Our Work
We offer a range of capabilities to solve communications challenges and advance our clients’ impact.
Communications Strategy
Audience and stakeholder analysis
Research planning and coordination
Team workshops and facilitation
Messaging Development
Branding
Content planning and copy writing
Crisis planning and response
Executive thought leadership support
Organizational storytelling
Spokesperson media and message training
Amplification & Promotion
Digital content creation and implementation
Earned and paid media relations
Event planning and execution
Partnership development
Our Clients
We partner with organizations committed to building stronger, more vibrant communities—whether by sparking imagination, opening doors to education, or improving health and well-being. Here is a sampling of organization's we've supported over the years:
Project Portfolio
We have partnered with clients on countless communications projects ranging from developing large integrated campaign plans to executing smaller project management support.
Credit: After School Matters
After School Matters
As Chicago’s largest and a national leader in out-of-school programs for high school teens, After School Matters expands opportunities for thousands of young people in all neighborhoods of the city each year. MJ Strategic Communications helps amplify this impact through strategic planning, teen and alumni storytelling, earned media, messaging development, event supports, and ongoing communications counsel.
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For more than 15 years, dating back to Maureen’s days as an intern, she has partnered with After School Matters to provide year-round support to showcase organizational and teen stories, drive teen participation, elevate organizational and executive thought leadership, and engage stakeholders and funders. Through integrated strategies—including media relations, messaging, digital, and storytelling—we spotlight the voices of teens, instructors, and alumni to demonstrate the impact of this nationally recognized organization.
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Most recently, we’ve supported strategic planning and communications efforts surrounding the launch of a new teen programming facility in Chicago’s Cabrini neighborhood. This includes messaging and communications strategy development, donor engagement materials, press placements, and event planning to build excitement and investment around this major milestone. We also collaborate with the Research & Evaluation team to amplify insights from the organization’s annual teen survey, which shares powerful narratives about the lived experiences of Chicago youth, and worked hand-in-hand with ASM’s MarComm Director to co-lead the organization’s 30th anniversary celebration and communications campaign.
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Our work has been instrumental in recruiting teens from across the city, with a deliberate focus on engaging youth of color from low-income communities. In 2023, this work captured the attention of U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, leading to a two-day visit centered on youth mental health. MJ Strategic Communications supported the visit’s logistical coordination and media efforts, resulting in a nationally broadcast NBC “Nightly News” segment that showcased the organization’s vital role in teen mental health and well-being.
Credit: Chicago Public Schools
Chicago Public Schools
Teach Chicago is a CPS initiative to help recruit and retain highly-qualified, diverse teachers for every classroom across the district. Over the course of seven years, our team developed and implemented a comprehensive communications campaign to help launch and sustain the initiative as well as the programs within it.
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Starting in 2018, MJ Strategic Communications started working with the Chicago Public Schools Talent Office to build and implement a comprehensive communications campaign to help launch, integrate, and sustain Teach Chicago, which is the district's initiative to help recruit and retain a highly qualified, diverse teachers for every classroom across the district.
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Our team worked closely with the Talent Office to help build the overall communication strategies to support these programs from the ground up, starting with developing messaging grounded in staff focus group research, developing an independent website, collaborating with CPS Communications to promote the initiative, placing positive staff stories of impact, and running point on project and task management to make sure milestones were met on time.
We also coordinated high-stakes leadership events and press conferences, wrote content for a whole host of different collateral materials to support outreach and recruitment, press materials, digital paid social media campaigns, grassroots and outreach thought leadership, and much more.
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CPS has achieved remarkable progress in ensuring all students have equitable access to top teaching talent, including recruiting and retaining record-high numbers of special education, bilingual, early childhood teachers hired — alongside record-low vacancy rates at the district’s highest-need schools.
Credit: Hope Chicago
Hope Chicago
Hope Chicago is a groundbreaking economic mobility initiative that provides debt-free postsecondary education pathways for students—and their parents—from five partner high schools across Chicago’s South, Southwest, and West Sides. We support Hope Chicago in advancing its mission at every level–from day-to-day public affairs and strategic communications support, to coordinating a two-day advocacy and thought leadership trip to Washington D.C. and executing robust State funding campaigns.
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Hope Chicago is redefining what’s possible for underserved communities by taking a family-centered approach to education and opportunity. With more than 2,600 students now enrolled in college or workforce programs (and counting!), the organization is actively reversing declining postsecondary enrollment trends and closing racial equity gaps.
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To elevate Hope Chicago’s visibility and impact, MJ Strategic Communications develops a annual comprehensive communications plan focused on message development, media engagement, event support, and strategic storytelling. We help cement the organization as a national leader in educational access and economic advancement by securing 50+ media placements, building the CEO’s thought leadership platform, and amplifying key milestones—from major reports to student success stories.
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Through an integrated social media strategy in partnership with Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications, we dramatically increased Hope Chicago’s digital footprint, driving 500K+ engagements and growing the audience by 179% in just one year.
Our efforts helped translate public awareness into policy wins, including securing the organization’s first public funding from the State of Illinois. Today, Hope Chicago stands as a national model for innovative multigenerational educational reform—and we’re proud to be part of the movement.
Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
Since 2021, MJ Strategic Communications in partnership with Jasculca Terman Strategic Communications has served as trusted partners to the Center for Childhood Resilience (CCR) at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. As the agency of record, our team provides ongoing support managing a range of projects from planning and launching a new organizational website to developing communications strategies that amplify CCR’s impact statewide.
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As the public health arm of the Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, CCR works to reduce mental health disparities through evidence-informed programs, civic advocacy, and community partnerships. A major focus of our work has been supporting CCR’s signature initiative: Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH)—a collaboration with the Illinois State Board of Education. REACH is a statewide, evidence-informed initiative to provide educators with tools to support the resilience and well-being of students and staff.
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In 2024, we helped expand the REACH program into Resilience-Supportive Schools Illinois (RSSI), leading the naming, branding, messaging, and statewide rollout of the initiative in partnership with ISBE and the Illinois Governor’s Office. RSSI is a free and voluntary support that uses school-specific data to connect educators with evidence-informed tools and resources to improve the mental health and well-being of their school communities. Our support included crafting materials, guiding messaging, and coordinating with lobbyists and stakeholders to promote sustainability.
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In tandem with the program’s rollout, our team developed and executed a targeted advocacy and media strategy that helped secure the program’s first-ever state funding allocation in FY25 and then continued support in FY26. Our work ensures that educators, administrators, and policymakers across Illinois understand and invest in the tools needed to support mental health in every school community.