First in the Nation Cannabis Legislative Initiative

Overview

When a Boston state legislator introduced an amendment to the cannabis legalization bill to encourage empowerment, education, and employment of those disproportionately impacted by the nation’s failed war on drugs, a movement was formed. Unveiled as “The CultivatED Program,” the initiative’s goals were to enroll partners in the program and raise critical seed funding through the legislative process.

Our Work

We executed an aggressive public relations, public affairs, and fundraising effort. We designed and built dedicated websites – maasscultivated.org and masscultivated.com – to help enroll partners and accept donations. We wrote and placed several opinion pieces on behalf of elected officials extolling the necessity of the program. We built a presentation program with CultivatED officials and timed their announcement to a major cannabis convention that coincidentally was being held in Boston at the same time. The event attracted a multitude of trade and general press and resulted in major coverage for the program.

Along with the extensive coverage, the efforts raised more than $175,000 for the project in less than a week’s time and enrolled several prominent people and institutions to end their expertise and talent.

Results

CultivatED was the first in the nation jails-to-jobs program for the cannabis industry. The innovative public-private partnership provides fellows with a robust co-operative education program in the cannabis industry, free legal services, workforce preparedness training, and cannabis externships with livable wages and benefits.