Conexion × Grit

Communications Proposal

Change the Conversation.

The conversation your communications need right now is about trust, and it’s already happening in a state hearing room and a courtroom — whether or not you’re the one shaping it.

We want to help you navigate that directly, then build the long-term strategy once it’s stable.

Public comment on the Heights University Hospital closure closes in days, and a state legislator has introduced a bill written around this case specifically. Whatever direction comes out of this room has to be actionable immediately.

Prepared for Hudson Regional Health by Marelyn Rivera & Pearl Gabel

01 — Situation

Where we are

The state hearing on the Heights closure drew testimony from legislators, city officials, the nurses’ union, and a resident coalition of several hundred people — all now on the public record.

Specific claims are circulating publicly: a proposed redevelopment plan for the site, a severance calculation dispute in arbitration, and questions about whether the closure process was completed correctly. Legislation (A-5185) responding directly to this situation is moving through Trenton.

None of this changes what’s real about the investment being made across the system. But right now, the loudest information reaching stakeholders and Hudson County residents isn’t coming from you.

State hearing testimony on the public record
Proposed site redevelopment plan circulating
Severance calculation dispute in arbitration
Questions about closure process completion
A-5185 moving through Trenton

02 — First

Crisis and regulatory communications

The next few weeks, run in parallel with everything else.

A direct, specific public response

One that addresses the open questions on the record instead of repeating a general statement.

Public comment before September 3

In your own words. Said once, said clearly.

Ahead of the legislative conversation

Messaging built to lead the A-5185 discussion instead of reacting to it after the fact.

03 — Next

The systemwide rebuild

A twelve-month engagement, once the above is stable.

Retire old perceptions at the hospitals still open

With proof, not announcements.

Make the full network visible

To people who still only know one hospital’s history.

Build lasting community presence through three layers working together

One identity, many languages

Bilingual and multilingual materials carrying a single consistent identity.

Paid and organic outreach

Digital, community radio, text, and social — working the same message together.

People on the ground

Real people placing information and building relationships at bodegas, corner stores, salons, barbershops, pharmacies, and faith institutions. Point of sale included.

Sequence it by tier

Tier 1BayonneHobokenJersey CitySecaucus

Tier 2Union CityWest New YorkNorth BergenGuttenbergWeehawken

Tier 3KearnyHarrisonEast Newark

The same model extends naturally beyond the Hispanic and Latino community to Black, Asian, South Asian, and immigrant residents across the county.

Pair earned coverage with owned content

Press attention is borrowed; owned content is yours. The two reinforce each other — and the owned library is what a reporter, a regulator, or a patient finds when they go looking. It starts with a hero video and the basics that are currently missing or buried.

Hero video / comms

One anchor film for the homepage and every channel: what HRH is, who it serves, and where it's going. Cut into short verticals for social and paid.

Who HRH is

A plain-language story of the system — hospitals, service lines, leadership, and history — told once, well, so everyone repeats the same version.

Vision, mission, values

Written, published, and specific enough to be held to. This is the standard the crisis response gets measured against.

Community involvement

Documented, not asserted: clinics, screenings, partnerships, hiring, and events, captured as ongoing content rather than one-off press releases.

Your own physicians and real patients, in their own words, in English and Spanish — doing double duty as trust-building and visibility.

Visual identity and website

Refresh, clarify, and bring into the present.

04 — Landscape

HRH competitive landscape

Hackensack Meridian Health

Size / type: Largest system in NJ — 17 hospitals, 36,000+ employees
Latino / Hispanic program: General equity framework; no named Hispanic-specific program found
Current situation: Stable, expanding, resource-dominant

NJ's largest system by a wide margin, with the capital and academic-medicine halo HRH can't match dollar for dollar. But its equity efforts read as generic: data collection, a wellness center, a diversity council. Nothing bilingual or Hispanic-specific stands out. That's real white space, if HRH can rebuild enough trust to occupy it.

Englewood Health

Size / type: Mid-size — 1 hospital + 800-provider network, 5 counties
Latino / Hispanic program: General equity programs; no named Hispanic program found
Current situation: Merging into RWJBarnabas (announced Jan 2026, pending approval)

Mid-size, and mid-transition. Worth studying for how the merger is being communicated, not what it offers the Latino community. Both CEOs went on record together and framed the deal as new capital and expanded services, not retreat. That's the tone a transition can have when it's voluntary and communicated well — the exact contrast to how Heights has been handled.

Holy Name Medical Center

Size / type: Independent, single hospital, Teaneck
Latino / Hispanic program: “Familia y Salud” — named, established, across Bergen, Hudson & Passaic; an AHA case study
Current situation: Stable. Positions itself as “the medical center of choice for the Hispanic community”

Smaller than HRH, and the one name here that should get real attention in the room. Holy Name already holds the exact positioning HRH wants. Whatever HRH builds can't just resemble it — it needs a genuinely different angle. The hyperlocal bodega program is that angle, or the work will read as a late, larger competitor copying a smaller one that got there first.

