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Announcing the Winners of the 2024 CPRS Toronto ACE Awards
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Announcing the Winners of the 2024 Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) Toronto Chapter’s Achieving Communications Excellence (ACE) Awards

Metro Inc. and Agnostic win Best in Show Campaign, while the Electrical Safety Authority and Proof Strategies take home Best Creative Campaign of the Year and Best Creative Campaign of the Year, respectively

The Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) Toronto chapter has announced the winners of the 2024 annual ACE Awards. The awards celebrate the industry’s top communicators and public relations programs and campaigns from the past year.

Read the full press release here

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Why and How to Share Your CSR and ESG News
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By: Business Wire Content Team

In today’s climate, many brands are realizing their unique positions to affect meaningful change – to the benefit of their workforce, their communities and even globally.

With this realization also comes the drive to act, something likely attributable to the expectations, interests and buying patterns of consumers of all ages who are intentionally selecting brands with a purpose.

As companies decide to launch Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives, they should also take care to consider how they will publicize their social impact. 

To maximize the reach and impact of their charitable efforts, businesses must make a conscious effort to promote their good work. When done right, the positive downstream effects can lead to attracting and retaining employee talent, increasing consumer loyalty and demonstrating accountability to investors.

Read more in this Business Wire blog post about the shifting attitudes toward responsible corporate citizenship and how Business Wire can help you reach the audiences most interested and most likely to act up your CSR and ESG news. 

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Nine action items to advance your organization’s Indigenous Relations
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Written By: Kate Morris, with research by Palweet Kaur Parmar, Edouard Madirisha and Julia Thivièrge.

Much of the discussion about diversity, equity and inclusion centres around boosting and listening to voices of people of colour and this also includes Indigenous Peoples. As part of our Centennial College PR project for The Communicators’ Collective, a group of professional communicators dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion in the field, we interviewed a number of Indigenous communications professionals about their experience and how communications can facilitate Indigenous relations. What we heard from many of those communicators is that the implicit goal of listening is to work against confirmation-bias, against living in an echo chamber or worse, of seeking out collaborators who will confirm what you want to hear in consultation and community work. 

It’s great to see organizations’ recent desire to create a more diverse workforce and one that includes Indigenous Peoples, but where should they begin? Are leaders and staff adequately trained in cultural-competency, anti-racism, and cultural-safety? To ensure a healthy and safe working environment for people of colour, organizations will have to begin by training existing staff and changing the culture of the organization. Here are nine resources that, once implemented, will go a long way to determining the success of your organization’s efforts.  

1. Hire Indigenous.

Education and employment gaps exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada as outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Calls to Action 7 through 12. These inequities disproportionately impact employment opportunities and outcomes for Indigenous Peoples.

Through Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment and Training in Toronto, employers work with a job developer who assists them in understanding the position and providing alternative ways for potential Indigenous employees to apply and be considered. This route assures they will be considered based on alternative criteria, and more importantly, they will not be excluded based on any arbitrary criteria that is automatically used by many organizations and their HR software programs. Miziwe Biik hosts job fairs and info sessions inviting potential employers to engage with interested community members. Employers can also apply for grants to create Indigenous positions. Indigenous employment services exist across Canada to support, guide and create new opportunities for potential Indigenous employees and remove any barriers to entry.

Miziwe Biik’s logo teepee created for an event held by Council Fire. / Savanna Chiblow 

2. Provide Cultural-Competency Training for staff and leaders.

Education is a central pillar in the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Calls to Action. But most employees have completed their formal education and won’t benefit from the revisions in education in place for the youth of today. How are adults going to get re-educated? Employers can play a key role in educating their workers about Indigenous culture.

Bob Joseph, who wrote the award-winning book 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act, hosts a suite of courses and workshops through his company Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. His clients include Fortune 500 companies, SMEs, government and Indigenous Peoples. Joseph’s warm attitude towards Indigenous education and his depth of knowledge as a hereditary chief in the Gayaxala clan make him an impressive teacher. Beginner offerings include Indigenous Awareness, Indigenous Relations and Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples. For those looking to enhance their knowledge, there are classes on Indigenous recruitment and retention, negotiation and the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous Friendship Centres were created to form professional ties between Indigenous and non-Indigenous entities in many provinces and territories. Friendship centres offer a range of training from relationship building to directly targeting the TRC’s Calls to Action. Some offer tailored training for various sectors, such as education, private enterprise and government.

