For Immediate Release

Contacts: Sandra Hannon - 301-839-2744
Rita Mhley - 301-840-1454

INDEPENDENT PUBLIC RELATIONS ALLIANCE RECEIVES TOP HONORS

FROM 2004 MAGELLAN AWARDS FOR PRO BONO CAMPAIGN

Recognized As One of the Top 50 Publicity Campaigns Of 2004

Washington, DC – January 5, 2005 – The Independent Public Relations Alliance, a section of the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, received top honors in the 2004 Magellan Awards for the pro bono work completed this past year on behalf of the Center for Child Protection and Family Support. The Center is a Washington, DC-based community organization that addresses the effects of child abuse and victimization by providing innovative school-based and parent education programming, along with training and consulting for area professionals.

Judges voted IPRA’s integrated communications plan among the best “50 Publicity Campaigns of 2004”, and bestowed an honors award in the “Organizational Communications” category. The Magellan Awards, a publicity campaign competition sponsored by the San Diego-based League of American Communications Professionals, attracts entries from a wide-range of PR agencies, corporations, and independents. This year the competition drew more than 300 entries, which were judged in peer-level competitions. The competition class winners can be seen at:  http://www.lacp.com/2004magellan/C8.HTM.

“We are honored by this tremendous recognition from our peers,” said Sandra Wills Hannon, Ph.D., co-chair of the IPRA pro-bono committee. “But even more important is the essential work of The Center that we are proud to have been associated with this past year. Child abuse is an issue that needs greater discussion within our communities and among the health care professions.”

In early 2004, 18 members of IPRA, a network of 80 independent public relations professionals in metro-DC, teamed up and selected The Center as IPRA’s first pro bono client.  IPRA’s goal was to establish the Center as a regional and national leader in addressing child victimization issues.  In addition, it wanted to raise overall awareness about the prevalence and consequences of child abuse, position the Center as a resource for the media and peer organizations, and help broaden the Center’s base of funding support. Targets included the news media, potential funders, allied organizations and professionals dealing with child maltreatment, and the general public, especially clients of the Center and families who could benefit from its services.

IPRA’s pro bono services enabled the Center to organize its first regional forum on child sexual abuse. The success of this event set the stage for a second regional conference in 2005.  In conjunction with the forum, IPRA’s team secured radio interviews and media coverage in both local and national publications and websites. The Center’s website hits increased and the Center received two grants totaling $650,000 as a result of the visibility from the campaign and the technical assistance IPRA provided.

The Center was selected by IPRA’s pro bono committee in early 2004 after a three-month search under the leadership of its co-chairs Rita Mhley, president of Mhley/Davis and Associates, Inc. in Rockville, Md,. and Sandra Wills Hannon, Ph.D., principal of The Hannon Group in Fort Washington, Md. The success of the campaign has led IPRA to extend its pro bono services to The Center in 2005. In 2005 the pro bono committee will be led by Helen Sullivan, principal of InHouse Communications, LLC, and Julie Phillips-Turner, of Phillips-Turner Communications.

“It is important to our members to give back to the community,” said Mhley. “We feel that we have contributed to the recognition of the Center and look forward to working with them in the coming year.”

Members of the IPRA pro bono team included: Sean O’Neill (Symmetrix Public Relations & Communications Strategies, Potomac, Md.) and Helen Sullivan (InHouse Communications, McLean, Va.) on strategic planning; Bill Yamanaka (Arrow Mountain, Manassas, Va.) and John McKeon (John J. McKeon, Inc., Chevy Chase, Md.) on writing; Robert Udowitz (independent, Fairfax, Va.) and Christine Moore (NextWave Communications, Inc., Ashburn, Va.) on media relations; Heathere Evans-Keenan (Keenan PR, Arlington, Va.) and Bill Outlaw (Outlaw Group, Alexandria, Va.) on media training; and, Mary-Jane Atwater (Atwater Communications, Alexandria, Va.) and Julie Phillips-Turner (Phillips-Turner Communications, Queenstown, Md.) on Web redesign and content.

The IPRA network www.ipralliance.com is a section of the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and consists of senior-level public relations and marketing executives who own or operate their own practices, have three or fewer employees and belong to the world’s largest professional organization for PR practitioners, PRSA. A majority of members have been in business for three or more years, average 18 years of experience and together provide specialized services across 36 industry sectors to clients as diverse as “Fortune 500” companies, small businesses, associations, nonprofits and government agencies. PRSA’s local National Capital Chapter www.prsa-ncc.org, is the country’s largest with nearly 1,100 members.

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Note to Editors:  High-resolution images from the campaign as well as images of IPRA’s logo are available upon request.