Chicago Public Schools

I wanted to create a campaign that conveyed the challenges facing Chicago Public Schools and its students but mostly focus on how the SCORE program benefits the entire community. To do so, I developed multiple shoots to get a glimpse at the different sports in which the kids participate; conducted interviews with students, teachers, coaches and professional athletes regarding the impact programs like SCORE can have; and created shorter, social media-friendly content showcasing individual success stories.

CPS SCORE! Campaign

CPS SCORE! is a no-cut, playing-time guaranteed afterschool sports program for 5th to 8th grade students enrolled in Chicago Public Schools. Launched in January 2017, SCORE (Sports Can Open Roads to Excellence) seeks to provide students with a safe and positive environment where they can learn values and skills from sports participation, such as teamwork, self-confidence and problem-solving.
Challenge

With 371,000 students, Chicago Public Schools is the country’s third largest school district yet faces continual budget cuts, many of which directly impact afterschool programs. CPS SCORE was a new program that would meet some of the extracurricular needs of area schools, but it needed public and private partnerships in order to thrive.
Strategy

I wanted to create a campaign that would convey the challenges facing Chicago Public Schools and its students. To do so, I created digital video and print campaigns that focused on how the CPS SCORE! program is benefitting the entire community. I directed shorter, social media-friendly content, and scripted narratives about individual success stories that included students, teachers, and professionals.
Impact

Before CPS SCORE launched, only 10% of students in Chicago Public Schools participated in afterschool sports. In its first year, 15,000 students from 200 schools took part in the program. Thanks in part to our campaign showing how well the program was working, SCORE was able to raise additional funds that helped them expand the program and ensure it continued.