PORTSMOUTH In his award-winning 2008 documentary, “Communities & Consequences,” producer, director and writer Jay Childs examined the growing disparity between older and younger residents in New England.
“In many communities, especially in New Hampshire, it was beginning to happen, in part, by design,” Childs said. “Enabling younger adults to get a toehold in the region was becoming a problem.” One solution Childs’ film featured was the rise of organizations for young professionals, such as Catapult Seacoast, launched in Portsmouth in 2006. Catapult’s mission resonated with Childs. “I thought it was important to assist Catapult any way I could to get their message out,” he said.
In December, at a party at The Red Door on State Street marking its fourth anniversary, Catapult honored Childs with its J.T. O’Donnell Award.
“Jay has been a great friend and supporter over the years, and we wanted to thank him for his contribution of time and resources to help our organization,” said Helen Donington, Catapult chairwoman and co-founder.
“I’m shocked and humbled,” said Childs, who founded JBC Communications in 1996.
Childs’ film won the 2008 New Hampshire Documentary Film Award at the New Hampshire Film Festival, aired numerous times on N.H. Public Television and traveled the state, attending screenings that often included panel discussions to spark discussion on talent retention.
The film helped put Catapult in the vanguard of organizations helping young professionals set roots in their community.
Childs calls JBC a “video production, interactive design, and consulting firm,” one that serves clients of all sizes, including Irving Oil, New England Footwear, Segway and Timberland.
“Most of our training is in communications and storytelling, and video just happens to be the primary outlet of that,” Childs said. “We bring a filmmaker’s sensibility to each project and serve people who value having high-quality video.”
In 2010, New Hampshire Business Review named JBC New Hampshire’s Best Video Production Company award winner.
Childs recently videotaped responses to Catapult’s signature question: What’s the number one thing somebody can do to catapult their career? This was filmed during Catapult’s new business seminar series featuring established local professionals such as filmmaker Chase Bailey, creating promotional clips to post on Catapult’s Web site, and his own.
“Even though I’m 45 and technically out of their demographic, I try to support their endeavor in any way I can,” Childs said.
The award is named for career expert J.T. O’Donnell, founder and president of Careerealism.com, who was a key contributor and mentor to Catapult’s founders during its first year. O’Donnell received the inaugural award in 2007 and has presented at many of its seminars.
“We decided to name the award after her and annually acknowledge someone from the community who goes above and beyond to further Catapult’s mission,” Donington said.
Past recipients of the J.T. O’Donnell Award include Stephen Reno, former University System of New Hampshire chancellor and catalyst for the 55% Initiative, who won in 2008, and Craig Davis, Catapult’s longest-standing volunteer, who won in 2009.
JBC was approached by the Mass. Department of Higher Education to produce a short film to lead-off its rollout of “The Vision Project”. The Vision Project offers the first comprehensive view of where the Commonwealth’s public higher education system stands, in comparison to other states, on a number of key indicators including graduation rates, student learning and [...]
The success of UMass Lowell’s “Campus on the Move” film, originally intended for an audience of University System Trustees, inspired the marketing department at Lowell to ask JBC to make a shorter version with some slight adaptations, so the film could be shown to prospective students and parents before they took a formal tour of [...]
Takes you inside the world of small town New England to reveal some of the causes and effects of a graying state. Through the voices of NH citizens, Communities & Consequences uncovers the connections between local decisions and the difficulty in attracting and maintaining a working age population.
Created as part of Best Buy’s announcement that it would begin selling the Segway Personal Transporter in a scaled roll out of stores across the country. The HD video is displayed on a large HD monitor above the Segway sales kiosk with a real demo Segway i2. Video was shot in US, Mexico, Portugal and [...]
The Savings Bank of Maine rebranded to The Bank of Maine and asked JBC to help them through video communicate to employees throughout the company and its over 30 branches what was changing through the rebrand and, most importantly, that its core values were not. The goal was to get full buy-in from employees. The [...]
JBC recently completed an online video promotion for Living Lean & Healthy’s web site. “What was inspiring to us about this project was Living Lean & Healthy’s approach to lifestyle changes. So many programs promote impossible goals that people soon grow tired of and abandon. Dr. Schiel’s approach was much more reasonable and success-oriented,” said [...]
