A public relations plan for generating awareness and volunteers for Ahon sa Hirap Oras Na! (AHON) Movement, Inc.

• Main Authors: Aninon, Krizzia Allen B., Zapanta, Louise Justine G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: Advocacy advertising; Social advocacy; Publicity; Public relations; Information society; Advertising campaigns; Communication in education; Volunteers; Endowments
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6198
• Institution: De La Salle University

The purpose of this study was to address the problem regarding the lack of awareness which limits the organization's capacity to carry out activities that focus on livelihood and development, youth development programs, outreach and community development, and advocacy and information campaigns. Adding to this problem and at the same time causing it is the difficulty of generating volunteers for the organization. These data were obtained from the communication audit done on the organization, which showed that their existing communication materials are ineffective in serving its purpose. Thus, a strategic public relations plan together with an information kit was provided to solve the problem for the study which was: How will AHON Movement generate awareness for college and university students through school administrators that will in turn attract college and university student volunteers? The public relations plan was crafted to target potential youth volunteers of the organization, specifically students. It serves as a guide for the organization as it enters a partnership with different colleges and universities through the National Service Training Program (NSTP). In connection to this, the information kit was produced to serve as the initial tool in starting the partnership. The content of these tools were obtained from focus group discussions with internal members of the organization and interviews with external audiences of the organization such as school administrators and college and university students. In crafting both tools, theories in communications and public relations were utilized. For the communication theory, the two-step flow was used. The messages that were sent to the opinion leaders, who are the school administrators, were about awareness regarding AHON Movement and the partnership that they are offering. This information were analyzed by the said opinion leaders. Once these have been evaluated by the school administrators, the messages about the organization are disseminated to the students. For the public relations theory, the two way symmetrical theory of Grunig and Hunt was used. With regard to this theory, the organization, through the researchers, conducted a research about its public who are the school administrators through FGD's and interviews in order to gain understanding of what they want in a partnership. This was done by the organization in order to reach a mutual level of understanding with its public. From the information gathered, it was determined that the information kit, which includes a letter of interest, brochure containing organizational profile, and a CD with more information about the organization's activities, were necessary in order to start a partnership with colleges and universities through the NSTP. However, this is just the initial step in the PR plan. To further make it sustainable, succeeding activities for AHON to accomplish s The results of the study showed that the information kit contained the necessary information needed to introduce AHON and offer its desired partnership to school administrators. For the PR plan, AHON found it to be feasible as parts such as budget, schedule, clarity of structure, messages to be sent, tools to be used, and people that will be involved, were evaluated.