3. Executive Summary
“When I was 27, I was a single mom going to school, and I bought my first home. There was no
way I could have done it without local affordable housing resources and a homeownership program. I can
definitely vouch for the need and the success of these resources. It’s so much more than a place to live.” –
Kim Hammit, Poulsbo, WA attorney/homeowner.
The 2015 Central Washington University PRSSA Bateman Team compiled research and discovered
compelling statistical results on the Home Matters® quality, affordable housing national movement. The house-
hold income in Kittitas County is about $16,000 less than the average of Washington state, which ranks our
community in the top 22 percent hardest places to live in the United States. Nearly 13 percent of family income
in Kittitas County is below the federal poverty level - almost 50 percent more than the rest of the state.
The goal of the Your Home Matters
campaign was to recognize the need and
provision of quality, affordable housing in
Kittitas County and unify local businesses to
increase awareness of this local, regional,
and national movement.
The “Your” in our campaign name, Your Home
Matters, was created to appeal to our target audience
individually. The partnerships we built at the Your
Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015 were
strategically selected and were vital to maintain continu-
ity with the Home Matters national movement.
The team recognized that Home Matters wishes to accelerate activities in: Housing, Community,
Economic Development, Education, and Learning. The vendors featured at the Your Home Matters Affordable
Housing Fair 2015 are listed below to demonstrate how they fall into each of these areas.
Housing • Community Frameworks
• Kittitas Yakima Valley Community Land Trust
• Habitat for Humanity
• Coldwell Banker
Community and
Economic Development
• Hopesource
• Knudson Lumber
Education and Learning • Umpqua Bank
• Allstate Insurance
11
4. 22222
In addition to the Your Home Matters
Affordable Housing Fair 2015, Umpqua Bank and the
Kittitas Yakima Valley Community Land Trust hosted
a First-Time Homebuyer Education Class through the
WashingtonStateHousingFinanceCommission(WSH-
FC). Each of the attendees received a Certificate for
Down-Payment Assistance Programs granted through
theWSHFCtoassistwithpersonalhomebuyingsuccess.
Our team lev-
eraged the partner-
ships we built within
the community to establish a permanent impact of the Home Matters national
movement. We wanted to display the Your Home Matters campaign through-
out the community, therefore we were able to get 24 businesses to sign the
Community Support Certificate to stand behind an “Affordable Community
and Healthy Economy”. Gallery One, a frequently visited community visual art
center, displayed the artwork of 75 children in the community in their front
window. Umpqua Bank and the Kittitas Yakima Valley Community Land Trust
agreed to combine the Homebuyer Education class with the Your Home Matters
Affordable Housing Fair 2015 into an annual event. They want to continue
the visibility of Home Matters in the community. Additionally, Community
Frameworks, proud sponsor of Home Matters, published a statewide newsletter
featuring the Your Home Matters campaign, which highlighted elements of our
affordable housing movement.
The Central Washington University’s Bateman Team invites you to read more about the Your Home Matters
campaign; supporting the Home Matters national movement www.homemattersamerica.com.
Situational Analysis
We created a PEST and SWOT analysis in order to evaluate the Your Home Matters campaign in
relation to the Home Matters national movement on quality, affordable housing.
PEST Analysis:
1. National, regional issue
2. Low-income housing stigma
3. Need for affordable housing
4. Lack of quality housing
Political: Economical:
Sociological: Technological:
1. Rising cost of housing
2. Growing number in poverty
3. Lack of housing assistance resources
4. Need for housing education
1. Young parents
2. Education quality
3. Health
4. Safety
1. Social media
2. Online research
3. Greater mobile
4. Information overload
5. 33
SWOT Analysis:
1. Social media success
2. Reached target audiences
3. Major vendor participation
4. Community impact
Strengths: Weaknesses:
Opportunities: Threats:
1. Lack of emotional appeal
2. Lack of publicity
3. Need to create value
4. Greater vendor participation
1. Annual event
2. Quality housing resources
3. Maintain momentum
4. Improve local awareness of affordable
housing
1. Losing momentum
2. Competing events
3. Compassion fatigue
4. Diffusion of responsibility
Research
Secondary Research:
Home Matters’ identifies a housing crisis in America. Some do not have a home; some are in a home that
is not up to quality standards, while others are working more than one job to afford a quality home.