3. Engage Cultural-Safety and Anti-Racism Trainers.

San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training  educates people working with Indigenous Peoples as employees, partners, customers or any other kind of ‘stakeholder’. The aim is to make it safe for Indigenous Peoples to share their experiences without fear of further injury or a lack of understanding. 

For organizations working on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives more broadly, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation hosts Anti-Racism Workshops and the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion has various resources for ending racism in the workplace.

 4. Read the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action.

Many communicators we interviewed requested business leaders, and Canadians at large, read the Calls to Action with an eye towards any actions specific to their area of work such as the recommendations for children and youth, sports, education, the arts, media, healthcare, policing and law. 

Further, recommendation 92 “Adopt the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” applies to all corporations in Canada and any of their actions that affect Indigenous Peoples, their land and resources. Through this Call to Action, organizations commit to consultation; relationship building; free, prior and informed consent on any project or initiative. It also commits organizations to providing equitable access to jobs, training, educational opportunities and the long-term benefits of economic development. 

5. Pursue Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB).

 The CCAB offers a Progressive Aboriginal Relations program for all organizations, whether they are starting fresh or working with strong foundations in Indigenous relations. PAR formalizes the credibility and value of the organization’s accomplishments after a PAR Working Group is established, comprising members from various organizational departments including but not limited to those most-closely involved in Indigenous-lead or Aboriginal Affairs roles. This seven-year program begins with the organization’s commitment to a full gold-level certification of PAR member status in year seven. The PAR logo provides PAR’s unique third-party verification and can be found on many of Canada’s largest banks, energy companies, insurance and accounting firms, technology companies and a number of colleges and universities. Many non-profit organizations have also initiated the PAR process.

 6. Be Real about Flex-Time.

 Indigenous Peoples celebrate holidays such as National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, summer and winter solstice and other ceremonies within their communities. Shani Gwin of Gwin Communications in Edmonton says one of the ways her Indigenous-led PR firm supports Indigenous and diverse staff is by allowing them to take the holidays they want. This was echoed by Savanna Chiblow, who took NIPD as a holiday from her role as digital communications storyteller and community builder at Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment Services in Toronto. Additionally, as Gwin points out, statutory personal days for the purposes of grieving a loved one can be problematic for Indigenous folks. Indigenous families have unique structures, some of which is the result of the history of the treatment of Indigenous Peoples in this country. Many organizations hierarchize the number of days an employee can take off due to a death in the family based on assumptions about those relationships. But these hierarchies unnecessarily favour certain kinds of family relations based on lineage (parent-child) over others (aunt-niece) that might not reflect actual family relationships at all. Today, loss isn’t quantifiable and an employee’s time off should reflect this.

7. Elements of Indigenous Style.

Gregory Younging’s Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing By and About Indigenous Peoples is the premium source to confirm you’ve got your words right when it comes to Indigenous relations and representations. Although it avows that there is no simple “tick box” solution to Indigenous communications, because the Indigenous community is itself diverse, it provides key rules or principles for working on content with Indigenous creators. It does so in a way that is edifying and informative: making the case for the rules based on Indigenous history and Indigenous law. Most importantly, it shows a model for working together that is reparative and relationship centred. If you’re a marketing or communications professional, you cannot live without this book. Check out a review here.

8. ATRIS & UNDRIP

The Aboriginal and Treaty Rights Information System (ATRIS) is an online interactive portal that outlines treaty areas and claims, and provides links to the various documents associated with specific communities and their experience of government and the law. When it began in 2012, it was designed as an internal tool for government agencies whose projects affected Indigenous Peoples and therefore required consultation by law. Today the tool is available for public use and can assist in locating band offices and understanding the history of relations, projects and claims in the region. 

As the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is adopted, “small c” consultations are predicted to become more important and more frequent as the concept of nation-to-nation projects becomes prevalent, as does the requirement for consent. Understanding the challenges (legal and otherwise) in each community is a good place to research before undertaking operational projects. ATRIS provides an interactive map onto which development, energy and infrastructure projects and initiatives can be mapped, allowing for a more nuanced approach to the land and ideally the Indigenous rights owners of that land. 

Screen capture from ATRIS showing details of Kamloops. 

9. Listen…and not just for what you want to hear.

In gathering insights for this project, our interviewees reminded us that when we listen our goal is to hear a great many things that make us uncomfortable. Accept that discomfort as a necessary part of un-learning and learning anew. One of our underlying questions was about Indigenous relations, but resoundingly we heard that Indigenous Peoples are diverse in and of themselves and respecting and honouring those differences is important to reconciliation. 

