From Fundraiser to Fearless Community Leader
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From Fundraiser to Fearless Community Leader

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May 18, 2016

Written by Gary Mueller, Creative Director BVK, Founder of Serve Marketing

I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since we began working on Teen Pregnancy Prevention. It seems like yesterday Lisa Tries, who worked for United Way and authored the "Truth Must Be Told” report asked to meet me and Heather Perkins (Serve’s former Executive Director) at Hotel Metro to discuss an exciting new opportunity to do a bold, amazing advertising campaign for United Way.

I remember thinking the words “bold”, “amazing ad campaign” and “United Way” didn’t exactly fit together in the same sentence. I had seen the type of public service campaigns United Way had done and had thought they were drab and too conservative PSA’s.

I recall Lisa explaining the Teen Pregnancy issue and how big a crisis it was in our city and the impact it was currently having on kids. How over 70% of teen babies were being fathered by men 20 years or older. I started listening a little more. She shared how United Way’s board was prepared to do the kind of public service marketing that would make people uncomfortable. That it would go against all the conservative work they’d ever done. Slowly she started reeling me in. I remember saying “I’m still listening.”

When I asked how long of a commitment she was looking at from Serve, because I knew this would take a very long time she said “just get us through the first year.” I agreed, but with the caveat that if United Way didn’t approve the kind of work that could truly change this behavior, even if was a little controversial, I’m was out. We shook hands, parted ways and 10 years flew by.

Well, not exactly all 10 years. That first year was grinding and difficult. Trying to get 30 people on various committees to agree to even a basic communication strategy proved almost impossible. I remember thinking after 8 months ‘I should quit’. Yet something told me to hang in there.

When we were asked to create the first statutory rape campaigns in Milwaukee it was tough. The work was powerful. Visceral. It made some people very uncomfortable. City leaders didn’t like it. Some of our campaigns to tweens (younger teens), made parents very uncomfortable. We did everything from cartoon princesses using the word “rape” to scratch and sniff dirty diaper bus shelters. We even sent fake tax bills to Milwaukee residents saying they owed $92,000-the cost at that time to raise a baby born to a teen in Milwaukee. Despite being faced with a very vocal opposition, we kept moving forward with the belief that somehow our work was making a difference.

The experience of working with United Way and all its community partners was awesome. To be part of a team that’s had an historic impact on a social crisis people once thought was impossible to solve is something I’ll always be grateful for. The way our team has collaborated for a decade is rare. Even after Health Commissioner Bevan Baker decided to surprise us with his goal of reducing teen pregnancy by 46% by 2015 (we all thought he was nuts by the way). We never wavered in our support of the cause. We all had each other’s backs.

As we approach the 10th anniversary of working to fight teen pregnancy in Milwaukee, I want to say thanks to everyone who stood by and supported us. The volunteers from BVK and Serve who worked nights and weekends to help us create the 30+ ad campaigns. Everyone at United Way who embraced a new way of thinking. Virtually overnight United Way went from a conservative fund-raiser to a fearless community leader. Thank you for stepping up to tackle an issue everyone else ignored for two decades and inviting me to come along on this amazing ride. I wouldn’t change a thing.

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