Ackerman Institute for the Family
Children and families were suffering and struggling to connect with each other and peers — and to find the help they needed. Ackerman Institute for the Family, a national leader in training family therapists, sought to call attention to this crisis in a way that showed sensitivity to vulnerable populations while highlighting its own expertise, advocacy and programming.
Momentum sought to help Ackerman explain the youth mental crisis by putting it in the context of two of the biggest phenomena of the decade: isolation resulting from the COVID pandemic, and increasing social polarization. Coverage positioned Ackerman as a defender of vulnerable youth, particularly those in the LGBTQ community, and as an expert voice on how to care for young people’s mental health. Meanwhile, Momentum highlighted notable work of faculty, alumni and promising students in Ackerman’s monthly newsletter.
- Reached an audience of almost 1 billion through 27 placements, including a story on gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Yahoo! News and an NPR piece on how to cope with school mass shootings, plus multiple stories on how to support LGBTQ family members
- Established Ackerman as a thought leader through opinion pieces in the New York Daily News on how straight people can be LGBTQ allies and in Newsday and the influential Becker’s Hospital Review podcast on advocating for more robust support for mental health providers
- Relaunched Ackerman’s newsletter to its audience of more than 10,000 subscribers, achieving an average open rate of 46.5%, far above its peers’ rate of 25.2% — evidence of an engaged and interested readership