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This article was written as part of a Centennial College corporate communications and public relations student-led campaign on Indigenous communications for The Communicators Collective, a group fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in the communications profession. To hear more from Indigenous communicators across Canada, check out this podcast.

Kate Morris is a Corporate Communications and Public Relations Post-graduate student at Centennial College, Intern at Kaiser & Partners (Fall 2021) and Media Relations Lead at MaxSold.

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Unpaid internships affect us all
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By: Laik Sweeney, University of Guelph-Humber graduate and President of the Canadian Public Relations Society’s Toronto Student Steering Committee

We are taught from a young age that those who are creative and would like to pursue a career within the media landscape are less likely to make a wage comparable to their peers in technology or sciences. For far too long, unpaid internships have been known as the way students get their foot in the door, and that’s the way it is for many who have chosen a Media or Art program. The PR industry has normalized students going unpaid for work which is detrimental for not only students, but employers as well. 

I completed an unpaid internship for my university credit and while I had a great experience and learned a lot, I have been researching more into the benefits and value that paid internships bring to all parties. I am also the President of the CPRS Toronto Student Steering Committee and my role revolves around helping other students. By bringing unpaid internships further into the spotlight, I believe we can all help future students, employers and the industry as a whole. 

Talent retention

There are many reasons to invest in interns financially. One struggle for many PR firms is talent retention, with “turnover in the PR industry more than twice as high as the average turnover in the professional services sector at large.” Economically investing in interns may decrease this problem. More talented students, especially those in financially difficult spots, are more willing to apply for a paying job. This creates a larger applicant pool with more opportunities for companies to find the perfect fit for their specific needs. 

Not only do companies increase their application pools, but interns bring in fresh ideas, which is needed within the ever-changing social media and communications space. Those coming right out of school bring an injection of new energy into their workplaces and help contribute innovative ideas to the evolving media landscape that PR firms continuously need to adapt to. While the student may have little to no experience, it is still a real position adding value to the company. 

Unpaid internships reinforce socioeconomic barriers

While the student in an internship position is getting valuable knowledge and other great resources, this is simply not enough. Unpaid internships leave those in vulnerable situations in the dark. It creates a bad taste for the entire industry by promoting those who are privileged to afford an unpaid internship over those in financially challenged households. Companies risk losing out on incredible new talent—students who can only apply to paid internships rather than unpaid. The public relations industry needs more diversity, and unpaid internships make it even harder for the industry to become more diverse. 

Not only are companies who don’t pay their interns creating a specific kind of workforce for the future, but they’re also dampening their own reputation. Reputation is one of the most critical factors for a company when thinking about talent retention. Moreover, when companies don’t pay their interns and omit salary details in job applications, future applicants may not think that company offers competitive salaries, potentially deterring them from applying for positions later in life.

Education costs

Pursuing post-secondary education is an investment in our futures, and many students work very hard to fund this endeavour. The companies that want to help give students a chance to learn and succeed should also financially invest in them. Many students, like myself, leave home to go to university and must pay rent, which is more economically challenging. While this issue has subsided for many due to the work-from-home or online learning formats, the cost of going to university is still high. According to Statistics Canada, in 2015, the average Canadian post-secondary student owed $30,000 at graduation. University tuition fees aren’t going down either. While some universities lowered some expenses for the Fall 2020 semester, prices are back up for Winter 2021 despite remote learning continuing. 

In my own experience, many of my PR classmates weren’t paid for their internships either and needed to work a second job to try and make ends meet when their internship workday ended, adding to the financial stress students already face.

In Ontario, unpaid internships are only legal if the intern is a student receiving academic credit for their work. However, this academic credit is not free to the student. Completing an unpaid internship can make it hard to pay back the fees for that semester. For example, my program required 240 hours of placement to graduate, and the internship course costs approximately $2,000. This means that even if I were to get paid the amount I spent on the internship, I would be making $8.35 an hour. While honorariums are better than unpaid internships, they still promote the thought that creative-based skills are not valued or worth a real wage. This completely devalues the profession and skills needed to be successful in the field. 

Ultimately, the repercussions of unpaid internships hurt everyone involved. The Canadian Public Relations Society is a great supporter of paid internships and I have been working with CPRS Toronto to survey students and employers to get an accurate grasp of how big of a problem unpaid internships are, and what can be done about it. 