Finding what “quality, affordable housing” is in our community was one of the preliminary questions that
needed to be answered prior to launching our campaign. “Home Matters is a national movement that’s redefin-
ing the American Dream and Home” this grounded our research to define this in our community. Primary and
secondary research was conducted to help identify the importance of quality, affordable housing and how it
effects health, safety, education, success, and the economy.
The CWU Bateman Team was able to establish strategies necessary to successfully spread awareness on
quality, affordable housing and implement a campaign after assessing several websites, reports, social media
campaigns, target audiences, housing needs, and background research on possible partnerships.
Housing and Student vs. Local Population
• Over half of Ellensburg’s population is made up of non-residential college students, with most students
living off campus, taking up a large portion of available housing.
• Comparing the number of students living off campus to the total population in Ellensburg for 2010,
45.7 percent of the residential community was made up of students.
• The U.S. Census Bureau shows that the home ownership rate during this time was roughly 30.7 percent.
Using these numbers, it can be found that only 2,401 of total housing units were owned. This leaves about
5,422 assumed housing units available for rent.
• It is shown that students occupy 68 percent of available rental units. This is over 2/3 of the rental
availability.
Target Audiences
• Within Kittitas County, the population of baby boomers is 7, 886. This makes up 32 percent of our target
audience.
• Within Kittitas County, the population of millennials is approximately 10,701. This makes up 63 percent
of our target audience.
• In Kittitas County, there were 413 births from mothers who were under the age of 15 or over the age of
45.
6. 4444
Kittitas County Housing Needs Assessment
• A minimum wage worker must work 69 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom home or earn $15.92 an
hour.
• The vacancy rate in Kittitas County is 5.9 percent, which is 75 percent higher than Washington state.
• “Affordable housing” is defined as housing that costs no more than 30 percent of an individual’s income.
• 66.8 percent of renters spend 30 percent or more of their household income on housing.
Primary Research:
With a strong foundation of secondary research, the CWU Bateman was able to further accumulate informa-
tion with primary research. The tools used to conduct this research were an online survey of 350 people, per-
son-to-person surveys, and individual interviews. Our primary research helped us to reach the target audiences
and conduct our Your Home Matters campaign.
Survey
• 66 percent of respondents ranked the importance of having a quality,
affordable home as “very important”.
• 55 percent of respondents ranked the difficulty of renting a quality,
affordable home as “difficult” or “very difficult”.
• 61 percent of respondents ranked the difficulty of owning a quality,
affordable home as “difficult” or “very difficult”.
• 70 percent of respondents were female.
• The results from asking how often the following were affected by
quality, affordable housing are as follows:
I
Individual Interviews
• “My New American Dream is to be able to provide for my loved ones
while not having to spend all my money on housing that will empty
my bank account when there are many more options that will reduce
my carbon footprint!”
• “Everyone deserves a decent, affordable place to live!” Sherri Ott,
Executive Director of Kittitas County Habitat for Humanity
• We found a common theme when asking students what their
American Dream is, which contained being successful, owning a
home, and a long lasting career.
Tiles from Sunday Funday
• Some things that were found among the tiles were fireplaces, big
bedrooms, shiny bathrooms, kitchens with lots of food, cozy
blankets, pets, and a pretty yard.
I
“My American Dream is to
be able to do what I want
for a living and doing what
I love, that is my real
definition of success, I don’t
have to be big and famous.”
“Being raised in a house
that wasn’t very “nice” or
good “quality” really
effected everything else in
my life. I didn’t want to do
my school work at home
or even have friends over.
Even now working two
jobs, I can’t afford that
great of a quality home
and I see the struggle my
parents had.”
- Tanner W.
7. 55555
Key Messages
1. Community Frameworks (proud supporter of Home Matters) and other Washington state providers are part
of the solution to the affordable housing crisis.
2. The Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015 brought local community partners together to spread
awareness of quality, affordable housing.
3. The Your Home Matters campaign reached out to target audiences including Young Parents, Millennials, and
Baby Boomers to create a lasting impact in our community.
Target Audiences
Primary Audience
• Young Parents born between 1991 and 2000
Secondary Audiences
• Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964
• Millennials born between 1992 and 1997
Challenges & Opportunities
Challenge #1:
69 percent of survey respondents thought it was either difficult or very difficult to own a quality affordable home
for themselves and their family.
Opportunity:
We provided the community with a variety of affordable housing resources to educate and change perceptions of
a house compared to a home. We focused on finding resources that could be directly available in our community.
