When you embark on a trip you shouldn’t ever lose sight of your destination. But it may be even more important to carefully and thoughtfully navigate the course of your journey, taking the time to get it right and learning as much as you can along the way. If you do, you stand a pretty good chance of safely reaching your destination and of being able to successfully deal with the situation you find there.
This lesson clearly comes through when members of the Torrington Early Childhood Collaborative (TECC) reflect on their journey through the strategic communications planning process prescribed by [1] Discovery’s Three-Step Communications Tool Kit.
“The communications planning process we engaged in raised key issues and forced those of us on the Public Awareness Committee to address them,” says Donna Labbe, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund’s (the Memorial Fund) Discovery Collaborative in Torrington. “In the process, we learned where all our key players were coming from, reached broad-based agreement on what our priorities should be, and clarified who we needed to reach, when, and with what messages.” According to other members of the Public Awareness Committee, the communications planning process also helped the Collaborative dig deep to thoroughly think about what they needed to make happen in order to be successful.
To read this story, visit the [2] Success Stories section of the Discovery website at [3] http://www.wcgmf.org/stories.php
Connecticut Voices for Children has created a brief [4] questionnaire about their role and the work they do that is most useful. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete, and your comments will be valuable in helping CT Voices to better plan and communicate their work.
To take a few minutes to fill out this [5] Survey Monkey questionnaire, please visit [6] http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5AcQXpDcaxnXt_2bUouvI9NQ_3d_3d
In 2009, the Los Angeles Unified School District launched a new model for parent involvement that specifically addresses the needs of "parents of color with kids who struggle in urban schools." It's designed by and for parents to improve learning and connection to schools.
To read about this [7] story, vist the Connect for Kids website at [8] http://www.connectforkids.org/node/7119
[1]: http://www.discovery.wcgmf.org/resources/sps_resource_1080.pdf
[2]: http://www.wcgmf.org/stories.php
[3]: http://www.wcgmf.org/stories.php
[4]: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5AcQXpDcaxnXt_2bUouvI9NQ_3d_3d
[5]: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5AcQXpDcaxnXt_2bUouvI9NQ_3d_3d
[6]: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5AcQXpDcaxnXt_2bUouvI9NQ_3d_3d
[7]: http://www.connectforkids.org/node/7119
[8]: http://www.connectforkids.org/node/7119