Client Background
PowerCorpsPHL engages un- and under-employed 18 to 30-year-olds in an immersive, paid 4 to 24-month experience that results in connection to living wage jobs in clean energy, green infrastructure, and community-based careers. A community-centered workforce development program, PowerCorpsPHL is designed to empower young adults, particularly those exiting the juvenile justice system or at risk of incarceration.
This initiative, created through a collaboration between AmeriCorps and the City of Philadelphia, emphasizes both personal and professional growth. Participants engage in meaningful work that directly benefits their communities, such as tree planting, park restoration, and stormwater management, which enhances the city’s green spaces and positively impacts the local environment.
By intertwining career development with environmental stewardship, PowerCorpsPHL provides its members with valuable skills and experiences, supporting both their career growth and the community’s well-being.
Outside of Philadelphia, PowerCorpsPHL designs, advises, and supports the adaptation of their model in cities across the country.
Project Objectives
The primary objective was to craft a comprehensive and user-friendly website alongside a ten minute impact video and five short preview reels for social media. Aside from being informative, the website and video are rooted in storytelling, engaging the target audience and further developing a deep connection with PowerCorpsPHL’s mission and values in an emotionally resonant and inspiring way.
These tools were designed to serve multiple purposes:
- Inform – As PowerCorpsPHL celebrates ten years of service, the website and video will serve as informative platforms, providing detailed insights into PowerCorpsPHL’s mission, initiatives, and impact. This information aims to educate both existing and potential participants, community partners, and the broader public about PowerCorpsPHL’s significant role in workforce development and community enhancement.
- Appeal to Participants and Community Partners – A crucial goal was to make these tools appealing to potential participants and community partners. The website was designed with easy navigation and interactive elements such as forms and videos, that highlight the benefits of joining or partnering with PowerCorpsPHL. The video was created to showcase the decade-long impact of the organization, as well as real-life stories and testimonials from current participants and alums, painting a vivid picture of the personal and professional growth opportunities facilitated by PowerCorpsPHL.
- Evoke Emotions – The goal was to evoke feelings of excitement, inspiration, determination, and hope among viewers of the video and users of the website. The video, in particular, was designed to play a significant role in this, using powerful storytelling, compelling visuals, and emotive narratives to connect with the audience on a deeper level. It highlights success stories and the transformative impact of PowerCorpsPHL, inspiring viewers to see the potential for positive change and personal growth.
Challenges
A challenge we faced related to video services was finding a balance between telling the PowerCorpsPHL narrative through a high number of interviews and piecing them together within the ten-minute time constraint. Each and every interview conducted was informative, inspiring, and valuable, however, through meticulous review of the captured footage, our team needed to select the best clips in order to tell the story in a short amount of time. PowerCorpsPHL is a well-rounded organization with several impactful programs and initiatives. Packaging messaging so that all areas of the impactful work they do was necessary. To make this work, we selected the best interview clips and paired them with motion graphics and stats to emphasize a fuller picture.
A major consideration throughout the entire project (web design and video services) was approaching our work with cultural sensitivity. PowerCorpsPHL serves a community of young people facing a variety of life challenges, including but not limited to unemployment, domestic violence, incarceration, and mental health struggles – all while often lacking the support needed to overcome these challenges. Our team needed to keep these real-world experiences of past, current, and prospective PowerCorpsPHL members in the forefront to ensure the messaging resonates and connects with them.
Process & Solutions
Discovery & Planning
To kick off the project, we held two meetings to clarify discovery questions, establish communication preferences, review the timeline, and set the stage. A dedicated project Notion Board (online Kanban project management tool) was created to track every deliverable and element of the project. We conducted separate discovery sessions for website and video services, allowing us to focus without overwhelming the process. Discovery questions were sent in advance, enabling the client to come prepared for in-depth discussions.
During discovery, we gathered key assets such as brand guidelines, logos, photos, and program details, ensuring brand consistency. Early identification of low-resolution images allowed us to address potential issues proactively. We worked with the client to select alternate high-resolution images, streamlining the production process and maintaining the quality of visual assets
The process resulted in a creative brief outlining the project’s background, goals, target audience, and next steps. This document aligned the team with the client’s vision and ensured consistency across the website, impact video, and social media assets. It also established key milestones and collaboration expectations.
Website Development
The website project began with the design phase. Using Figma, our team developed a streamlined site map informed by market research and discovery findings. This process included analyzing similar organizations’ websites and deepening our understanding of the client’s target audiences, providing valuable insights that shaped the design direction. After three rounds of revisions, the site map was detailed enough to serve as a low-fidelity wire frame that then translated into a high-fidelity interactive wireframe with clickable links, responsive functions for hover, click, and release, and content additions. While finalizing some text and photo elements, we began development to maintain project momentum, as the remaining content adjustments were minor.
We built the website using WordPress because it’s flexible and easy to use, making it simple for the client to update and manage after launch. The site runs on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and MySQL, keeping everything stable and running smoothly. To build and customize the site, we used Elementor. Its tools allowed our team to seamlessly design interactive and visually appealing elements while keeping the process simple and efficient, giving us the flexibility to bring the client’s ideas to life without overcomplicating the workflow. Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) was utilized to create custom post types for dynamic sections such as team profiles, job postings, memorials, and testimonials, allowing for a highly tailored content management experience. To optimize the site’s search engine visibility, we integrated the Yoast SEO plugin, which facilitated the generation of an XML sitemap and provided insights to improve meta descriptions, headings, and keyword usage across pages.
