Social Marketing & Evaluation (S.O.M.E.) Team
Overview
Family Voices Network of Erie County has parents and youth involved in social marketing and evaluation activities. Below are sample pages from a presentation that outlines how involved our parents and youth are in our community and the value of their voices within the system of care. In July, 2008 we were invited to present a posterboard presentation that demonstrates the involvement of our parents & youth in Erie County at the National System of Care Conference held in Nashville, Tennesee. (See "The Starting Point" Brochure below)
At this conference we asked representatives from our Social Marketing & Evalaution Team to participate. The team created with presentation that served as a handout at the conference. One parent and one youth were chosen from the team to represent the entire team. They attended the conference and spoke to several people during the poster session providing reason why it is important for parents and youth to be involved in the system of care. The presentation was put together with the assistance of the social marketer; however, the content was provided by the parents and youth. Social Marketer only guided the process and after the content was gathered the youth determined the color, style and final layout of the presentation.
Social Marketing Coordinator and Evaluation outlines the projects the team had worked on since 2006. Additionally, this is a "Project-based Team." One characteristic that makes the team proud to be apart of the process is they have the chance to see first hand how the projects they work on are used within our community. They are involved from conception to the final stage and all decisions are final. After creating projects with this team the Social Marketer presents the information of the project to the stakeholder (or Management Team) and they review, add comments or suggestions and we produce the final product. This presentation identifies projects that involved parents and youth.
Download the full presentation |
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Getting Youth Involved:
An area that is overlooked often, is youth involvement. We have youth involvement in Social Marketing & Evaluation and the way we were able to obtain this is through the parents. Often parents wanted to attend and they needed to make arrangements for their youth. We invited the youth to attend by showing them another way to have their voices heard within the system of care. Youth have creative abilities that can be utilized in designing marketing materials and they want to understand what's going on. Therefore, we create a team of youth who are willing to participate on this team by showing them how their contributions would be appreciated and accepted. We ensure that the parents voice did not outweight the voice of our youth. If you're interested in some of the ostacles that youth may experience being on the same team as their parents review this brochure (The Starting Point). Based on information from the group, it's easier to identify workarounds for parents and youth involvement. It just requires a little creativity.
Download the full brochure: The Starting Point |
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