My hope for the future is that all employers change the way they value student internships, seeing them as an important strategy to attract talent and mentor the next generation. Paying interns is something that is ultimately beneficial not only to the students and employer but for the reputation of our industry as a whole. 

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Join our event and RESET with Carol-Ann Hamilton, Life Coach and Author
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Written by: Allie Martin, Professional Development Sub-committee volunteer

Make sure to join us for a life-inspiring event with Carol-Ann on April 8. Register here.

Burnt out. Exhaustion. Frustration. Are just some of the emotions we as busy PR professionals have been facing over the last year, alongside the rest of the world. To support these feelings of being overwhelmed, the CPRS Toronto Social Affairs committee is gladly hosting a free event with Carol-Ann Hamilton in the upcoming weeks.

The event entitled, “Reset: Member Survival Guide” is taking place on April 8 at 6 p.m., I had the pleasure of interviewing guest speaker Carol-Ann Hamilton, who is an inspirational author, transformational and life coach, and also a reiki master healer. We spoke about her career, how she got into this line of work, her thoughts on this past year, and what people can expect to take away from this event.

I am happy to say that after our call, which was only 30 minutes, I came out of it feeling inspired and refreshed and connected with Carol-Ann. Her knowledge and experience in her line of work were very apparent, and I was so grateful for the opportunity to speak with her.

To gain a better understanding of what a life coach does, I asked Carol-Ann to explain what she does, and she summed it up quite simply by saying, “I help people to uncover their broader mission so that they live the life of their dreams.” She primarily does this in the realm of corporate transformations and eldercare, or those dealing with difficult ageing parent issues.

Carol-Ann comes from a long line of educators, so she decided to go that route and got her Bachelor of Education degree and received a scholarship from the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) for it. After completing her degree, Carol-Ann realized the traditional teaching profession was not for her and decided to go the corporate route; she claims it was the sponsorship from HBC that catapulted this career choice for her. She integrated her education throughout her entire corporate career, as her roles always had a training compartment to them.

Carol-Ann is a life coach who dedicates her career to helping people and guiding them to view their lives holistically. She helps people realize their potential and tune into what it is inside of them that sabotages their dreams. A life coach is a neutral champion on the journey with you.

When asked what people can expect to take away from this event, Carol-Ann summed it up to be three I’s: information, illumination, and inspiration.

Information – knowing the power of intention vs. goal-setting exercises and working towards energy mastery instead of stress management.

Illumination – clearing energy blockages and bringing forward insights from reiki healing.

Inspiration – becoming inspired again, as it was lacking for most this year.

We also spoke on the reality of “burnout” and how apparent it is for many people right now. Carol-Ann said, “if there was ever a year that we would be burned out, we can all agree 2020 is that year.” She discussed the negative effects burnout can have on individuals, on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. This year has many of us questioning our lives on its most fundamental level, and Carol-Ann’s reset helps reverse this.

Why should you attend this event? Carol-Ann said it best by stating it is a time to reset, a time where people can step off the treadmill of their lives and for the duration of it just take in the content and maybe even walk away making some new decisions for their lives.

Like I stated before, I felt so inspired after my conversation with Carol-Ann and hope everyone else can experience the same thing. I think we can all agree that a reset is what we all need right now. It’s time to feel inspired again, turn our dreams into reality, and tackle everything life has in store for us.

To learn more about Carol-Ann’s expertise and take the time to reflect on this past year and reset, join CPRS Toronto’s 2021 Reset: Member Survival Guide on April 8 at 6 p.m. through Zoom. We encourage you to register here.

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5 Tips On Making Your LinkedIn Game Stronger
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Written by: Parul Yadav, Public Relations and Social Media Director at PORTEIRO App and Humber College Public Relations Student

As a university student, I discovered LinkedIn in 2018 and since then the platform has brought endless opportunities to me. If you wish to add value to your network and keep your profile up to date then LinkedIn can be one of your most valuable tools. Polishing your LinkedIn profile can act as a portfolio, website or maybe even a blog at the same time. It holds immense potential to land you real time jobs, interviews, internships and new opportunities! Keep reading on to learn ‘5 Tips in Making Your LinkedIn Game Stronger’.

1. Improve Your Profile

If you wish to master the LinkedIn engagement game then you need to recheck your profile and fill out as much as you can. Every section of your profile offers potential and acts as a first impression. Volunteer experiences, languages, certifications and highlighting featured projects/articles that you were involved in, can provide insight into what you do outside of work and make you stand out. Therefore, run your LinkedIn account like a business and you’ll be sure to get attention from the right audience.

