Complex Issue Communication: Transforming Crisis into Strategic Narrative
Award-winning strategic communication campaign that navigated sensitive stakeholder relationships and managed high-stakes messaging for a complex social issue.
The result: national platform placement, measurable engagement, and trust building across diverse audiences.
IMPACT
🏆 Multi-Award Recognition for strategic communication excellence
📰 National Platform USA TODAY front page placement
🎯 Stakeholder Management across vulnerable populations, advocates, and policymakers
📈 Crisis Communication success with measurable cross-platform engagement
Crisis Messaging Without Exploitation
Organizations face a critical challenge: how do you communicate about complex, sensitive issues without exploitation while building authentic stakeholder trust?
This campaign required navigating the intersection of individual vulnerability, policy complexity, and public engagement—a communication challenge that required balancing transparency with dignity, urgency with accuracy, and advocacy with objectivity.
Key Insight:
Most effective crisis communication happens when you center affected voices while building understanding across stakeholder groups with competing interests and varying levels of familiarity.
Crisis Communication & Stakeholder Management
Relationship Management
Vulnerable Population Engagement: Built trust with individuals experiencing crisis while maintaining their dignity and agency
Multi-Level Coordination: Managed relationships across nonprofits, government agencies, policy experts, and advocacy organizations
Risk Management: Navigated sensitive personal narratives while maintaining accuracy and avoiding exploitation
Timeline Coordination: 6-month strategic communication process with coordinated multi-platform launch
Crisis Communication Strategy
Sensitive Messaging Framework: Developed communication approach that balanced critique of systems with respect for individuals
Multi-Audience Strategy: Created content that reached general public, policymakers, and advocacy communities simultaneously
Evidence-Based Narrative: Combined personal experience with data-driven analysis and expert validation
Ethical Standards: Maintained subject dignity while exposing institutional failures
Platform
Reach
& Recognition
Platform Performance
National Reach: USA TODAY front page placement (print and digital)
Cross-Platform Amplification: Republished on Daily Kos with 175+ comments, 260+ recommendations
Sustained Engagement: Multiple award recognitions spanning 2+ years
Policy Integration: Referenced in advocacy discussions and stakeholder communications
Strategic Communication Recognition
🏆 2023 Online Journalism Award - Features Category
🏆 2022 LA Press Club Award - Public Service Communication
🏆 2022 SABEW Best in Business - Personal Finance Reporting
🏆 2022 California Journalism Award - Features (3rd Place)
Professional Validation
"The series is very powerful and stays with you... effectively demonstrates the very high and human cost of the lack of affordable housing in the U.S. today." - SABEW Judges
More Work Navigating Crisis, Trust, & Systems
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A Senior Fights to Keep His Place in the World
Trust-building during an individual crisis over housing insecurity.
🏆 2024 California Journalism Award, Features, 3rd place
👉 Read Part 1
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LA County's 211 Hotline: Domestic Violence Survivors on Hold
How systems failure required sensitive communication and source protection.
👉 Read the story
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A Sea of Black Men's Faces
Data-driven narrative reframing with social equity focus.
🏆 2022 LA Press Club Award, Local Political & Government Reporting, 2nd place
👉 Read the story
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They Were Homeless, Now They're Dead
Visual storytelling and accountability journalism in crisis.
🏆 2021 LA Press Club Award, Race & Society 3rd place; Animation/Moving Graphic
👉 Read the story
👉 Watch the video
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Unhoused People Want Empathy
Centering lived experience while pushing for systems change.
👉 Read the story