Final Days

Zach Relph
Bentley Campus
15515269

Hello everyone, 

this week is the final week of my internship at Cancer Support WA in Cottesloe.

Over the course of the past two months I have been with Cancer Support WA it's safe to say that I have learnt a lot in regards to the practice of communications and PR in a real life working environment. 

Doing my placement here has also given me further insight into how not-for-profit organisations are run and the considerable amount of work that is required in order to not only gain funds but also increase brand awareness.

One of the biggest challenges Cancer Support WA faces as an organisation is differentiation from other cancer charities in Western Australia. Of course, everyone has heard of the Cancer Council, but I think not too many of you reading this post would have heard of Cancer Support WA.

Cancer Support WA was founded in 1984, and focuses on holistic and wellness approaches to cancer for not only cancer patients but their family too. A lot of their work is conducted within a small environment that includes one on one counselling with patients. As a result, a lot of their work isn't done in the public eye which in turn doesn't create too much brand awareness and quite often causes people to confuse Cancer Support WA with the Cancer Council.

Taking this situation into mind, you can see the task the communications team at Cancer Support WA have at hand in attempting to raise the brand profile of Cancer Support WA without breaking away from their small and interactive values.

During my time here I have helped devise media releases, sponsorship packages for upcoming programs, a communication plan, a three month social media plan and many more communication type tools. This has taught me not only the importance of different PR techniques but also the importance of PR and communications in the not-for-profit sector when trying to attract partners and generate funds. 

Unfortunately, most of the content that I have been working on is for a cancer prevention program called SNAP that is not beginning until January 2015 so I can't gauge as to whether or not what I have put together has been beneficial. But, hopefully come next year all the work I have done here with the Cancer Support WA team will assist them and the initiative.

I would like to thank Cancer Support WA for having me and for being extremely welcoming for the entire duration of my internship.

I hope everyone else is having a good time.

Zach  

SNAPin' along

Zach Relph
Bentley Campus
15515269

Hi everyone,

since my last post a lot of work has been done in regard to the SNAP project.

I have been working on the SNAP sponsorship package in order to attract future partners that will fund the program. I was briefed to write a concise sponsorship package that can easily be be turned into an eight page document that includes many engaging visuals, statistics and graphs.

Working on the sponsorship package has helped be learn how to write in a professional yet friendly voice, whilst also writing more to write less. 

It took me a few days to get the sponsorship package exactly how it was wanted, and now it has been approved and is due to enter the formatting and design process. Hopefully it will be good enough to attract the attention of some prospective partners in order to fund the SNAP initiative and get the program off of the ground!

Also, I have been working on trying to win the $50,000 Dick Smith Food Charity Challenge for Cancer Support WA.

The challenge involves taking photos with a Dick Smith Food product and sending it to charity@dicksmithfood.com along with a caption of which charity you are supporting, in our case Cancer Support WA.

I have been working on the social media communication for this, and so far we have had a good response.

Hear is a photo of Verona from Cancer Support WA helping us with the cause!

It is quite simple!

Visit https://www.facebook.com/CharityChallengeWA to lend a hand in helping Cancer Support WA!


Until next time,


Zach

Nearly halfway

Zach Relph
Bentley Campus
15515269

Hi everyone,

it has been a little while since my last post so I thought I would update you all as to how it is going.

So far I have completed eight days with Cancer Support WA, a small non-profit organisation that specialises in giving support to people suffering from cancer.

In my last post, I talked about how I had been helping with the communications plan for their upcoming SNAP program.

Basically, I have just been helping write content for their new website that hasn't been created yet but it has been a good learning experience.

To explain further, SNAP is a wellbeing program that is designed to educate children, families and corporate workers on the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

SNAP is an acronym that stands for Stress, Nutrition, Activity and Purpose - the four pillars of wellbeing and health.

The program will set-out to educate the target groups on the importance of balancing these four facets of life in order to lead a healthy lifestyle, and how if you are under too much stress or have a bad diet your lifestyle will suffer as a result.

By next week, the SNAP logo should be designed and the website should be up and running.

When thats all underway, I will start writing press releases on behalf of Cancer Support WA and the SNAP program.

I hope that the press releases will help SNAP attract media attention because it is going to be a great initiative that will offer a lot of support to people trying to improve their lifestyle.

When the website is up I will post a link so you can all give it a look.

Zach

Starting out

Zach Relph
Bentley Campus
15515269

G'day everyone,

my name is Zach and I am a third year Mass Communications student majoring in both journalism and public relations.

I am currently completing my internship at the non-profit organisation Cancer Support WA which is located in Cottesloe, and so far I am enjoying it a lot.

For those of you who haven't heard of Cancer Support WA, it is a small organisation that dedicates itself to providing a support network to people suffering from cancer and their family.

They do a lot of terrific work throughout WA, and their communications department plays a major role in reaching out and driving their different campaigns and fundraising events.

So far I have completed four days work and have spent majority of my time working on the communications plan for their up and coming SNAP initiative.

I've also spent time writing online copy for their new website that is due to be developed in the coming month.

All in all, it has been an eventful first few days of work and I have learnt a lot.

I'm looking forward to what the rest of the internship has to offer.

Zach