.
Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank: Our friends at the Milk Bank launched the Protect Sick Babies Campaign to ensure reimbursement and private insurance coverage of donor milk for infants in need. HB 2017, the Protect Sick Babies bill, and SB 1202, Owen’s Law, were introduced last session, and Owen’s Law received a unanimous vote out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in June. The campaign hosted a Digital Advocacy Day in March and an in-person Capitol Day and press conference in September. And if that weren’t enough, we started work on a new capital campaign, too!
Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners: In June, the PCNP-supported Act 30 of 2022 passed, allowing Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants to order home health care services. That was just one of the Covid-era waivers that PCNP was instrumental in either extending or making permanent in 2022. We also worked with PCNP to launch their first-ever Digital Advocacy Day in June, engaged hundreds of their members around our ongoing rebranding / communications efforts at their annual conference in November, and are gearing up with them for a social media revamp in 2023.
#PANeedsTeachers: In September, we worked with the coalition to host a summit of teachers, professors, foundations, and more in Harrisburg to address and discuss root causes of the teacher shortage crisis. With over 150 attendees, vivacious conversation, and very informative panels, we’d call that one a success! #PNT also developed an action plan and policy agenda for recruiting and retaining more teachers in 2023. We look forward to working with new and old faces in Harrisburg to see this effort grow.
Senior Care Wins: Our DCS team provided fundamental public relations, strategy, communications, and digital support to multiple senior services groups in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as they announced transformational news about their organizations in 2022. As the senior care industry continues to rapidly evolve, bringing more strategic affiliations, partnerships, mergers, sales, and transformations, we were proud to help our clients navigate these unprecedented moments of challenge and change. Learn more about our work in this space from our case study from 2021.