Clara Maass Medical Center

Size / type: RWJBarnabas Health system — 472 beds, ~2,200 employees, Belleville
Latino / Hispanic program: Center of Excellence for Latino Health (CELH) — foundation-funded (HealthCare Foundation of NJ, Verizon, Walmart Foundation, others), Health Ministry with faith leaders, focused on diabetes, hypertension, and cancer disparities
Current situation: Stable, well-funded, actively expanding services

A 472-bed RWJBarnabas hospital in Belleville, just south of Hudson County. Its Center of Excellence for Latino Health is foundation-funded and goes deeper than messaging: chronic disease management for diabetes and hypertension, a Health Ministry that partners directly with clergy and congregations, insurance enrollment help, even a youth mentorship pipeline into healthcare careers. This isn't a campaign. It's a funded institution.

Cautionary comps

Hahnemann University Hospital

Philadelphia, 2019

A private equity owner closed a safety-net hospital while retaining the underlying real estate. The story that stuck nationally was “they wanted the land.” Still cited today as the textbook case.

Steward Health Care

National, 2024

The same pattern at national scale. Multiple hospital closures, community backlash that mirrors what's happening in Jersey City almost line for line, and a CEO held in contempt of Congress.

05 — Model

How to confront backlash

The approach

Let the facts talk, not adjectives: same statement twice, zero support at the hearing, appealed after losing.
Critique the response, not the people.
Every critique gets a fix.

What a successful response has

A name attached: A leader, not a spokesperson paragraph.
Specifics: Answers the real question, not the safe one.
Speed: Said once, said clearly, said early.
A real commitment: Action, not sentiment.

06 — Discussion

Key questions

01
What's the plan for public comment before September 3? Would it help to have a communications partner on that draft?
02
What can we say now to patients and former staff affected by the closure?
03
Who owns your digital presence today — we noticed The Macallan Group's name on your site — and how does that fit alongside this work?
04
What's a realistic budget range, so we can scope both the immediate and long-term work?

Sample creative

Before / after: quick-hit re-framing of owned media assets

Before

Static Instagram post

A good community moment, but the post reads as an event recap. The brand, the mission, and the invitation to trust get buried in a busy feed.

After

Quick video with logo + values closer

Same event, re-cut as a short-form video: the HRH logo up front, the community moment in motion, and a values statement as the closer so the takeaway is the brand’s promise, not just the event.

Before

Crowded quote graphic

Original Hudson Regional Health patient testimony graphic with a long block of text over a hospital photo

A powerful testimonial, but the wall of text and competing visual layers make it hard to read on a phone. The story gets lost before the reader gets to the end.

After

Patient story, re-framed

Re-designed Hudson Regional Health patient quote graphic with a family photo and a single bold headline

One line of proof, one human moment, and the brand lock-up as the anchor. The quote becomes shareable, and the hospital name becomes the takeaway.

07 — Team

WHO WE ARE

Grit Strategies

Grit is a strategic communications and brand practice built for organizations that do important work but struggle to tell their own story. Founded by Pearl Gabel on a career that started as an award-winning journalist and photojournalist, then led communications and social strategy for the Office of the Mayor of New York City and the Office of the Governor of New Jersey, then worked agency-side on complex, high-stakes public issues. Grit exists to give organizations the clarity, narrative, and real strategy behind their communications, not just tactics executed without a plan.

Grit operates as a partnership, not a big agency. Client work is selective and led by Pearl; we work directly alongside your team rather than handing you off to account layers. The core stays lean by design, and for larger-scope engagements we bring in a trusted bench of practitioners built specifically around what the project needs.

Capabilities

Strategic communications and crisis response
Brand strategy and narrative development
Content strategy and visual storytelling
Social media strategy, built and run for two major public offices
Stakeholder and community engagement strategy
Content creation and campaign management

Conexión

Conexión is a Hispanic and Latino community engagement practice led by Marelyn Rivera and built to help organizations authentically reach, inform, and build lasting trust with Latino communities, with deep roots in Hudson County and northern New Jersey. Conexión combines cultural fluency with real grassroots field experience: in-language content, direct partnerships with the businesses and institutions communities already trust, and a model built on participation, not just awareness.

Capabilities

Bilingual and multilingual campaign development
Grassroots field activation and neighborhood ambassador programs
Hyperlocal distribution networks
In-language digital outreach: geo-targeted social, community radio, text, point-of-sale messaging
Healthcare and institutional community engagement experience
Municipal and community partnership development