In 2020, Synergy Enterprises, Inc.’s (Synergy) creative work with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) parent-oriented prevention campaign, “Talk.  They Hear You.”® received 12 accolades from the Hermes Creative Awards.

Synergy garnered recognition in every category it entered, winning six platinum awards (Hermes’ highest honor), four gold awards, and two honorable mentions for original public service announcements (PSAs) and videos, soundtracks, and brochures:

Platinum Winners

• Original Music (Video)—"By Your Side” PSA
• Original Music (Audio)—"By Your Side” Soundtrack
• Informational Video, Directing, Editing, and Videography—“By Your Side” Student Assistance Discussion Starter Video

Gold Winners

• TV PSA—"Clouded"
• TV PSA—"Choices"
• TV PSA—"By Your Side"
• Brochure—5 Conversation Goals: Talking With Your Teen About Alcohol and Other Drugs

Honorable Mentions

• TV PSA—"Helping a Friend"
• Brochure—Talk With Your Teen About Vaping: Keeping Your Kids Safe

Hermes Creative Awards honor the messengers and creators of the information revolution. Each year, competition judges evaluate the creative industry’s best publications; branding collateral; websites; videos; and advertising, marketing, and communications programs. More than 6,000 entries were submitted for consideration in 2020.

Synergy’s strategic communications team works with SAMHSA to encourage parents and caregivers to talk with their children about alcohol and other drugs early on and as often as possible. “Talk.  They Hear You.” team members support all facets of the national media campaign, from concept testing through materials development, outreach and promotion, and evaluation. Their efforts have ensured important prevention messages reach parents and caregivers in all 50 states and Washington, DC.

In 2020, three National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) products that Synergy helped write, design, and produce won Communicator Awards. These awards include:

Communicator Award of Excellence. This award is the program’s highest honor and is given to those entrants whose ability to communicate positions them as the best in the field. Two ORWH products that Synergy worked on received this award: an online video titled “Maternal Morbidity and Mortality: What Do We Know? How Are We Addressing It?” and a booklet of the same name.

Communicator Award of Distinction. This award is presented for projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement. ORWH’s booklet on polycystic ovary/ovarian syndrome (PCOS), which Synergy worked on, won this award.

The Communicator Awards is an international awards program for marketing and communications programs that receives over 6,000 entries from companies and agencies, making it one of the largest of its kind. The awards honor work that has made a lasting impact and are decided by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, an invitation-only group consisting of top-tier professionals from acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative, and marketing firms.

Synergy’s strategic communications team works with the ORWH to promote women’s health research within and beyond the NIH scientific community. Synergy supports ORWH in the areas of project management, communications planning and research, materials development, media, outreach, promotion, conferences, events, information technology, and information tracking.

On Oct. 19, 2018, Prachee J. Devadas, president/CEO and founder of Synergy, joined the board of directors of The Children’s Inn at NIH. Located on the NIH campus, The Children’s Inn is a nonprofit hospitality house that provides free lodging and supportive services to families of children with rare and serious illnesses whose best hope is a clinical trial at the NIH. Every year, The Children’s Inn houses more than 1,700 children and their families from across the United States and the world to help reduce the burden of illness on families, make childhood possible despite illness and advance medical breakthroughs at the NIH that benefit children today and generations to come. In addition to serving on the board of directors of The Children’s Inn at NIH, Devadas serves on the advisory boards for So Others Might Eat (S.O.M.E.) and BB&T Bank.

