After courts struck down a new initiative in South Carolina that gave 5,000 students the ability to attend a school that best fits their unique needs, the Palmetto Promise Institute launched a campaign to share the stories of families who could be helped by the program.

We sat down with the Palmetto Promise Institute to learn more about how they used powerful storytelling to build their brand and support for parental choice in South Carolina.

SPN: What was your story?

Palmetto Promise: In July 2020, we worked with the South Carolina Governor to launch the Safe Access to Flexible Education (SAFE)  (SAFE) grants program using one-time Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act funding. The program dedicated $32 million to low- and middle-income students to attend independent schools of their choice. When the program was challenged in court, Palmetto Promise Institute used its My SC Education brand to tell the stories of parents who could be helped by SAFE Grants. My SC Education is Palmetto Promise’s initiative to equip parents with understandable information about available education choices in the state. Palmetto heard from more than 550+ parents who told stories of job loss, financial difficulties, and learning struggles. We were able to post these stories to our website, share them on social media, and even interview certain families about their COVID education experience.

SPN: To whom were you telling the story? Who was your primary audience? Were there any secondary audiences?

Palmetto Promise: Our primary audience was other families who identified with the stories they were hearing and wanted to get involved. Harnessing the growing energy of parental education awareness and activism in the COVID moment has been an incredible opportunity. Our secondary audience was lawmakers who would be voting on school choice programs the following year.

SPN: How did you find the story? How did you tell it? What platforms did you use to teach your audience?

Palmetto Promise: We started sharing each family’s story individually on our website—but were quickly overwhelmed and developed an idea to share all the stories on one page. We built an interactive map of the state with pins for where each family was located. Families could find their area/county and view stories in that region. We also created a featured stories section on our website with longer stories and photos of each family.

First, we promoted these stories on social media, where we shared a new family’s story every day on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Second, we developed several pieces of video content. We spent a day with Shannon Green inside her home to tell the story of a low-income single mother having to provide support for her two boys learning virtually. We also interviewed eight families and created a mash-up video to tell their stories.

Third, we trained some of these families so that they could speak with TV reporters when SAFE Grants were in the news. Six of those families were interviewed for various TV segments throughout the SAFE Grants news cycle, with two more families being featured prominently in op-eds in The Wall Street Journal and Post & Courier, authored by PPI staff.

SPN: How did the story shape your brand’s image? How did it influence policymakers and the public?

Palmetto Promise: A critical part of the success of the SAFE Grants program was to quickly establish the need for the program. The #MySAFEGrantStory campaign provided the foundation for the governor’s office to show the real need for education choice during the pandemic. The stories also changed the media narrative from one focused on the system and the politics to one focused on parents and students. Throughout the process, PPI and My SC Education provided news organizations with parents who could tell their story and speak intelligently about the program. PPI and My SC Education remain a go-to contact for the state’s news organizations on education issues.

For their successful #MySAFEGrantStory campaign, the Palmetto Promise Institute is a finalist in State Policy Network’s Communications Excellence Awards, in the Powerful Storytelling Award category.