2. Strategize Your Keywords

Position your headline, summary and experience through using the right keywords. This will expose your profile to more potential connections and opportunities. You can also spark future conversations through searching for people by name and company. People search for skills, so use this part of your profile for a specific purpose. Don’t forget to try out the advanced search for applying filters such as job title, school, relationship, location, industry, current or past company, profile language and nonprofit interests.

3. Build Authentic Relationships

Many people find LinkedIn ONLY for networking purposes and often think of it as boring or too formal. However, when this platform is used the right way, building your profile credibility can immensely make your professional journey more fulfilling. The truth is, you can forge strong relationships by making genuine efforts to ADD VALUE to your network. Don’t connect for the sake of connecting. Provide value in any way you can! You will soon start to view LinkedIn as a hub for building valuable relationships, reigniting old one’s and sharing helpful content.

4. Like, Share And Comment

You found an intriguing article or a piece of latest news that your connections might find useful? If you are looking to enhance your LinkedIn visibility then often staying active and engaging on LinkedIn is the KEY! By liking, sharing and commenting on people’s posts, writing your own articles and posting status updates will level up your game. Writing recommendations for people, requesting your own by asking your clients/colleagues can strike the right conversation.

5. Right Content And Hashtags

Just like any other social media, LinkedIn hashtags are a combination of letters and numbers. Using hashtags will make your articles and posts more discoverable. These hashtags are various topics with large audiences that are classified into leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and advertising. If you select a specific audience and use relevant hashtags then LinkedIn users tend to “listen” to topics that matter most to them, and in turn, create a better engagement for you. If your post can feature in any of these groups, it can go viral.

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March Membership Month Q&A with James King
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Written by: James King, Account Executive, Earned Media, Technology, Edelman & Co-Chair, Communications & Marketing, CPRS Toronto

How long have you been a CPRS member?

I joined CPRS as a student back in October 2019 and have been a member ever since, and am quickly approaching my year and a half mark.

Why did you decide to become a CPRS member?

I first heard about CPRS during my undergraduate years at McMaster University through my roommate who was involved as a Student Representative with the Hamilton chapter. While researching details on Humber’s postgraduate public relations certificate program I stumbled upon photos of the CPRS Toronto SSC’s Passport to PR event. I quickly found myself dreaming about what a future career in the industry might look like and knew I wanted to get involved with similar initiatives once my PR journey began.

What do you hope to get from your membership?

As someone who is in the early stages of their career, I’m always curious and eager to chat with other professionals about their experiences navigating the industry, hoping to gain perspective as I reflect upon my own goals. I’m incredibly thankful that through CPRS Toronto, I’ve been able to connect with so many individuals in the PR community. I’ve gained lifelong friends and mentors who have continued to invest in my ongoing and future success, and my membership continues to provide me with access to countless resources and tools to help guide my continued learning and growth.

How did you first become interested in PR?

Mentorship has always played a huge role in my life, and I was fortunate to have a few individuals within my circle who went on to pursue careers in PR as I was completing my undergraduate education. Witnessing their professional development and looking at projects they were working on left me feeling inspired, and helped me to gain confidence to explore potential alignment with my own skills and interests. I’m very grateful to those folks for giving me the encouragement I needed to take that leap.

What is your best experience with being a co-chair for the CPRS Toronto Board?

There are so many great things I’ve enjoyed about being a co-chair for the CPRS Toronto Board of Directors. While it isn’t necessarily one particular moment or experience that stands out to me, one aspect that I’ve loved about my time as a whole is the capacity to contribute to and collaborate across a number of new initiatives, including the launch of our Instagram page, mentorship program and subcommittee. Being a co-chair allows me the opportunity to raise my hand if I want to get involved across all aspects of our chapter and develop skills that enrich my skill set, all while receiving invaluable guidance and support from my wonderful portfolio Director.

Why would you recommend new members to volunteer with the CPRS?

In the virtual world we live in these days, it can be challenging to feel connected to those around you and build meaningful relationships as you might while attending a networking event or sitting down for face-to-face time with an industry professional. CPRS has done a fantastic job at continuing to provide opportunities for members to get involved with contributing to our blog, planning professional development events and so much more. The sky’s the limit when it comes to what you can do with CPRS and I highly recommend volunteering within our chapter if you’re looking to make the most out of your membership.

