The Poe Center

The Challenge

A lesson only works if students remember it. That’s the central problem for The Poe Center, which delivers family life education – puberty, healthy relationships, decision-making, reproductive health – to more than 8,600 young people a year across North Carolina. Programming happens in a theater, on a mobile bus and at pop-up events statewide, funded in part by AmeriHealth Caritas NC.

Both nonprofits wanted the same thing: something students would take with them. Not a handout headed for the recycling bin, but a physical object that stays in their daily routine and keeps the lesson present. The ask to a merch agency was specific: Design a teaching tool educators can use during the program that students will clip to their backpacks afterward.

The Solution

The agency designed a custom die-cut key tag shaped like an amoeba – a deliberate choice, because an amoeba changes form. Educators reference it during lessons about how puberty reshapes a teenager’s body and mind. After class, the tag clips onto a backpack or zipper and goes wherever the student goes.

The full-color imprint featured both partners’ branding equally, with a ghosted surface behind the logos that ties back to specific program messages. The tag also works as a fidget tool, giving students something physical to reach for when they feel stressed.

Beyond the tag, the team designed two interchangeable backwalls for pop-up events and the AmeriHealth mobile teaching bus, carrying the program’s visual identity across the state. Total investment: $28,545.66.

Built Into the Lesson

The amoeba shape gives educators a concrete reference point when discussing how bodies change during puberty. The product is part of the curriculum, not an accessory to it.

Stays With the Student

Kids clip the tags to their backpacks on their own. That daily presence keeps health messages visible in ways a worksheet or pamphlet cannot. The tag also doubles as a stress-relief fidget.

Beyond the Theater

Two custom backwalls and the AmeriHealth mobile teaching bus carry the program’s identity to pop-up events and communities across North Carolina that may never visit The Poe Center.

Results

At $1.99 per item, the key tag earns its keep. According to Poe Center data, 87% of students report making a positive behavioral change six or more weeks after attending a program, and the tag is part of what keeps those lessons in their daily routine.

Focus groups confirmed what the hallways already showed: Kids like the tags. They clip them to their bags, wear them on their zippers, reach for them when they’re anxious. A small piece of merch became a quiet reinforcement tool that travels with the student every day.

The Poe Center responded accordingly. A second collaboration launched later with a new key tag shape and sticker, and the center has increased its branded merchandise investment by 400%.