2013
ReThink Homeless Campaign
ReThink Homelessness was launched in Central Florida as a grassroots initiative to debunk myths and perceptions about what homelessness looks like. In 2013, Central Florida had the largest homeless population in the US compared to other regions of its size. The campaign was created to inspire a "rethinking" of not only the face of homelessness but also solutions to combat the growing issue.
The success of the ReThink Homelessness campaign, Cardboard Stories, grew onto the national stage, gaining recognition from non-profits, politicians, and business leaders, all rallying together to create state-wide efforts to raise awareness about the issues related to homelessness.
What's at stake?
The cost of doing nothing
Not investing in solutions to solve homelessness in Central Florida can cost the region three times as much to leave homeless people on the street than it does to provide them with supportive housing.
The ask
A central hub for the movement
Build an online presence that can act as a central hub for all #rethinkhomelessness social media content: communicate impact, provide the opportunity to donate, surface press coverage, showcase local partnerships that support the advancement of the cause, and present both #reallivesrealstories and #cardboard series that humanize the homeless population within Central Florida.
Contributions
Design and front-end development
Worked in partnership with talented people within my network to lead design and front-end development and deliver a custom WordPress site, empowering the client to maintain it independently. The website is designed to communicate boldly through strong typography and visuals to have an emotional impact.
The WordPress-powered theme was built to be durable, integrate with metrics/tracking tools, and allow the internal social media team to create pages, add content, and crank out website updates quickly. Once work was completed, training was provided to make project hand-off frictionless.
I was also responsible for maintaining dialogue with the CTS social media agency to ensure the design strategy maintained a connection to the campaign story and the site would support the goals of the campaign.
Planning
Thinking through the pages we might need
Built lo-fidelity wireframes to think through the purpose of each page and how users would access them.
Style guide
Creating visual consistency
We outlined the type, color, and button styles to format content consistently. Providing these foundational elements reduces work, keeps decision-making to a minimum, and acts as a point of reference when formatting or structuring website content.
Implementing the design foundations
Website mockups
The final designs communicate boldly through strong typography and photography, giving the campaign's stories room to make an emotional impact across every page template.
Reach & impact post launch
Impact
The ReThink Homelessness campaign became the most prominent cause-based brand in Central Florida in 2013, which resulted in 35,000+ followers, 6M+ YouTube views, and a record of $6M in unsolicited donations through the website. All metrics and performance data were provided by the CTS Agency of Orlando.
Credits.
XD / Development
Matthew Lett
Code Implementation
Roy Rodezno
Content
Samantha Henry
Campaign & Strategy
CTS.Agency