Why Build A Community Relations Program?
• Community Relations is becoming a standard
business practice in this country - approximately 90%
of big companies in the U.S. are making some type of
investment in community relations efforts.
• In addition to simply "being a good neighbor" by
"doing the right thing," there are tangible business
arguments for supporting and investing in a
community relations program.
• Corporate Community Relations Programs both
develop community and also make good business
sense.
Spectrum of Involvement
• Lower Level
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Episodic financial investment
Limited front-line staff involvement, no senior management involvement
No organizational staff support
No mission-related activities
• Middle Level
– More consistent financial investment
– Front-line staff participates in city-wide service events and low levels of
senior management involvement
– Portion of a staff’s responsibility is to manage community involvement.
– Few mission-related activities
• High Level
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Highly consistent financial investment (budgeted)
High level of front-line staff & senior management involvement
A dedicated Community Relations department with full-time staff
Programs strategically integrated with mission of institution
Advocates policy change
What are the Benefits to a Business?
Organization:
• Increases visibility within your market
• Develops a stronger brand value
• Enhances reputation as a good neighbor and corporate citizen
Employees:
• Fosters an “Esprit de Corps”: develops teamwork, raises
morale, interdepartmental co-operation and company pride
• Attracts and helps retention of high caliber employees
• Creates opportunities for employee personal development
• Develops knowledge and skills through experiences outside of
company culture
• Helps to position business as employer of choice
What are the Benefits for the Community?
• Develops a healthier community by extending
resources
• Adds new skills and energy to problem-solving
• Provides an additional source of volunteers
• Builds productive links with your business network
• Improves the quality of community services
• Develops greater mutual trust and respect
Community And Your Mission
Ensure that your rationale for community
engagement is reflected in your business,
vision and/or mission statements.
If it is important to your organization, then it
should be part of the core mission and values
of the company.
The University of Chicago Hospitals Mission
Our mission is to provide superior health care in a
compassionate manner, ever mindful of each
patient’s dignity and individuality.
To accomplish our mission, we call upon the skills
and expertise of all who work together to advance
medical innovation, serve the health needs of the
community, and further the knowledge of those
dedicated to caring.
Office of Community Affairs: Mission
The University of Chicago Hospitals Office of
Community Affairs is committed to building
strong and meaningful relationships with the
surrounding community and recognizes that these
relationships enhance its position at the
forefront of medicine.
Develop A Comprehensive Strategy
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Build Top-Down Support
Define Your Community
Know Your Community
Understand Perceptions
Develop Philosophy
Benchmark Peers & Identify Resources
Define Success
Build Top-Down Support
The level of leadership of a company’s community
relations efforts is a reflection of the company’s true
commitment. If the efforts are important, then they must
have voice & influence through senior level staff.
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Buy-In from Board, CEO/President, Senior Management,
Leadership & Frontline Staff
Incorporate Community at Leadership Table
Integrate community message into all of the key strategic
decisions of the company
Commit Resources to Community Relations
Define Your Community
1. Is it where your company is located?
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Neighborhood
County
City
County
2. Is it your service area?
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Primary
Regional
National
Global
University of Chicago Hospitals:
Our Neighborhood
UCH Neighborhood
UCH Primary Service Area
Know Your Community
1. What is the history of your community?
2. What are the geographic boundaries?
3. What are the demographics, i.e., race, socioeconomic?
4. What are the issues that most greatly impact your
community (health, economic development,
employment, education)?
5. How does your product, service or core
competencies relate to the community?
6. How are you perceived by the community? Why?
7. Who are the formal and informal leaders and
institutions in your community?
History of our Community
• Chicago’s South Side became known as the capital of Black America.
– Largest contiguous settlement of African Americans in the U.S.
– Home to nation’s outstanding black leaders and entertainers:
• Joe Louis, Mahalia Jackson, William Dawson (the first black U.S.
Congressman)
• The country’s most prominent black newspaper, The Chicago Defender, was
established and published in this neighborhood (Bud Billiken Parade).
• The country’s largest black church, Olivet Baptist, was located here.
• The neighborhood was nationally known for its retail and entertainment.
– Half dozen shopping districts including 47th and 63rd streets.
– Home of the Regal Theater & the Savoy
• Some of the best jazz in the country was played.
• By the end of the 1960s, unsuccessful efforts at urban renewal left many
of these neighborhoods former shadows of themselves.
– Blacks moved out into other parts of the City.
– Many wealthier blacks began to move out of the neighborhood in large numbers.
Our Neighborhood Profile
• Population
– 228,829 (constitutes about 30% of the Hospital’s PSA)
– Declined 30% in last 20 years (like City of Chicago).
