This is a special episode of CareCast, Care Net’s podcast about family, faith, and life, with Roland Warren, President and CEO of Care Net. This special episode of CareCast was recorded live at Care Net’s 2023 National Conference in Mobile, Alabama. One of our keynote speakers is Brandy Meeks. Brandy has served the pro-life movement for over a decade. Her passion and energy for the mission increased as she served as director of the pregnancy center in her early years.
Later, he was recruited as director of marketing application and research at Vitae Foundation. Brandy and her husband Matt would go on to launch Cornerstone Marketing Strategies, forming a company that helps pregnancy centers use research-backed digital marketing strategies.
After Dobbs The decision was announced in 2022, Brandy became president and CEO of the Vitae Foundation, an organization that facilitates life-saving research while applying findings to create messaging strategies to help make abortion unthinkable. Roland sat down with Brandy during the conference to talk about her work and her keynote to our attendees. Listen to the conversation between Roland and Brandy.
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The following is a partial transcript from a CareCast interview with Roland Warren (RW) and Brand Meeks (BM) held at Care Net’s 2023 Conference.
RW: Brandy, good to see you. Thank you for coming to the 2023 Care Net Conference here in Mobile, Alabama.
BM: Yes, it’s exciting to be here. It’s always like a family reunion. Seriously, you walk around, you see so many familiar faces, you get so many hugs from people you haven’t seen in a year and you’re really encouraged when you walk away from this week and you can go back and face the battles ahead of us. It’s pretty amazing.
RW: Yes, it was the biggest conference we’ve ever had, 1600 people. It’s just amazing to see all the vendors and all kinds of allied ministries connected to what we’re doing and all coming together to support the pregnancy centers that are really on the front lines. I tell people that they are the end of the globe and this is an important time. So what I want to do is talk a little bit about your ministry, Vitae Foundation, and your work there and how you got connected and what kind of ministry and role you play in this important role?
BM: I want to do that. I will definitely be back for a bit more. I’m a pregnancy center director, so I attended conferences like this before I became a Vitae Foundation staff for the first time, and I was drawn to their research specifically because their research allows us to market and send message to women who are actively considering abortion and obviously that’s an asset to pregnancy centers, right? So that we can spend, as pregnancy centers, more time focusing on women and babies and families and the men who need us, right? And less time having to figure out what kind of message works.
So the Vitae Foundation was a wonderful gift to me as a director of the pregnancy center and so when I had the opportunity to staff them I couldn’t refuse it. This is an amazing blessing. That’s why we focus on research. We’ve done over $3 million worth of research, emotional research on how to communicate about life’s issues.
RW: Gotcha, and what do you think are some of the kinds of important aspects in terms of communication strategies and ways that people should talk to people who are facing the kind of pregnancy decisions that you’re advising on? pregnancy center around?
BM: Probably one of the biggest things is when you are, when a woman is actively considering abortion or finds herself in an unexpected pregnancy is to talk to her about her, right? Focus on him.
We have what is called a pro-woman approach. It doesn’t mean that we are going to leave men but it means that when a woman comes to us that we have to talk to her about her situation and not turn to her and just talk about the baby.
And so that’s a different approach than maybe what we’ve traditionally done and sometimes it’s kind of counterintuitive for us who were raised pro-life, right? We want to save all babies. We also want to save all women. So that’s something that really came out, from the research that we’re really proud of trying to protect and make sure we get that message forward.
And the pregnancy centers, they receive it really well and they really understand that now to make sure that they are, they’re focusing on the woman who is coming to them with that time at that time.
Listen to the full interview and hear from Roland and Brandy discuss how you can find access to more research and how they are fighting the fight for life on different fronts, all while serving the family.
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