What have you learned since joining the CPRS?

Since joining CPRS, I have learned that you’re never alone as you navigate what your future has in store and the endless possibilities working in this profession offers. Although there is a lot of uncertainty in our world these days, CPRS has allowed me to feel confident and supported through everything happening around me. I look forward to continuing to build out my career alongside an amazing group of talented and hardworking professionals, serving on our board and among our dedicated volunteers.

To learn more about becoming a CPRS Toronto Member, click here.

Membership Month offers include:

  • If you join in March as a new member the $50 initiation fee will be waived.
  • Lapsed members also the $50 reinstatement fee will be waived.
  • Anyone who renews/joins in March is entered into a draw for a year’s free membership!
  • Renewing members: all members who renew in March will be entered into a draw to win a $50 voucher each week.
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Mentorship Session Recap: Sharing your personal story and top skills for success
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Written by: James King, Account Executive, Earned Media, Technology, Edelman & Co-Chair, Communications & Marketing, CPRS Toronto

CPRS Toronto recently launched a new mentorship program. A mentor from our Board of Directors will meet monthly with a select group of five mentees to share their experiences and insights on a number of relevant topics, ranging from networking to interview preparation and long-term career planning. Co-Chair of Communications and Marketing, James King, details his first mentorship session below.


Entering a new setting for the first time – whether it be virtual or in-person – can bring about its fair share of pre-attendance jitters. Similar to the Sunday scaries, nerves and excitement in anticipation of what is next fill the air, as you count down the clock until that highly awaited moment finally arrives.

As someone who was seeking out internship opportunities around this time last year, I knew I wanted to be a mentor who could bring energy and excitement to help mentees take a break from their daily lives and routines. However, I also wanted to make sure I was providing meaningful opportunities for them to engage in valuable conversations and help them feel supported as their careers take off.

While navigating mentorship in the virtual setting can certainly bring about its own set of unique opportunities and challenges, my group successfully met for the first time this past Tuesday evening for our first group session and put any worries or uncertainties to rest.

Kicking it off with a fun introductory “show and tell” showcase, I knew I was in for a treat right off the bat, as they quickly put their storytelling abilities to the test. From embroidered art to Yorkshire tea and self-tanner spray, we were able to share interesting parts of ourselves from the get-go to help set the tone before diving into some deeper conversations.

We all have fears and dreams

After wrapping up the warm welcomes, we took some time as a group to reflect and write down something we were nervous or feeling uncertain about related to our future career plans. Shortly after, we took a few moments to follow-up on this fear and jot down something actionable we planned on doing to help combat this.

A few brave mentees felt empowered enough to share their thoughts with the rest of our group, touching upon topics including worries about diverse representation within the workforce and insecurities when it came to the timelines of their career paths or trajectories up until now. Ultimately, this conversation reminded us all that no matter what stage within our careers we are all at, we each have our own set of challenges we hope to overcome and successes we hope to achieve. 

While we may not always have all the answers, something we reinforced was the concept of believing in our own self-worth and recognizing opportunities to learn and grow exist within each and every day. Although our personal struggles might all look different compared to one another, it solidified the belief that we are never alone in our journey and that there is a warm and welcoming community around us in the PR industry to help support our goals.

Play to your strengths and build your own narrative

For our next activity, our group imagined we were the hiring team at a new PR agency looking to recruit an intern to join their team. We began by brainstorming a list of ideal qualities we would hope for our dream candidate to possess, and came up with ten items in total, including being a self-starter, working well under pressure and demonstrating empathy for others.

From there, we flipped the script and imagined we were now candidates for this role, narrowing down which characteristics we would prioritize in our application and how they would fit into our stories. Although our list included strong writing skills (which is a definite asset in PR), something we noticed as a group across the board was most things listed were personal traits rather than specific subject-matter expertise, such as experience in media relations or influencer campaigns, that can be taught.

Another interesting observation was that from this list, everyone selected different items as standout points they would choose to highlight about themselves. All in all, this prompted the realization that we all have unique identifiers and experiences that have shaped us into who we are today. Rather than trying to check off every box all at once, we instead discussed focusing on conveying a few select themes and using them to paint a picture that celebrates who you are in a compelling and memorable way.

Take control when mapping out your future and “get it”

For the last half hour of every session, I’ll be inviting a fellow colleague and friend of mine within the industry to join our call and offer another perspective as it relates to our monthly theme and their own personal insights. To kick things off, we were fortunate to have Ryleigh Ebron as a guest speaker.

