Rockland County Housing
From Campaign Strategy to Keynote Stage
Launching Keep Rockland Home at the Rockland Housing Forum
When Rockland County received federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for an education and awareness program related to the affordable housing crisis, the County identified a need for more than a public awareness campaign. It sought a strategic communications partner that could take a complex, often polarizing issue and turn it into a message people could understand. That is where ASC came in.
ASC developed Keep Rockland Home as a research-driven public education campaign designed to shift the local housing conversation. Our team began by listening, conducting interviews, reviewing housing data and policy research, and identifyingthe tensions shaping public perception. What emerged was not just a messaging challenge, but a narrative one: residents understood housing costs were rising, but the phrase “affordable housing” was often misunderstood.
That insight shaped ASC’s strategy from the start. Rather than leading with jargon or policy language, we built a campaign rooted in clarity and community connection. Keep Rockland Home reframes the issue around the people central to Rockland County’s future, teachers, healthcare workers, veterans, seniors, and young families. The campaign asks a simple but urgent question: can the people who make Rockland work still afford to stay? Through resident storytelling, accessible data, and community-centered messaging, ASC created a campaign that makes a complicated issue feel immediate, relevant, and human.
The campaign’s public launch at the Rockland Housing Forum on April 24 demonstrated ASC’s ability not only to build strategy, but to bring it to life in a high-visibility setting. ASC CEO Nora Madonick delivered the keynote address introducing Keep Rockland Home, translating the campaign’s research and narrative framework into a compelling message for local leaders, housing advocates, and community stakeholders. Her remarks connected hard data with lived experience and set the tone for a day of substantive discussion on fair housing, planning, public-private partnership, and innovative housing solutions.
This work reflects what ASC does best: helping public-sector and mission-driven clients communicate clearly on issues that directly affect people’s lives. By combining research, message development, storytelling, and executive thought leadership, ASC helped Rockland County launch a campaign that does more than inform. It builds understanding, invites conversation, and creates the conditions for broader public support.
For Rockland County, the result was a strong and thoughtful launch for an important public initiative. For ASC, it was another example of the firm’s ability to shape narrative, elevate leadership voices, and create communications strategies that move complex issues out of the abstract and into the public conversation.