Challenge #2:
Five college seniors on our team are very familiar with Kittitas County and our experience in the area is that
annual events have higher attendance. This made it challenging to secure vendors for the day of our event.
Opportunity:
We partnered with businesses and non-profits in the community who work with our target audiences and have
experience communicating our key messages effectively. This allowed local businesses to network with each
other and learn how they could work together to continue increasing awareness on quality, affordable housing.
Challenge #3:
Kittitas County is a rural area which has a much smaller population in comparison to urban areas. Ellensburg
has twenty thousand residents, half of which are college students. This makes it near impossible to make a large
impact on individuals within our target audience.
Opportunity:
By partnering with Community Frameworks (with locations in Spokane and Bremerton), the Your Home
Matters campaign was able to increase the reach statewide.
8. 66
Objectives, Strategies, Rationales, & Tactics
Objective #1: To increase awareness of Home Matters and the importance of quality,
affordable housing in Ellensburg by reaching 10% of the population from Feb. 1–28.
Strategy 1: Create a public relations campaign that relates to the Ellensburg community.
Rationale: According to our research and relationships with local businesses and non-profits, we discovered
there was minimal knowledge in the Ellensburg community on the topic of quality, affordable housing. People
often associate affordable housing with low-income housing. Therefore, we identified an opportunity to edu-
cate the public by creating a campaign that relates to Kittitas County.
Tactic 1: Create a campaign name personalized to the Ellensburg community. Ellensburg residents are
independent and invested in the community. Our campaign name, Your Home Matters, was chosen to keep
continuity with the Home Matters national movement. We chose the word “your” to appeal to members of
our target audience individually.
Tactic 2: Create a visually appealing logo that connects the campaign to our region. We designed the “H” of
our logo in the form of a house to associate the topic of the campaign to our target audience. We chose the
colors brown and green to represent the nickname of Washington state, “The Evergreen State”.
Strategy 2: Reinforce Your Home Matters campaign key messages through increased visibility in the Ellensburg
community.
Rationale: In order to share the key messages with our target audience, we utilized several communication
outlets to raise awareness. Our campaign was dispersed through different mediums, which gave our target
audience several opportunities to capture our key messages.
Tactic 1: Maintain a consistent brand image for our campaign. All of our campaign materials included our
name, logo, and the colors brown and green. Many of our documents included orange as well, to keep
continuity with the Home Matters national movement.
Tactic 2: Create a Facebook page for our campaign. We utilized Facebook to connect with the Ellensburg
community. We had 273 fans like our page, with the majority of fans between ages 18-24. Our page had
16,600 impressions, 769 engagements (any clicks), and 698 deeper engagements consisting of likes, shares,
etc.
Tactic 3: Create an Instagram account for our campaign. We utilized Instagram to share photos of our cam-
paign with the Ellensburg community. Our Instagram was the most difficult social media platform to reach
our audiences on. We had a total of 21 photos, and 3 videos posted. Our total engagement was 11.
Tactic 4: Create a Twitter account for our campaign. We utilized Twitter to further our reach in the
Ellensburg community. Over the month of February we had a high of 91 followers and ended the campaign
with 90 followers. We had 48 retweets, 140 people favorite a tweet, and 289 profile visits.
Tactic 5: Create a Pinterest account for our campaign. We utilized Pinterest to appeal to the visual people
of our target audience. This allowed us to reach people who may not be in the Ellensburg area on the Home
Matters national movement. Our profile consisted of 12 boards with 457 total pins. Our top pins had a total
of 9,553 impressions and a reach of 5,503. We averaged 454 impressions a day and our profile averaged 262
views daily.
9. 77777
Tactic 6: Inform CWU students of the Home Matters New American Dream message. Our team reached out
to students in the CWU Student Union to share information about Home Matters and find out what their
New American Dream was. We found that many of these millennials didn’t want the traditional American
dream, which coincides with Home Matters’ #NewAmericanDream efforts.
Tactic 7: Reinforce campaign messages through media coverage. We were able to earn media coverage on our
campaign efforts in the Daily Record, print and online. One of our campaign members was interviewed on
the National College Radio Station of the Year, 88.1 The Burg.
Strategy 3: Build partnerships in the community with local housing vendors.
Rationale: In order to spread awareness of the Home Matters national movement, we wanted to get local
businesses involved to expand our reach. We strategically selected leading housing businesses and non-profits
that were interested in partnering with our campaign.
