PR in the Church...

Northway Christian Centre, located in the urban suburb of Girrawheen, is the 'church' that I am referring to. It is also in fact, my place of employment...

My name is Thor Williams and I am finishing my bachelor of Commerce- double major in Marketing and Public Relations at Curtin, Bentley. I have been employed at Northway for almost a year in an entirely different role- Youth Pastor. Over the last 10 weeks I have dedicated myself to fulfilling PR and communications roles within my church/organisation and it has been thrilling to say the least! It has been such a refreshing time in my life to finally put my studies to hand (not that I don't like working with teenagers, I love them!). So, after almost finishing my PR placement role at Northway, I thought it was time to share a few of my thoughts which I will be bringing to you through this post and more to come...

Northway Christian Centre is located in a very urban and low socio-economic suburb. The church itself has been prevalent in the area since 1973 and has had a huge impact on its direct community and WA as a whole. In spite of the churches previous successes, modern communication is lacking, and this is where I have been put to good use! The church is currently going through a re-branding stage whilst internal communications, employee branding and a new website for the organisation's public's are currently being developed as you read this. As you can tell, my PR Professional Practice unit could not have come at a better time!

Some of the tasks which I have focused on over my duration in my new role, are communicating with the web design company and being the direct liaison with them, internal communications, employee branding, developing new vision and mission statements (coinciding the new Senior Pastor's leadership), looking for sponsorship and creating a new welcome flyer to say the least.

My first week consisted of getting used to the idea of less devotion to my usual tasks of managing teenagers, counselling, running high school programs, running our weekly program etc. and focusing on PR related activities. As the new website is the most important task on my 'To-Do' list, I contacted the web design company and discussed what needed to be done on my end as well as their end. I then ventured on to seek internal and external sponsorship for a monthly newsletter which should be launched around June this year. It was an amazing week, and one that felt quite strange. I was still working with the same organisation, the same peers, the same office... but in a completely different role!

My experience in the last 10 weeks has truly been eye-opening...I'll touch base with you shortly as I post up my next instalment from my placement experience at Northway Christian Centre.

Ciao,

Thor Williams

13971186

Bentley