Agency raises profile after quietly helping children for 80 years

The Memorial Child Guidance Clinic may be one of the most important institutions in Richmond that you’ve never heard about.

That will soon change.

The clinic perched on the precipice of Church Hill overlooking downtown, battles every day to heal young minds scarred by violence.  Its mission grows more urgent every year.  And finding the money to fulfill that noble but complex goal grows more difficult.

The nonprofit organization has been providing mental-health services for young people, mostly from low-income families, since 1924.  Yet it is hardly a household name.

For years, it kept an intentionally low profile, quietly going about its tasks of providing counseling and treatment for local children caught in the kind of horrors one expects to encounter on the battlefield, not in homes and neighborhoods.

The 38 men and women who work at the clinic ferociously guard the privacy of young clients.  But they are willing to discuss, in the vaguest terms, the stark challenges they tackle:  Sometime, the children they treat have witnessed the murder of family members, even their own parents.  Others have been physically injured.

“In the past 10 years, we have seen a tremendous increase in the number of children who have been impacted by community and family violence," said Mark Hierholzer, the clinic’s executive director.

But even when the wounds heal, young hearts and minds require careful attention as they struggle to recover form the memories and emotional trauma inflicted by violence.

“We can make a significant difference in the lives of children,” Heirholzer said.

They clinic is facing a different kind of challenge now, but also an opportunity.

For much of its history, the clinic did not have to worry much about raising money.  Medicaid reimbursements, foundation grants and steadfast support from the United Way paid the bills.

These sources still play an important role in the clinic's funding, but they have been gradually declining even as the needs and goals expand.

“Children are needing the services we provide more and more,” said Janie Walker, the clinic’s chief of development and community relations.  “Almost every time you read about a crime, you can be sure a child is involved in some way.”

The child may have witnessed violence or been a victim.  Or a parent, friend or sibling may have been involved.

“We have become by default a trauma treatment center for children affected by violence," Heirholzer said.

The organization’s leader realized something had to change to meet the burgeoning problems.

“We made up our minds we were going to grow up,” Hierholzer said.

The clinic took a big step in 2003 when, thanks mainly to real estate developer Buddy Wilton, it was able to acquire the old WRVA radio building on Church Hill.

That allowed the clinic to consolidate under one roof it’s operations, which include, along with clinical services, training and educational programs and emergency-intervention teams that reach out almost immediately to children hit by violence.

“The building was a transformational gift”, “Hierholzer said But it also required even more money to make that transformation from a well-used radio station into a cheerful mental health haven for children. The job has barely begun.

So the Memorial Child Guidance Clinic was desperate for some marketing savvy.  Luckily, marketing savvy walked right in the front door one day: veteran adman and frequent do-gooder Doug Burford, trailed by his trusty assistant, Katie Boyer.

Burford Co. Advertising has plenty of experience helping nonprofit oragnaiztions get their message out.  It has created commercials for the Christian Children’s Fund for years.  Doug Burford has even been known to dig into his own pocket if the right cause comes along – say, promoting all the good things about his hometown.

He volunteered his services, and his many connections around town, to build a bigger name for the clinic.

“We didn’t have a strong donor base.  We didn’t need to have visibility in the past.  We had no money to pay a marketing person. But I always felt if people know us, they’d want to help,” Walker said.  “Then Doug – the angel – enters.”

Right always, Burford saw a big problem: the clinic’s long name.

“There is nothing I could do, even if I had a couple of million dollars, to make Memorial Child Guidance Clinic a household word, “ Burford said.  “That’s the hardest name to remember I’ve ever heard.”

The clinic wasn’t ready to change its official name, but it was willing to think about using a new one for its marketing

Burford came up with a good one:  ChildSavers of Richmond.

“I asked them what name described what they do,’ he said.  “It wasn’t brain surgery.  It was just so obvious.”

Obvious or not, the folks at the clinic loved it.

Walker said, at first she “couldn’t process” what the name could mean for the clinic.  But driving home, “it hit me like a lighting bolt.  This could be big.  This is the absolutely perfect way to describe what we do.”

Burford and Boyer are helping the clinic use the ChildSavers theme to power a fund-raising campaign with a goal of $5.4 million, including nearly $2 million to renovate its new home.

The clinic already has mailed out a newsletter explaining its mission and what certain donations will buy.  For instance, $50 will pay for a psychiatric checkup or a child-care provider workshop, while $1,500 will cover a typical full course of treatment for one child.

Circle S Studio has designed a logo and Studio 108 helped film a 60-second television spot, which will begin airing early this year.  (The children in the commercial, by the way, are volunteer actors, not clients of the clinic.)

“When I first saw that ad, I couldn’t speak,” Walker said.  “We’ve invested about $10,000 so far in the marketing, if that tells you anything about how much help we’ve gotten.’

Corporate sponsors are signing up to help buy time on local television stations for the spot.  Their names will appear at the end of the commercials they paid for.  Burford is hoping the station will give a break on their rates.

So far, Alcoa Flexible Packaging, Bon Secours, Owens & Minor, Bank of America and UBS have made contributions.

“In the nonprofit world, we never think something this good is going to happen to us,”  Walker said. Then you suddenly realize the gift you’ve been given.”