Tactic 1: Plan a local event to educate the community on the affordable housing resources available in the
area. We wanted to give the community an opportunity to learn more about the need for affordable
housing in Kittitas County. We created an event, Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015, to bring
the Home Matters national movement to our area.
Tactic 2: Contact businesses and non-profits whose goals coincide with Home Matters’ efforts to accelerate
activities in housing, community, economic development, education and learning. We drafted a list of all of
the businesses and non-profits that fall into each of these areas and invited them to participate in our
campaign.
Tactic 3: Solidify event vendor list. After inviting several businesses to participate in the Your Home Matters
Affordable Housing Fair 2015, we were able to create partnerships with Community Frameworks, Kittitas
Yakima Valley Community Land Trust, Habitat for Humanity, Coldwell Banker, Hopesource, Knudson
Lumber, Umpqua Bank, and Allstate Insurance.
Tactic 4: Create publication materials for the Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015. We
designed flyers for the event to put up in local businesses and bulletin boards in the community. The flyers
included details about the event and vendors that would be present. The flyers were published in English and
Spanish to reach a wide demographic of our audience.
Tactic 5: Publicize the Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015. We distributed 63 flyers to local
businesses and bulletin boards in Ellensburg. The local daycares also received flyers for the children to take
home to their parents. A press release was submitted to local media in Kittitas County presenting the details
of our event.
Tactic 6: Host Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015. The event took place on Feb. 21, 2015. We
had a total of 42 people in attendance. At the event, vendors were able to connect and discuss ways to
continue working together on the Home Matters national movement. These vendors provided a wide variety
of resources related to the topic of quality, affordable housing to those at the fair.
Objective 1 Outcome: EXCEEDED!
Through social media, publicity, and the affordable housing fair, the team reached a total of 45,700 people,
which is 228 percent more than our goal. This was exceeded from our total reach of social media platforms,
flyers, local media coverage, and working with six successful businesses and non-profits in the community.
Objective #2: Inform parents on the importance of quality, affordable housing by
identifying what “home” means to their children.
10. 88
Strategy 1: Partner with local art center, Gallery One, to involve the community with our campaign messages.
Rationale: Home Matters cites that more than half a million people in the United States do not have a home; a
quarter of these individuals are children. Families often visit Gallery One to look at the art pieces. Our
partnership with them gives the campaign a way to reach out to parents.
Tactic 1: Sponsor Sunday Funday event. We decided
to sponsor their monthly Sunday Funday event, which
provides children with the opportunity to participate in a
free art project.
Tactic 2: Secure donations and supplies for Sunday
Funday. We were able to get 200 white ceramic tiles do-
nated to our campaign. These tiles were the perfect land-
scape for kids to illustrate what “home” meant to them.
Tactic 3: Display tiles illustrating what “home” means to
the children of Kittitas County. We were able to further
our partnership with Gallery One by securing one of
their display windows. They agreed to put the ceramic
tiles on display for three weeks following the Sunday
Funday event. The tiles were featured at the Ellensburg Downtown Association’s First Friday Artwalk. This
event is highly attended by the Ellensburg community.
Strategy 2: Connect with Kittitas County schools and daycares to participate in the Your Home Matters cam-
paign by asking children to illustrate what home means to them.
Rationale: According to our secondary research, we found that parents are more inclined to understand the
importance of a quality affordable home, knowing how it impacts their children’s future. The children were
instructed to illustrate and describe what “home” means to them.
Tactic 1: Create a drawing page in English and Spanish. A drawing page of a paper tile was designed to mim-
ic the ceramic tiles used at Sunday Funday. We decided to translate the drawing page to Spanish because of
the large population of Spanish speaking people in Kittitas County. Each child took home an informational
sheet inviting parents to view their child’s artwork at the Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015.
Tactic 2: Contact elementary schools principals in Kittitas County.
We attempted to contact principals at Ellensburg Christian School,
Mount Stewart Elementary, Valley View Elementary, and Lincoln
Elementary. We were able to disperse 500 drawing pages at Mount
Stewart, and 100 to the Ellensburg Christian School.
Tactic 3: Contact daycares in Kittitas County. We attempted to
contact the following daycares: AAA Daycare, Little Rascals Day-
care, Munchkin Land, Creative Learning, Cornerstone Preschool &
Child, Afterschool Safe place, Bright Beginnings for Kittitas Coun-
ty, Foursquare Church Daycare. We were able to disperse 25 draw-
ing pages to Foursquare Church Daycare, 20 to Creative Learning,
and 30 to Munchkin Land.
