Case Study · Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony · Media Coverage · Event Management
Seven Stories.
All Eyes Up.
When Intercultural Family Services broke ground on its new seven-story headquarters on Chestnut Street in West Philadelphia, Sylvia Marketing & Public Relations made sure the moment did more than draw applause — it drew the evening news.
& Public Relations
Family Services
Agency of record for the Chestnut Street groundbreaking — from first media advisory to the evening broadcast.
Intercultural Family Services has kept West Philadelphia families safe, healthy, and together since 1979. The independent 501(c)(3) agency serves immigrants, refugees, and multicultural communities — neighbors for whom language and culture can stand between a household and the help it needs — so every service is delivered bilingually, and always with respect for the people it reaches.
Four programs carry that mission every day: counseling for children, teens, and adults facing trauma, depression, and anxiety; intensive behavioral health services that reach at-risk youth at home and in school; HUD-certified housing and financial counseling that keeps families in their homes; and community prevention work, from parenting workshops to truancy intervention, mentorship, and gun violence prevention.
All of it was about to move into a landmark: a new seven-story headquarters on Chestnut Street, built to house the agency’s offices and carry its community enrichment programs for decades. Then, weeks before shovels were to meet soil, the agency’s long-time founder and executive director departed suddenly. A groundbreaking invites philanthropists, city leaders, and news cameras — and staging one without a misstep, in the middle of a leadership transition, would demand an experienced hand.
The Board of Directors knew exactly where to turn. One of its members had watched the work of Sylvia Marketing & Public Relations up close — as an employee of West Oak Lane Charter School, where the strategic direction Ken Kilpatrick provided the school had generated a tremendous volume of positive news coverage. She referred the agency to the Board, and the Board engaged Sylvia on the spot: precisely the steadiness Intercultural Family Services needed in a season of uncertainty.
Four programs. One safety net.
Behavioral Health
Personalized counseling and therapy for children, teens, and adults — plus Intensive Behavioral Health Services that reach at-risk youth directly at home and in school, teaching positive coping skills that last.
Housing & Financial Counseling
HUD-certified counselors help families avoid foreclosure and eviction, build financial literacy, and secure affordable housing — so a hard month never becomes a lost home.
Family Empowerment & Safety
Case managers go into the home: stability plans, connections to food and furniture, emergency help with rent and utilities — the tools that keep children safe and families together.
Community Prevention & Youth Programs
Free parenting workshops, truancy intervention that keeps students in school, youth mentorship, and gun violence prevention — quiet work that keeps West Philadelphia neighborhoods safe.
02 — The Work
A ceremony engineered like a campaign.
One groundbreaking, staged for a Board in transition and a city’s newsrooms. Six disciplines, one agency, every detail pointed at the evening broadcast.
Board Counsel & Ceremony Development
With its founder gone, the Board needed more than an event planner. We shaped the ceremony end to end — program, protocol, speakers, staging — and gave the Board a steady, experienced hand through a season of change.
Stakeholder Strategy
A full room is good. The right room wins coverage. We built the guest list deliberately — philanthropists, city leaders, and leading activists aligned with the mission — so every handshake in the crowd was a story waiting for a reporter.
The Buzz Build
Weeks out, the drumbeat began: media advisories, newsroom pitches, and a build-up that put Chestnut Street on every assignment editor’s calendar. By groundbreaking day, the press was expected — and expected is everything.
Message Architecture
The press release was written to be quoted — because it would be. Crucial passages were crafted so cleanly that the 6abc anchor read them verbatim on air, word for word, exactly as drafted.
On-Site Press Coordination
A crowded site with tight quarters is where footage dies. We worked alongside the news crew — clearing sightlines, sequencing moments, and making sure the frame caught what mattered: the groundbreaking shovel group, the event sponsors’ signage, and the IFS logo.
The Long Follow-Through
We kept the story moving after the confetti settled. Months later, the Philadelphia Business Journal came back to IFS for an article on how nonprofits are recreating real estate strategies. The event became a chapter; the relationship became coverage.
Nonprofits serving vulnerable populations deserve top-tier communication strategy, regardless of budget.The Sylvia Principle — Nonprofit Communications & Events
03 — The Results
The city watched. Then it kept reading.
The advisory opened the doors. The on-site work filled the frame. The follow-through kept the story alive for months.
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Broadcast feature
6abc Action News carried the groundbreaking to the region — with crucial passages of our press release read verbatim on air.
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Business journal feature
The Philadelphia Business Journal covered the new Chestnut Street headquarters in a feature article of its own.
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Months-later placement
The Business Journal came back to IFS — citing the nonprofit in an article on how Philadelphia nonprofits are recreating real estate strategies.
On groundbreaking day, Intercultural Family Services stood in front of Philadelphia’s cameras. 6abc Action News carried the story to the region, and when the anchor reached the heart of it, the words on air were the agency’s own: crucial passages of the Sylvia press release, read verbatim. In television news, that is the sound of a message engineered correctly.
Then the story refused to end. Months after the shovels, the Philadelphia Business Journal returned to Intercultural Family Services — this time inside an article on how Philadelphia nonprofits are recreating real estate strategies. Two appearances in the region’s business authority turned one afternoon’s ceremony into a sustained public profile for the nonprofit and its mission.
04 — The Mission
The same strategy. A different price tag.
Sylvia Marketing & Public Relations was built on a decision made long ago — and Intercultural Family Services is proof of what that decision makes possible.
For years, the agencies, schools, and community organizations that hold neighborhoods together have been told that public relations of a certain caliber sits outside their budgets. Sylvia Marketing & Public Relations was built to close that gap: full-service public relations, branding, and marketing — strategy, media outreach, events, messaging — delivered to nonprofits at deeply discounted, budget-sensitive rates. The senior thinking, the newsroom relationships, and the standard of craft stay intact; only the invoice changes.
“No nonprofit that serves people in need should ever be denied the power of public relations because of financial constraints.”
That is what Intercultural Family Services received: ceremony development, media outreach, on-site press coordination, and months of follow-through — budget-sensitive from the first conversation and never diluted to match the invoice. The result reads like the work of a firm billing many times the rate: an evening broadcast feature, a business journal feature on the headquarters, and a months-later placement in the region’s paper of record for nonprofit strategy. Madison Avenue caliber, priced for missions that cannot pay Madison Avenue prices.
05 — In the Wild
Proof, on the record.
The broadcast, the feature, and the follow-up — the campaign exactly as the region saw it.
Business Journal Feature
Philadelphia Business Journal
The paper of record for the region’s business community covered the new headquarters — and the mission the building will carry for decades.
Read the feature (PDF)Months Later
The Follow-Up Placement
The Business Journal returned to Intercultural Family Services inside an article on how Philadelphia nonprofits are recreating real estate strategies — exposure that outlasted the event by months.
View the articleThe compounding effect: one press release, one carefully staged hour, one relationship kept warm — a broadcast feature, a business journal feature, and a months-later placement: three earned placements, two outlets, zero paid media.
06 — The Client
Intercultural Family Services
Intercultural Family Services, Inc. is an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) human services agency founded in 1979, committed to serving the needs of children and families across Greater Philadelphia. From its West Philadelphia base, the agency provides bilingual, culturally respectful support so that language and culture never keep a family from the help it needs.
Its reach spans behavioral health, housing and financial counseling, family empowerment, and community prevention — a complete safety net under one roof. The new seven-story headquarters on Chestnut Street, and the press attention it earned, put more than four decades of service on the public record. Learn more at ifsinc.org.
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