At the Alice PR firm today we had the opportunity to learn from Niamh Breathnach, Maisie Lynch, and Emma Walsh about what it is like to run a PR company from the standpoint of activism and advocacy. With Alice’s clientele being mainly made up of not-for-profits, charities, and Irish agencies, a majority of their work revolves around activism and touches on various subsections of human rights. 

What I gathered during our meeting was yet another change in perspective, or rather, a shift, from viewing PR through the lens of a consumer-based business to what PR looks like for charities or not for profits. Rather than handling consumer grievances or company scandals, Alice PR’s angle is one of magnifying a voice or maximizing outreach towards people  who may be lacking critical resources due to societal pitfalls or unfortunate life circumstances. This is not PR for the sake of protecting image but PR for the sake of protecting persons. To see what this really means, we were given a rundown of their case study with the Irish charity Ruhama and their campaign entitled “Game Changer” advocating for the education and protection of sexual and gender-based violence. This project in particular was in collaboration with the Gaelic Athletic Association making it larger in scale than what Alice PR is used to. It was highly successful and a win for Alice overall.

I was also intrigued by their Alice Academy for Activists bootcamp as it is something I have never seen or heard of before. To foster not only community between inspired individuals seeking to improve their communities, but equip them with resources to grow as activists through a multi-day camp is ingenious and important work. Especially as Naimh mentioned this program was largely a response to and stricken by the recent climate surrounding diversity, Equity, and Inclusion frameworks also known as DEI.