PROJECT BRIEF

Client Name:

• Healing Transitions
  

Services:

• Media Strategy
• Earned Media
• Messaging
• Story Development

The Opportunity

Healing Transitions provides peer-based recovery services for individuals experiencing substance use disorder, offering long-term support rooted in dignity, accountability, and community. Since 2018, our team has been a trusted strategic communications partner, working alongside Healing Transitions to build its brand awareness in North Carolina through media engagement, content creation, reputation risk management and more - ultimately working together to improve trust and engagement with Healing Transitions’ target audiences.

In advance of National Recovery Month (September 2025), we identified a key opportunity for growth: elevate participant and leadership voices, increase awareness of Healing Transitions’ innovative recovery model, and strengthen community engagement during a moment of heightened national attention around addiction and recovery.

At the same time, public conversations around substance use disorder often remain shaped by stigma rather than lived experience. Healing Transitions sought to shift that narrative – positioning recovery as possible, visible, and community-supported, while also supporting a major fundraising goal tied to the month’s outreach efforts.

Keylight Communications partnered with Healing Transitions to design and execute a strategic earned media campaign that centered personal recovery stories and positioned the organization as a trusted regional leader in peer-led recovery services.

OUR APPROACH

Keylight implemented a targeted earned media strategy designed to elevate authentic recovery voices while aligning outreach with Healing Transitions’ fundraising and awareness goals.

The campaign prioritized the Raleigh media market, where the organization’s strongest donor base is located, and focused on positioning Healing Transitions leadership and participants as credible advocates for recovery-centered solutions.

Keylight supported the campaign through:

• Development of media-ready participant recovery stories
• Strategic spokesperson preparation for CEO Chris Budnick and staff leader Emma Doss
• Targeted outreach to regional broadcast, public radio, podcast, and health reporters
• Coordination of interviews and message alignment across platforms
• Submission of award nominations highlighting Healing Transitions’ leadership and innovation in recovery programming
• Internal amplification support to extend the impact of earned placements across staff, board, and donor audiences

By centering lived experience alongside leadership expertise, the campaign helped reframe recovery conversations around hope, dignity, and practical solutions.

THE RESULTS

The campaign delivered strong regional visibility during a competitive awareness month:

• Two major broadcast placements secured in the Raleigh market
• Coverage on Spectrum News and WTVD
• 58,000+ regional impressions within the first 24 hours of airing
• Fundraising stretch goal of $175,000 exceeded during National Recovery Month

Media coverage helped extend Healing Transitions’ reach among donors, families affected by substance use disorder, and community stakeholders across North Carolina.

THE IMPACT

By elevating participant voices alongside organizational leadership, the campaign helped shift how recovery is represented in regional media coverage – moving the conversation from stigma toward possibility.

Strategic storytelling during National Recovery Month strengthened Healing Transitions’ visibility at a critical moment for engagement and fundraising, while reinforcing the organization’s role as a trusted leader in peer-led recovery services.

The result was more than media placements; the campaign helped connect community awareness with tangible support for recovery programs changing lives across the Raleigh region.