As a recent Humber PR grad and current Account Associate at Talk Shop, Ryleigh began by sharing her path for how she found herself in the world of PR, reflecting on many key lessons learned along the way. A natural storyteller and engaging presenter with many words of wisdom, here are just a few of Ryleigh’s standout takeaway points:

  • Focus on investing time and energy into yourself through building long-term relationships with your colleagues and network, as well as seeking out opportunities to showcase your talents and interests.
  • Make a list of your non-negotiables that you want to get out of your next role, and do your research before/during informational calls as well as interviews to ensure there is alignment with your values.
  • Prioritize continuous self-improvement by setting personal and professional goals for yourself, making sure to raise your hand to take on new tasks and find innovative ways to keep levelling up your skills.
  • Think of creative strategies to make yourself an invaluable asset or standout member of your team and follow these ideas up with hard work, eagerness and determination to make yourself unforgettable.
  • Be open to exploring projects or clients in all different practice areas, as it can lead to discovering newfound realizations about yourself and broaden your skill set beyond your own imagination.

Overall this first session went better than I could have ever imagined. Something I was worried about going into this was my young age and level of experience within the industry. One of my mentees said something incredibly sweet that I won’t forget, in that “I selected you as my mentor for that very reason. I wanted to gain a peer’s perspective and chat with someone I could relate to.” I hope I was able to live up to those expectations and I cannot wait for everything ahead in the months to come.

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Student Perspectives: interviewing Angela Frangos
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Written by: Laik Sweeney, SSC President and University of Guelph-Humber student

Angela Frangos is a student representative for the University of Guelph-Humber and stepped up this year as the Assistant VP, Internal. Currently, Angela is completing an internship brand-side.

*Responses have been edited for clarity. Watch the full interview here.

How did you find public relations, and why did you choose to get into it?

I feel like I stumbled upon PR. I wasn’t aware that this was a career path in high school, but I was always really good at reading, writing, copy editing and public speaking. Looking back, that was all a sign showing where I was going to end up. 

I began to look at media programs in grade 11, and from there, stumbled upon communications. I looked at a lot of schools and ended up taking a chance on the small school that I had never heard of – the University of Guelph-Humber – and I absolutely love it. Guelph-Humber is really unique because you get a degree and a diploma in four years. You also get all of the theoretical knowledge that a university would give you and the more  hands-on, industry-specific skills that a college would give you. 

I also liked Guelph-Humber because it bought me some time. Although I liked communications, I wasn’t sure if I could make a career out of it. With Guelph-Humber, the first two years of the program are general, giving me those extra years to make sure I was certain about my career path. From the PR classes that I attended early on, I thought that PR would be a really great fit for me, and it has been! I’ve been really loving it ever since. 

Tell me more about your experience on the Student Steering Committee and your new role as Assistant VP, Internal.

I’m really happy I had the chance to step up into this role. It’s been a great opportunity to be much more involved in the event planning that we’ve been doing on the SSC, and the SSC in general has been, and continues to be, an amazing experience. I’m really glad that I joined and was given the chance to be here.

The SSC has also been a great way to learn from other PR students at other schools who are going through the same thing. We all have similar concerns and nerves, and we also get to talk to and learn from industry professionals who share their skills and knowledge with us. 

Students are encouraged to take their first position in public relations at an agency. You’re doing yours brand-side; what’s your advice to those who are debating between the two?

I love being in-brand. I’ve only been in the position for a month or so, but I really am enjoying it. We definitely are encouraged to go the agency route, and I think that is for a good reason. You have so many opportunities to get hired out of school or as a student. You get a lot of experience with different brands in different areas right out of the gate, which is very beneficial. 

However, I always had a gut feeling that I wanted to be in a corporate environment. I wanted to work with one brand and get to know their voice and messaging really well. It has been a great fit for me. If you feel like you’d be better in-brand, give it a try! As students, now is our chance to try things. Trust your gut, and you can always change course later. 

What’s your advice for students coming up into the PR industry? 

Don’t box yourself in, and don’t feel like you have to know everything right now. You don’t have to know where you’re going to end up. I feel like we’re encouraged to find the niche market that we want to operate in right away. If you know that—that’s great. But, we’re students, we’re learning, and that’s okay. In communications, we have the opportunity to move around a lot—whether it’s in-brand or agency, lifestyle or tech.