Synergy has received numerous prestigious awards and has been consistently recognized for outstanding work performance over the last decade. We have gained a stellar reputation for our creativity, innovative approaches, and excellent business practices with partners, clients and industry alike. In 2018, Synergy won the below awards competitions on behalf of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) “Talk. They Hear You.”^® Campaign:

• Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Thoth Awards – PRSA awarded SAMHSA the Award of Excellence for the “Talk. They Hear You.”^® Campaign Public Service Announcement, Dads. The Thoth Awards recognize the outstanding strategic public relations programs and components developed and produced in the Greater Washington, DC area.
• The National Public Health Information Coalition (NPHIC) Berreth Award – NPHIC awarded SAMHSA the silver medal in the “Corporate Health Marketing Agency” category for the “Talk. They Hear You.”^® Campaign. The awards are named after Donald A. Berreth, founder of NPHIC and former director of the Office of Public Affairs for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Videographer Awards – The Videographer Award selection committee awarded SAMHSA an Award of Distinction in the “Public Service Announcement” category for the “Talk. They Hear You.”^® Campaign Public Service Announcement, Dads.
• The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) MarCom Awards – The AMCP awarded SAMHSA three awards in 2018. The “Talk. They Hear You.”^® Campaign as whole won a Platinum Award in the “Communication Program” category. The “Talk. They Hear You.”^® Campaign Public Service Announcement, Reminiscing, won a Gold Award in the “Public Service Announcement” category. Lastly, the “Talk. They Hear You.”^® Campaign Discussion Starter Video received an Honorable Mention in the “Government Video” category.

We are pleased to announce that Synergy’s paper proposal entitled "Multiple partners, multiple goals: Researchers, school staff and a not-for-profit partnering to examine the effects of a teacher home visiting program" has been accepted for inclusion in the program for the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) Spring 2019 Conference. The paper was written while working on a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education. The teacher home visiting program is called HomeWorks!, The Teacher Home Visit Program. The paper consists of a controlled trial of the program and studied the impacts of students in grades 1-3 in St. Louis Public Schools.

The spring 2019 conference brings the tensions and tradeoffs among the questions practitioners and researchers study - and the decisions and constraints practitioners and researchers face - to the forefront of conversation. The Conference, Tensions and Tradeoffs: Responding to Diverse Demands for Evidence, will take place in Washington, DC from March 6-9, 2019.

Since fall 2017, several serious and consequential emergency events have raised conversations at the national, state, and local levels to new heights concerning preparedness and school safety. Whether it was the active shooter incidents in places like Las Vegas, Nevada, or Parkland, Florida; the hurricanes affecting areas of Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands; wildfires in places like California and Montana; winter storms in the Northeast; or child fatalities across the country from influenza, those entrusted with caring for some of the most vulnerable members of our population—children and youth—have been prompted to consider strategies implemented, to date, and new approaches to the question of how to keep children and youth safe, especially when they are at school.

Synergy has administered the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Technical Assistance Center on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Healthy Students since 2012, with the aim of fulfilling this exact charge—to help keep the K-16 population, along with staff, administrators, and all other parts of the school community, safe. During this time, the REMS TA Center has provided support to thousands of schools, school districts, and school personnel, including their stakeholder partners, in the form of training and technical assistance to improve overall school preparedness in school safety, security, and emergency management programs.

Synergy has long-supported several non-profits that focus on the mental, social-emotional, and physical wellbeing of children and families. We have collectively donated thousands of volunteer hours to prepare meals; provide monetary and material goods; and organize outings for various non-profit organizations in the community. Specifically, Synergy has worked with the NIH Children’s Inn, a residential “Place Like Home’’ for families with children participating in leading-edge research studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. In 2018, our support will continue to grow as CEO Prachee J. Devadas has been selected to serve on the board of directors for the Children’s Inn. She also serves on the advisory board at SOME.

In fall 2017, Synergy employee Leika Inniss participated in an international mission trip to the country of Uganda (Africa), organized by Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a nonprofit organization that provides training and technical assistance to Christian churches and clergy in Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Uganda is home to more than 1 million registered refugees and asylum seekers from several countries in crisis including Congo, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea.

The mission team worked with a nonprofit organization, Refuge and Hope International. Located in the Kampala, the capital of Uganda, this organization empowers refugees with educational, professional and personal development opportunities. Ms. Inniss provided technical assistance to the staff and the students on substance abuse prevention. She will continue to work with program staff in developing a substance abuse prevention program to be added to their programing.