Capstone Project Pitch

For my capstone project, I had two options, one was a local animal shelter, and the other I chose my candle bar that I recently opened in February. However, due to a little misunderstanding, my second option was not a viable one, so upon discussion, it was replaced with a local children’s home. For the capstone project, it is important to have a business that is receptive to working with me and the animal shelter was very reluctant. With that being said, The Smoky Mountain Children’s Home seems like a much better option and can use my help just as much.

 

The Smoky Mountain Children’s Home has an online presence on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I am hoping to offer my services with a campaign focused on Brand Awareness on social media. The Smoky Mountain Children’s Home (SMCH) is located in Sevierville, Tennessee with branches located throughout the United States. SMCH was founded in 1920 and was originally called the Church of God Orphanage. In 2014, Dr. Walt Mauldin, Executive Director, and Tammie Mauldin, Co-Executive Director took over management of the facility (Children’s Home,1). SMCH provides care for at-risk children and teens through their adoption, foster care, and residential programs. There are roughly 51- 200 employees according to LinkedIn, however, I believe this is only at the Sevierville location as each location would have more (LinkedIn,2).

 

SMCH is considered the home branch and sits on about 60 acres of property. The ministry has listed about 12 other locations in its brochure although I am not positive that those are all the locations that they have (SMCH,3). There are a few locations in Tennessee, such as Oneida, Lebanon, Nashville, and Cleveland. In the brochure, the children’s home started with only four children and has now, over the years, successfully homed 30,000 children. In 2020, SMCH celebrated their 100^th Anniversary (SMCH,3).

 

SMCH is a faith-based ministry as well as a non-profit organization. The management of this business is a married couple, and they have 4 children together and 14 grandchildren. They are the Pastor of the church and the Executive and Co-Executive Director of the facility (Children’s Home,1). SMCH aims to reach foster homes and qualified adoptive parents. To become an adoptive parent you must be able to meet the financial and mental needs of your own family, be a resident of the State of Tennessee, be 21 years or older, can work a full-time job, can own or rent your own home, may or may not have other children in your home and can be married, single, or divorced (Department, 2022). This non-profit business not only finds homes for children but also provides mental help for youth in need. Partnerships are listed on the website that help make this possible such as Tennessee Alliance, COA, KidCentralTN, Spirit Care Center, and Charity Navigator (Children’s Home,1). While this business is a non-profit business it relies on other means to bring in funds. One of the biggest ways SMCH gets funding is through the Women’s Ministries of the Church of God. Through state sponsorships of the cottages or ministries of SMCH, they have been able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

A similar business to SMCH is called Youth Villages (Villages, 2021). This facility was founded in 1986 and has a few locations throughout Tennessee. It offers the same services as SMCH; however this facility offers a bit more. This facility provides Intercept, a program to prevent kids or limit the need for foster care, and Lifeset, a program to help young adults make a successful transition to adulthood. Another service offered is Multisystemic Therapy which is for teens who are at risk of placement out of home due to anti-social behavior (Villages,2021). Youth Village is also not faith-based. Unfortunately, the world is in a state right now where economically it is getting harder to support families. This is causing an uptick in the number of children in children’s homes as well as other issues. There are way more children in homes than there are loving, caring parents available for them and that is a very sad situation. Right now, SMCH needs Foster Parents! They have posted yard signs and advertised everywhere they can get the word out... this is an ongoing problem that needs a solution. Recently, a new cottage was renovated in Ohio, opening more rooms for children. This means business is continuing to expand and will continue to do so. It is the mission of the Mauldin’s and SMCH to continue to grow and provide as many homes to children as possible.

 

I believe that the organization’s background will help me with my P.R. efforts because it gives me more insight into helping my campaign. I can use the facts that I know to bring to light how far they have come to make a video for the Facebook page. I also realized that Tammie the Co-Executive Director is a Public Relations Pro herself, so if I end up working with her throughout this process at all, maybe she can give me some insight. The P.R. work that I will be doing will demonstrate all the skills and knowledge I’ve gained along the way. I know this because I have already had to apply some of those skills such as the use of LinkedIn. Before taking my Master’s, I knew what LinkedIn was however, I never gave it a thought, nor did I know how useful it was. However, I was able to find very useful information for this assignment on LinkedIn.

 

SMCH bonds with the community through faith, hope, and love. On Facebook, SMCH will have a LIVE Q&A Virtual Event for those interested in becoming a Foster Parent (Facebook,2024). SMCH uses yard signs, brochures, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TV ads, News outlets, and any publicity they can when approached with an opportunity to get the word out to help find these children’s homes. The SMCH is always looking for qualified people to adopt a child, become foster parents, or become a volunteer. On the Facebook page, I noticed that people are liking and heart the posts and quite a few shares even though, there aren’t any comments. I know that a few years ago I walked into the facility, and it seemed like it was a close-knit place, like everyone there was like family even though they weren’t. They seem to have a quiet reputation which is neither good nor bad. I also know this can change given the environment, for example, the church would most likely speak very highly of them whereas the children living in the homes may not. To get a good idea of what the reputation actually is would take quite a bit of time for me to investigate and permissions to get.

 

I intend to use my P.R. efforts to focus on adoption. I feel this is the focus that is needed the most and where the most attention needs to be centered around. My efforts will hopefully bring in more views and I am hoping I can get more engagement. I’d like to see if I can make a difference in people commenting on the posts and get people interacting more. There seems to be a big following already so if I can just get people to engage that would be beneficial. The more people engage the more attention it will bring in and hopefully through all that, a child will find a home! My biggest downfall will be timing and communication. Since I have such short deadlines and people don’t respond to calls or emails around here for weeks at a time, that is going to be my biggest downfall. Welcome to the country life!