Elgin Community College Students Assist Renz Center

Students from Elgin Community College's School of Communications are reaching out to local businesses in an effort to exchange marketing initiatives for practical business experience. Spartan Consulting, ECC's student-run marketing consulting firm, chose Renz Addiction Counseling Center as its first client and recently presented their management team with a continuum of marketing and development ideas and concepts.

ECC instructor John Karnatz initially contacted Renz Center last summer about working with the students in exchange for their ideas. In September, Renz Center's Marketing Director Deb Howe met with 20 students and shared information about the Center and current marketing strategies. Students then spent several weeks creating a marketing plan and fostering fundraising ideas, in addition to writing and filming short internet informercials about Renz Center's programs and services. Student informericals on the Center's Passage program, a substance abuse treatment program for women; All Stars, a substance prevention education program targeted toward middle school students; and HIV prevention education and testing can be viewed at www.renzcenter.org or the Center's Facebook page.

“Working with the students was a win-win,” said Howe. “The students gained practical experience and our management team received some innovative internet marketing ideas that we will definitely use. We are thankful for the opportunity to work with this group.”

And while the presentations are over and students have moved on to new educational challenges, two students are working toward creating a service learning relationship between the College and Renz Center. In this joint endeavor, student volunteers would be matched with a department or staff person where the exchange would be mutually beneficial.

Renz Addiction Counseling Center provides a variety of prevention, early intervention and treatment programs for alcohol, drug and gambling addictions and related disorders. Renz Center serves residents of central/northern Kane and western Cook Counties with offices in St. Charles, Streamwood and Elgin. A non-profit, 501 (c)(3) charitable organization, Renz Center is funded by the federal government, Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, United Way, and the local 708 boards of Hanover Township, St. Charles and Schaumburg. For more information, contact Deb Howe at 847-742-3545 ext. 236 or visit www.renzcenter.org.