Tactic 4: Display drawing pages at Your Home Matters Affordable
Housing Fair 2015. After collecting the completed drawing pages,
they were put on display at our event.
11. 99
Objective 2 Outcome: Exceeded!
With the average attendance at Sunday Funday being 30 children, we exceeded our goal by 69 percent with
43 in attendance. A total of 75 tiles were completed and the children were very engaged and enjoyed telling
us and their parents what they loved about their home.
Children at the elementary schools that were unable to attend Sunday Funday, also got to participate by
illustrating what home means to them on a paper tile. They were able to find their tile at our event to show
their parents.
Objective #3: Engage local businesses and non-profits to support the Home Matters
national movement.
Strategy 1: Foster relationships between leading housing vendors in the Kittitas County area.
Rationale: By bringing influential businesses and non-profits together at the Your Home Matters Affordable
Housing Fair 2015, representatives were able to build relationships. This gave them the opportunity to discuss
how to host this fair in the future.
Tactic 1: Contact business and non-profits whose goals coincide with Home Matters’ efforts to accelerate
activities in housing, community, economic development, education and learning. See Objective 1, Strategy
3, Tactic 2.
Tactic 2: Host Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015. See Objective 1, Strategy 3, Tactic 6.
Strategy 2: Maintain campaign visibility after February 2015.
Rationale: In order to continue the momentum of our campaign after February, we needed to create a lasting
impact in the community. We wanted to ensure that people will come across the Your Home Matters
campaign and the Home Matters mission after the competition has ended.
Tactic 1: Find a permanent way to display the completed tiles from Sunday Funday. We approached the CWU
Community Garden in an effort to find a permanent home for the 75 ceramic tiles created during our
campaign. They partnered with the CWU Bateman Team to place the tiles around the garden once the
display at Gallery One is taken down.
Tactic 2: Create Community Support Certificates. To engage with businesses and non-profits that were not
featured at the Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015, we created a Community Support
Certificate. By signing this certificate, businesses and non-profits were
able to show their endorsement of an “Affordable Community and
Healthy Economy”.
Tactic 3: Get Community Support Certificates signed by local
businesses and non-profits. The CWU Bateman Team visited busi-
nesses and non-profits in the area and asked them to stand behind an
“Affordable Community and Healthy Economy” by signing our Com-
munity Support Certificate.
Objective 3 Outcome: Exceeded!
We exceeded our goal by having 28 local businesses and non-prof-
its sign and display the Community Support Certificate standing
behind an “Affordable Community and Healthy Economy”.
12. 101111111111111111111111111111111100000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Conclusion
In an attempt to decrease the housing crisis in America, the Your Home Matters campaign reached out to
the small, rural community of Kittitas County to increase knowledge and understanding on the issue. Through
the Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015 we were able to unify and showcase local businesses and
non-profits to increase awareness of the Home Matters national movement. Our partners, Kittitas Yakima Valley
Community Land Trust and Umpqua Bank, adopted the Your Home Matters Affordable Housing Fair 2015 to
organize in future years. This partnership will ensure that the Home Matters mission will continue its visibility
and influence in Kittitas County.
With continued interaction throughout the month of February, the Your Home Matters campaign
reached 33,600 individuals through social media, and 12,100 individuals in Kittitas County. We attained
community outreach by sharing event flyers at various events, distributing “What Does Home Mean To You”
drawing pages to children at local schools and daycares. We engaged local businesses and non-profits to show
their support of an “Affordable Community and Healthy Economy”. Media exposure for our campaign was
recognized in the Daily Record, Ellensburg’s local newspaper, and 88.1 The Burg, the Central Washington
University radio station.
Throughout our campaign we maintained continuity with the project guidelines set by Home Matters.
The Your Home Matters campaign accelerated in the areas of Housing, Community, Economic Development,
Education, and Learning with our community partners and provided Kittitas County with information on
Affordable Rent, Homeownership, and the Quality of Homes in the community.
Budget
The majority of funds received for the
Your Home Matters campaign were
in-kind donations, amounting to $520.
The remainder of the funds came from
the CWU PRSSA chapter, amounting
to $219.80. The total amount of funds
used for the campaign is $739.80.
