Students of the SUNY Fredonia Public Relations Management course and the Chautauqua Adult Day Care Centers, Inc. are in a partnership that will help the agency explain its services to more people in the community. The adult day care was selected from over a dozen applicants in the Chautauqua region who asked for help from the class this year. Professor of Communication Ann Carden teaches the capstone course, which requires students to put into practice all they've learned in the public relations degree curriculum.
“This is an opportunity for the Chautauqua Adult Day Care Centers to reach out to the community and make known a service that is increasingly becoming needed,” said Frank Bercik, executive director of Chautauqua Adult Day Care Centers, Inc. Bercik is anticipating the success that the groups will bring for his organization.
“We were very honored to be chosen as the group that these bright young people will be working with,” he said. “We are looking for anything that may help us in some way and we can’t wait to see what they will come up with.”
The students will spend the semester developing public relations plans for the centers. Their final presentations will be made in late April. The intention of the project is to “educate people about what adult day care is,” Bercik said. The Chautauqua Adult Day Care centers provide four-day programs in the county for frail, older adults. The mission of the not-for-profit agency is to help adults remain in their homes and help delay nursing home placement. It also helps to give caregivers a break and allows people to remain employed.
The goal of the course is for students to apply their skills to one actual public relations campaign their senior year. The class splits up into groups, and each group develops its own campaign to benefit the organization in some way. The groups compete against one another, each in an attempt to have its campaign selected for use.
At top: Students in the Spring 2006 PR Management class are competing to prepare the best public relations campaign for Chautauqua Adult Day Care Centers. At left, students hold up the agency's banner.
