Priming the Media Landscape for Critical Legislation

For years, the Crime Victims Fund provided crucial support to victims of violent crime, including the critical work done at Children’s Advocacy Centers (CAC), the lifeline for child victims of crime across the country in their recovery from their experiences. Through CACs, countless children and their families have found resources, professional and legal aid and solace during their most difficult moments.

Federal funding for the grants that keep CACs operating was decreased by $600 million, meaning that the nearly 1,000 CACs across the United States were forced to consider cuts to staff and services, or entirely close their doors to the young victims in need.

Our goal was to generate support for The Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act, which would increase the Crime Victims Fund, an essential piece of state victim compensation and assistance programs. ROKK crafted and executed a bespoke campaign that included federal and local stakeholder engagement and media relations, executed in tandem with a multi-state paid digital media strategy. This campaign increased awareness of the impact of the funding cuts, brought visibility to a bipartisan issue and, most importantly, influenced lawmakers to co-sponsor the bill.

The ROKK team crafted content for local CACs across the country to leverage for local advocacy efforts. These resources included an op-ed template, talking points and communications templates for CACs to use in their own media relations efforts and social media support to promote timely news pieces and media hits. Each of these materials was critical to help CACs amplify their messaging, educate key lawmakers and move the needle in Washington. Once these op-eds were placed across the country, the ROKK team deployed a paid media campaign to reach key members of Congress and their staffs, members of the administration and key influencers around each stakeholder. The ads ran in targeted geographic areas to select audiences while Congress was in session.