• Race
– Today, overwhelmingly African American (88%)
– City’s total African American population is only 36%
• Income
– Our neighborhood is comprised of working class people with a median
income of about $20,000.
– However, there are meaningful percentages of households with incomes
well over $50,000 a year.
Our Neighborhood Profile (Continued)
• Health Insurance
– 25% of our neighborhood is privately insured.
– Medicare and Medicaid are the predominant forms of insurance coverage
• 27% Medicaid
• 11% Medicare
• 35% Uninsured
• Health status
– Public health concerns that one would expect in a lower income community:
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High rates of low birth weight babies
Absence of prenatal care
High rates of death due to heart disease, stroke
High rates of HIV/AIDS
• UCH Employment
– U of C & UCH are the largest employers on the city’s Southside, each employing
over 5,000 people. (as of June 2002, 17% of UCH employees lived in our
neighborhood).
Assets: Pockets of Relative Affluence
Although our neighborhood remains predominately economically poor, there are
pockets of relative affluence throughout the area. This graph shows that there are
meaningful percentages of households with incomes greater than $50,000 in every
community area in our neighborhood. The areas with the most significant increases in
income were Grand Blvd (13%), Kenwood (16%) and Washington Park (11%).
40
35
% Households
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25
20
15
10
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Assets: Increasing Housing Prices
This graph shows the increase in housing sales prices in the neighborhood. The blue
bar represents sales price changes for detached, single family homes since 1994. Sales
prices have increased dramatically since 1994 in Grand Boulevard and Kenwood
(200%), Hyde Park (100%), South Shore and Woodlawn (50%).
Change in Sale Price
225
% Change
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125
75
25
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Since 1994
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Understand Perceptions
Internal:
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What are the Internal Perceptions of the community among employees?
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Identify existing relationships between the company and the
community…Formal? Informal? What are your people already doing?
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Are there any fears, biases, stereotypes, barriers that employees have
about the community?
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Are there any internal dynamics or internal politics that could have a
bearing on how employees perceive the community?
External:
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How does the community perceive you?
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What are the perceptions based on? History? Inconsistent
Involvement? Unkept Promises?
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What are the community’s expectations of your business?
Develop Philosophy
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This is a crucial step in the process
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Philosophy will help you establish your approach
Form the lens through which you view the community
Establish guidelines that help you engage with the
community
Important to establish basic principles that will define
and guide your efforts in building strong community
relationships.
Develop Philosophy: Deficit-Based Model
Develop Philosophy: Asset-Based Model
Benchmark Peers & Identify Resources
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What are other companies doing? Why?
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What resources already exist?
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Points of Light Foundation: www.pointsoflight.org
Center for Corporate Citizenship: www.bcccc.net
Chicago Cares: www.chicagocares.org
Are there opportunities to leverage resources?
Other funding Sources? Add to Employees
current Efforts?
Define Success
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What change do you envision in the
community and at your company?
What are your baseline measures?
How will you evaluate your efforts?
How will you demonstrate the impact on
the community and in your company?
How will you celebrate success in the
community or in your company?
Define Success: A UCH Example
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SMART Goals
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Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
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Goal 1: Increase the number of active volunteers to 650
(15% annual increase) by FY’07 to support the culture of
service and improve the patient experience at UCH.
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Goal 2: Engage 20% (1,000 employees) by FY’07 under
the name of UCH in service to the community which
helps to position UCH as an employer of choice.
UCH Community Relations Activities
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Day of Service & Reflection
Pediatric Mobile Medical Unit
Hospital Tours for Schools
Service Learning Initiative
Preparing For Adolescence
Health Communities Access
Program (HCAP)
Principal-For-A-Day
Expo For Today’s Black
Woman
Bud Billiken Day Parade
Summer Health Fair Series
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Adopt-A-School: Tutoring
Small Grants Initiative
Community Fitness Program
Community Speakers Group
Science Fair Judging
Community Bus Tour
HIV/AIDS Education
Hyde Park Academy
Shadowing
• NBC 5 Health & Fitness Expo
• Adopt-A-Pediatrician
• Community Sponsorships
UCH & Community Involvement:
Progress Over 4 Years
900
852
800
750
700
600
575
490
500
400
Employee Volunteers (in Community)
474
Community Volunteers (at UCH)
373
300
200
220 200
100
0
FY03
FY04
FY05
FY06
Take the First Steps: Get Active
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Add community relations programming to your agenda
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Develop a inter-departmental community relations task-force
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Executive Board Meeting
Senior Management Meeting
Departmental Staff Meeting
Develop diverse team
Research employee involvement and interests
Plan a service day
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Partner with another organization
Gardening, bagging groceries for people with HIV/AIDS, organize donated
clothing, prepare food for the homeless, build a playground, clean up the
shoreline, participate in a walk-a-thon