Children's Therapy Center | TUV Rheinland of North America

Kicked out of Pre-K Case Study

Catherine Risigo Wickline, OTR-L, hired AOMC to provide public relations and marketing for three companies she founded, all of which offer therapy services for children. Children’s Therapy Center provides therapy for children with challenges such as ADHD, cerebral palsy and learning or behavioral disorders; Family Junction provides services to Connecticut’s Birth to Three Program; and Kangaroo’s Korner Early Learning Center is a nonprofit daycare program for children of “all abilities.”

We were positioning Risigo Wickline as a local, regional and national expert on issues related to children’s disabilities as a way of branding and building her businesses and supporting her passion for ensuring that all children facing physical, learning and/or behavioral challenges receive the help they need. We spotted an opportunity to further both goals when a story broke in the local Hartford Courant about the 2005 Yale University study that ranked Connecticut 7th in expelling pre-kindergartners for disruptive behavior. We immediately called Risigo Wickline and recommended issuing a media alert offering her as a resource for anyone doing stories on this topic. She readily agreed and we discussed key messages for any interview she might do.

Summary of Results
The media alert generated local and national coverage. Within 48 hours of issuing the alert via our firm’s internal “hot fax” and email distribution systems we had our first interview request from WTNH-TV 8 in New Haven. The alert also resulted in Risigo Wickline being featured as an expert on the issue of preschool expulsion on the following broadcast outlets:

  1. CNN
  2. CBS Morning Show
  3. Geraldo Rivera at Large

And in the following print outlets:

  1. Cover story in USA Today
  2. Article in the Boston Globe
  3. Cover story in the Waterbury Republican-American
  4. Article in People Magazine
  5. At Large with Geraldo Rivera

These stories also generated interviews for the study’s author, Yale psychiatrist Walter Gilliam, who told us that our publicity efforts – and Risigo Wickline’s involvement with the story – generated more visibility than his institution’s own public relations campaign on the topic.

Furthermore, the alert raised Risigo Wickline’s profile with local and state policymakers. In fact, members of the Dept. of Children and Families toured Kangaroo’s Korner as part of a dialog about improving early childhood education for special needs children.

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