Now, I’m a strong advocate for setting small goals for yourself. For example, I set the goal for myself that I wanted to do an internship in a corporation. Now I’ve achieved that goal, and I’m living in it and learning from it so I can revise my course and set my next small goal. This is not to say that you can’t have big dreams; this just works really well for me. By setting small goals, I can live in the moment a bit more and be more open to opportunities that may come my way. I want to make sure my next step is something I’m really excited about. 

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Five things we learned from Black Pioneers of public relations
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Written by: Sarah Heiman, Rebecca Moe, Daisy Johanna Uy and Charmaine Blair, CCPR postgraduate students, Centennial college

This year, it is important to reflect on the Black communicators who have shaped the PR industry. The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, put a spotlight on the Black Lives Matter movement (#BLM). It sparked a global conversation on racial justice for Black, Indigenous and other people of colour (BIPOC). The PR and communications industries were forced to reflect on the role they play in enacting and influencing change (Ghane, 2020). 

Being Black history month, we want to shine a light on the Black PR pioneers that have paved the way for BIPOC PR professionals. We have a lot to learn from their stories of resilience, advocacy and success.

1. Black representation matters

When people see themselves represented in society, media and the workplace, they are more likely to be engaged. We saw this in the case of Joseph V. Baker, who persuaded companies to have Black representation in advertising and hire Black workers to create brand loyalty. When Moss Kendrix identified the previously untapped Black consumer market in his work for Coca-Cola, the successes of his campaigns helped the company grow in advertising, job opportunities for Black Americans and other business opportunities. 

But representation isn’t only about enhancing the work we do. Representation matters because everyone deserves to see themselves as their childhood heroes, and fulfilling their dreams. Representation captures the reality of how our world truly looks and lets us hear the diverse stories that would be missing. With representation, BIPOC individuals learn to embrace and share their culture to be appreciated and celebrated by all. “Diversity is vital to the effectiveness and credibility of PR. It’s crucial to encourage more people of all races to pursue careers … and to create spaces where diverse practitioners feel safe, included and empowered to do their jobs effectively” (Carrington, 2020).

2. Use your voice for advocacy

Inez Kaiser and fashion demanded representation. She used her voice and work to open doors for girls.

Powerful Black voices impacted the industry with their great advocacy work, however, as we continuously grow, we learn the responsibility no longer falls on BIPOC practitioners alone. It is the responsibility of all folks to use their voices in advocacy and allyship to continue the great work of Joseph Baker, Moss Kendrix and Inez Kaiser. These Black communicators solidified the importance of honesty and integrity in their work. They were respected for their candor and inclusive visions.

3. Know your worth and speak your truth

Inez Kaiser was determined to speak her truth. When getting her Bachelor’s degree, she stayed in school, even when her teacher said she didn’t want Black students in class. She fought discrimination to get office space for her PR firm.

Joseph V. Baker also knew his life experience and his ethnicity had worth. He used these assets to vastly improve the campaigns for his clients, appealing to a larger audience group that may have been previously ignored and opening a new marketing stream for these companies too.

4. Change won’t come overnight

Hearing about the work of advocates and the struggles they faced, it can be discouraging to see how far we have to go to achieve DE&I. However, we can remain hopeful knowing that more and more advocates and supporters are emerging and pushing to make change.

5. What you live becomes your legacy. Throw down a ladder. 

Moss Kendrix, Inez Kaiser and Joseph V. Baker leveraged their experiences and knowledge to become successful in their fields. They also made sure to leave a legacy that will continue to help minorities entering the workforce for generations to come. 

In whole, when listening to today’s episode and reading our reflections here, it is important we appreciate the challenges that were overcome, but understanding that the work is far from over.

Your voice has power, and after unpacking today’s episode, we invite you to reflect on your position and perspective, and the changes you can make to push DE&I in your life and community. For more information on the topics in today’s episode, check out the resources below.

Listen to the full first episode of The Future of PR Looks Like Us by clicking here.

The Future of PR Looks Like Us campaign

The Future of PR Looks Like Us is led by a team of Centennial College PR and corporate communications postgraduate students in partnership with the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms (CCPRF). We intend to highlight the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the PR industry. 

This blog accompanies a podcast series exploring diverse voices that influenced the industry and featuring work done by PR students from Centennial College. Learn about diverse figures of PR’s past who have shaped the industry for today’s BIPOC professionals. Listen in to uncover misconceptions and learn about the opportunities the industry holds. The series closes by highlighting the bright future PR professionals and students see as diversity grows within the industry. 

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