The Neve theme was used as the base for the website. Its lightweight framework was modified to meet specific design and functionality requirements, ensuring consistency with the client’s brand guidelines when it comes to colors, fonts, and photo treatment. We implemented UpdraftPlus for scheduled and remote backups, complementing the hosting provider’s backup system to ensure data security and ease of restoration if needed. To ensure the site’s speed and reliability, we implemented NGINX-based caching for static resources and enabled lazy loading for media files to minimize page load times. A content delivery network (CDN) was also utilized to optimize the delivery of media files, improving the user experience across geographic locations. The site was hosted on a server capable of handling hundreds of simultaneous connections, and additional security layers, including brute force protection and two-factor authentication (2FA), were added to safeguard against unauthorized access.
The development team tested the site’s responsiveness across various devices (mobile, tablet, and desktop views) and browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, to ensure a consistent and accessible user experience. Compatibility checks using responsive testing tools provided a clear view of how the website loads on devices of varying sizes, further refining the design for optimal usability. Before launch, the project manager coordinated with the development and client teams for a seamless server transfer. This included final content edits, design adjustments, and testing on the staging server. The project manager ensured access to all necessary credentials, confirmed backups, and prepared a launch plan to facilitate a smooth migration process.
Video Production
The video services phase began with detailed planning, including confirming interviewees, locations, and shoot schedules. Each day had a minute-by-minute rundown, with cushion time and pre-scheduled rain dates to avoid delays. The project manager communicated all details to participants and kept an open line for questions.
Filming spanned three full days, each focusing on different aspects of the client’s story: interviews, members in action, and alumni at job sites. The film crew scouted locations in advance using Google Earth and arrived early on shoot days to finalize setups. We used professional-grade equipment valued at $20,000 to ensure high production quality. This included three 4K Sony cameras, a Canon camera, an Aston Spirit condenser microphone, one drone, A DJI RS 4 Pro Gimbal Stabilizer, and a high-quality lighting setup. Lighting, sound, and framing were carefully tested before filming to guarantee the best visuals and audio quality. Multiple cameras were used to capture back up footage and audio as part of the risk management strategy. Each hour-long interview resulted in four hours of footage – one hour per camera and a separate audio track – all of which were organized and reviewed to select the best clips. Dead space was removed, and the sound was enhanced in Logic Pro before being synced back to the video files.
Both landscape and vertical orientations were filmed to optimize content for social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Extensive editing was carried out in Adobe Premiere Pro, where b-roll sequences were woven into the story to enhance visual appeal. Auto-stabilization techniques were used to fix shaky footage, and the narrative arc was refined through multiple revisions to ensure coherence and impact.
The comfort of the interviewees was a top priority. Creative Repute collaborated with the client to craft interview questions that reflected the core message. Tailored questions drew out personal stories, enriching the narrative. To create a relaxed and natural atmosphere, we ensured the environment was welcoming by offering snacks and water and maintaining a friendly, approachable demeanor from our team. This thoughtful approach not only put participants at ease, encouraging more open and authentic conversations but also proved invaluable for our team. As the interviewees became more comfortable, they shared deeper insights and perspectives, allowing us to gain a richer understanding of PowerCorpsPHL’s mission, values, and overall impact. This, in turn, enhanced the storytelling and strengthened the alignment between the final product and the program’s core objectives
We created five short-form video assets with text overlays, impactful statistics, light animation, and calls to action. Consistent branding and messaging were maintained across the videos, complemented by B-roll footage, music, and motion graphics. These shorter social media reel videos and the ten-minute impact video were added to the new website, expanding the project’s reach and engagement.
Results & Outcomes
The final deliverables exceeded expectations, creating a powerful platform to showcase PowerCorpsPHL’s mission and impact. The website now serves as an informative and engaging tool, providing users with a seamless experience that highlights the program’s initiatives and impact. The interactive elements and clear calls to action have proven successful in driving interest, contributing to the program’s goals of connecting with the community, partners, and prospective members.
We integrated Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track key performance metrics and ensure optimal search engine visibility. Using the Yoast SEO plugin, we generated and submitted a sitemap, ensuring all pages were correctly indexed for better search ranking. Additionally, we set up custom Google Analytics dashboards to monitor user behavior, conversion rates, traffic sources, and engagement metrics. Our team utilized Google Tag Manager to implement event tracking, which enabled us to measure specific user interactions, such as form submissions and button clicks. Post-launch, we provided four months of maintenance, including regular site audits, to identify and correct any SEO issues, broken links, and bugs. This ongoing monitoring allowed us to make data-driven adjustments, refine SEO strategies, and ensure continuous site performance improvements.
The long-form video effectively captures the core of PowerCorpsPHL’s decade of service, weaving together moving interviews and visuals to tell the organization’s story, bringing PowerCorpsPHL’s mission to life. This video is a key asset for outreach events, donor meetings, and online marketing efforts, driving emotional connections and inspiring action among viewers.
It was truly an honor to have the opportunity to work with such an impactful and mission-driven organization. The experience of contributing to PowerCorpsPHL’s goals and helping amplify their local and national messaging was both rewarding and inspiring.