• by Les Luchter , December 4, 2024

Dr. Alicia La Hoz, a clinical psychologist and founder/chief executive officer of Family Bridges, is no stranger to using board games in the nonprofit’s mission of “ending the cycle of family trauma.” For example, a Family Bridges couples workshop has used a game called “Marriage Champions” to facilitate goal-setting, she tells Marketing Daily.

Jacqueline Ruiz, chief executive officer of Family Bridges’ new agency, JJR Marketing, has her own board game background. Through JJR’s sister publishing company, Fig Factor Media, it’s developed several games, including one called “Chief Marketing Officer,” which was used to teach marketing at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

So it’s not surprising that JJR’s first campaign for Family Bridges features a board game.

Unlike Family Bridges’ previous efforts in this area, the game was developed through JJR, rather than internally. Not only could JJR/Fig Factor do everything more quickly, Dr. La Hoz says, but “it frees up our resources” so that staffers aren't “sitting there trying to create all these things on our own.”

Another difference from past Family Bridges games is that this one is aimed beyond the nonprofit’s core programs.

Called "Golden Bridges," and launched a couple of months ago in conjunction with the nonprofit’s 20^th anniversary gala, the game is now being given as a premium to hundreds of new monthly donors. “The whole point was something disruptive, something different, to engage people,” Ruiz tells Marketing Daily.

Once the holiday season ends -- in a sort of regifting idea, Family Bridges and JJR suggest that donors can give the game as a Christmas present -- Dr. La Hoz says the game may be more widely available in the future.

“Family relations are something that we all struggle with, and not everybody can go to a workshop or program,” she notes, adding that she started Family Bridges after seeing so many people “wait until the 11^th hour, the crisis point” before visiting her practice. “It just made sense, before things are just havoc, why not provide upstream solutions to downstream problems?”

The game’s elements parallel those of Family Bridges programs for parents, couples and students, Dr. La Hoz notes. Through such elements as cards with challenge questions and charades, up to six players can deal in a fun way with such trauma-reducing areas as gratitude, aspiration, forgiveness and teamwork.

Beyond that, a key feature is the face-to-face element of a physical board game as opposed to online games. Dr. La Hoz points out the dramatic increase in youth depression and anxiety since the launch of the iPhone in 2007. “It’s a crisis we’re seeing,” she says, and "Golden Bridges" provides “an opportunity to just put all that aside and foster play, which is good developmentally. It’s good for adults. It’s good for children.”

Ruiz says that JJR and Family Bridges are marketing the game through email, social media, influencers, a dedicated landing page, public relations and other methods.

Ruiz calls Family Bridges the rare nonprofit client that’s not afraid to try new things. “We’ve always tried to innovate and be creative in the ways we bring our programs to the community, ”says Dr. La Hoz, citing past initiatives like radio soap operas and theater pieces,

Both Family Bridges and JJR are based in the Chicago area, where most of the former’s in-person programs take place. The nonprofit also serves people nationwide -- and beyond -- through many online programs.

Family Bridges and JJR both focus largely on Latino audiences.