Instructional Video Case Study
The Child Care Works subsidy helps Pennsylvania families pay for child care, but applying means confirming eligibility, filing on a state website, and gathering a stack of supporting documents. PHMC's Early Learning Resource Center 18 (ELRC 18) handles intake for families going through that process, and it wanted one instructional video that could walk a parent through every step.
Motifmotion produced a three-and-a-half-minute 2D animation for families with children from birth to 13, written for low-literacy audiences: plain language, calm narration, and every requirement shown on screen as a checklist while it is read aloud.
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PHMC: How to apply for the Child Care Works subsidy
Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC) is a Philadelphia public health institute, and its Early Learning Resource Center 18 is where families apply for Child Care Works, Pennsylvania's child care subsidy. The application itself is not complicated, but it has many parts, and each one has to be right.
Motifmotion had already produced a compliance training series for PHMC. This project needed a different visual and communicative style, because the audience was different: parents and caregivers, across a range of family compositions and backgrounds, with a focus on reaching low-literacy audiences.
How to Apply for the Child Care Works Subsidy through ELRC 18
Written for families, not caseworkers
The client supplied a script draft and an outline of what families must know. The work was to make it easy to follow for families who may not read long written guidelines. The narration runs about 515 words, and almost every line is either a requirement or an action.
It opens by telling viewers they can pause at any time, and it is built for pausing: each requirement lands on screen as a checked line, at the moment the narrator reads it.
- Every requirement read aloud and shown as a checklist line at the same time
- Web and email addresses spelled out letter by letter in the narration, then shown on screen
- Opens by telling viewers they can pause at any time
- Calm, supportive tone throughout, with simple visuals and clean transitions
Have a form or process your audience keeps getting wrong?
Applications, enrollments, intake steps: tell us which one and we will show you how it looks as a video people can follow at their own pace.
One application, broken into clear steps
The video follows the order a family actually works in. Each step opens on its own title card, so a parent who comes back later can find the part they need.
The documents section is the longest, because it has the most parts. Each document appears with its own icon and its accepted alternatives, and the video names exactly what goes in the email subject line: the COMPASS application number, which starts with a W and has 12 digits.
- Confirm your eligibility: residency, work or school hours, income guidelines, and the child's age and status
- Complete your application on COMPASS, or print it, mail it, deliver it or fill it out in person
- Submit your supporting documents by email or at an ELRC 18 office
- Search for a child care provider and complete enrollment once approved
Built inside the ELRC brand
Pennsylvania's Early Learning Resource Centers share a brand, and PHMC supplied its style guide at the start. The palette, typography and on-screen text follow it, so the video matches the rest of the center's materials.
The families on screen vary in makeup and background, because the people applying do. Character animation is used in select scenes, such as a parent at a laptop or a child at play, and the rest of the piece carries its information through checklists, icons and simple screen walkthroughs.
- Colors and type taken from the ELRC brand style guide
- A range of family compositions and backgrounds on screen
- Character animation where it helps, clean graphics everywhere else
- Ends on a single action: apply today at compass.dhs.pa.gov
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Have a process people keep getting stuck on?
If the steps already live in a form, a checklist or a caseworker's head, Motifmotion can turn them into a video people can pause and follow. Contact us in a few different ways:
We'll work with you to understand your objectives, how we can provide assistance and we'll outline the next steps.