Posts filed under 'partner strategy'
On Saturday I met with Eric, Zoe, Jamia, Derek, Sam, Talia, and Viena from YMCA Earth Service Corps. We spent 30 minutes together reviewing the PSO summer project, website, design, and templates. The entire group liked the name and color scheme. In addition, they came up with a lot of ideas on how they could use the site to support their Earth Service Corps work - promote events, blog, share information, post articles…
They have signed on to be a testing partner!!!!!!!!!! We need to discuss how we’ll use them to test the site. Do we want to hold a testing day or allow each individual to test on their own.
One question they have is can their be a YMCA Earth Service Corps main group with subgroups (Hazen High School Earth Service Corps) attached to the main group?
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
January 28th, 2008 at 09:16am
Chris Tugwell
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Thanks for getting the ball rolling, Toby.
I spoke with Michael Harris today. He has done some research and chatted with some different people since our initial contact with him. One of those conversatios was with Sam. He mentioned it went well and that she helped answer a lot of his questions. Thanks Sam!
Power of Hope is officially a testing partner. Michael Harris will pull a team of staff and youth together to serve as the official Power of Hope testing team. Their web address is www.powerofhope.org
I have a feeling this is going to be an issue that comes up often. I propse that we put together some type of safety specs sheet for our partners to help alleviate their fears; as well as, educate them. My guess is that a lot of non profits are going to be wrestling with safety issues as they embrace emerging (maybe old by then) technologies. Plus, this would be a nice slide to add to the PSO PowerPoint a group of BC interns will put togther.
Any ideas on what we would want to say or should include.
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
January 15th, 2008 at 04:13pm
Chris Tugwell
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I talked to Michael at Power of Hope today, and they are very interested in partnering with us! Michael brought up a lot of good questions about safeguards against predators and youth contact information protection. These are profiled in the post about safeguards below.
He has emailed Jennifer Parker, an old time friend of his at the Y, for more information. I’ve sent him Chris Tugwell’s contact information so he can get on our list for March 15th content posting testers. He and I talked about the idea of doing some curriculum bits on how youth can protect themselves on the internet. I told him I’d file that idea with the group.
The Power of Hope website (designed by Sam too) will be going up in April, so he said that the timeline could work really well for partnering on this front.
Also, to summarize our lengthy email exchange that resulted from my contact with Michael, it sounds liek we’ve decided to have a small group of internal testers (at the Y, for example) work with the February 15th test site, and then we’ll open up testing to partners like Artworks and Power of Hope for the March 15th test launch. It sounds like starting a mailing list for testing partners with a pugetsoundoff-specific email address is an idea that everyone is on board with. It also sounds like MacArthur experts can weigh in on the website after the March 15th test launch, but that they may be presented with some wireframes and site explanation before that test launch.
I’ll leave contact with these partners in Chris Tugwell’s hands after
the end of the quarter so that he can get in touch with test partners
with Sam’s instructions and information.
We’re really moving forward with this! It’s exciting to have some enthusiastic partners on board.
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
December 6th, 2007 at 12:41pm
Toby Campbell
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Do we have these guys on our radar yet as partners? One of the kids in Amber’s class told us about TSB yesterday, and they seem like ideal partners for us. Have a look . . .
In 1994, a young snowboarder named Jay Bateman
was killed in a tragic, drug-related murder. Community members saw this
tragic event as a call to action: no longer could we sit by while kids
grew up absorbing only the messages of consumption and competition. A
group of local activists decided to create a program where young people
could come together to laugh, dream, think, and explore the true
meaning of community: The Service Board was born.
Hard work paid off, and in January of 1995 we opened our doors to
high-school students from across Seattle. Since our inaugural class,
the number of teenage participants, adult mentors and small business
sponsors has grown each year. In fact, growing demand for tSB from
students, parents, and schools led us to launch a pilot program based
in the neighborhood of White Center in January 2005, serving an area
that is among the most culturally diverse in the region, with one of
the highest per capita populations of young people.
http://www.theserviceboard.org/index.html
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
December 4th, 2007 at 11:56am
Deen Freelon
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I received an email from Michael at Power of Hope about getting some content from their organization for the launch of our site. He responded with interest:
“I’m about to go in to a meeting with my team here, and will discuss your proposal and get back to you right away. One main thing to consider - in our field we are very protective of contact info for our youth participants, to keep them safe. Is there a safeguard built in to your system that keeps their contact info hidden? Naturally we understand that a safeguard of this kind adds a layer of complexity and ‘web monitor’ time to someone’s plate.”
I wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page with an answer to this important question. Sam’s response was:
“* Email addresses will not be published
* Contact info will not be published other than neighborhood and/or zip code
* IF we want to enable one-on-one email correspondence between site users then we can give youth a contact form that people can use to send them email messages. Not sure if this is desirable. This is not on the feature list but it’s about 2 clicks to set up so it would be easy to add.
* In a wireframe I’d suggested having IM usernames but this was a dumb suggestion given the youth audience; we’re not doing that.”
Let me know if you have anything to add here, as this is a question I imagine we will receive from potential new partners often.
Thanks!
Entry Filed under: legal and privacy, partner strategy
December 4th, 2007 at 10:38am
Toby Campbell
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I spoke with Terry Pottmeyer, the Executive Director of Artworks, this morning. She said that they would be happy to share image files of some of the murals their youth have created with us. She asked whether the images would be accompanied by a little blurb about who created it and where, with a link to their organization. I said I thought there would be something like this, although I’m not sure exactly how it will work.
I told her I would follow up via email to let her know specifications of file size, what kind of a blurb we’ll need, and dates when we would need the information by and have it up on the site. We should talk about these things so that we can give a consistent set of information to interested organizations.
Before we spoke, I sent Terry our PSO information page, and the I explained a bit more about the project to her over the phone. She asked why youth would want to use our site over something like myspace. I emphasized the local component and the ability for youth to organize around local issues and/or organize local music/art events. I’m aware that we may want to continue to talk about this so that we can be prepared with a compelling and thorough answer to that question because I suspect it will come up a lot.
So, we’ve got one organization on board to contribute a bit of content for the launch! It sounded like Terry was open to having more conversations as we get rolling and can specify more ways we might be able to collaborate as well.
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
November 30th, 2007 at 12:26pm
Toby Campbell
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Learn and Serve America defines Service-learning as a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.
Puget Sound Off (PSO) strives to be a catalyst for increasing youth involvement and engagement within the community while encouraging expression of one’s beliefs, respect for others, and a commitment to public service. We believe that if youth are given an opportunity to express their voice, they can better their communities.
Seattle Schools require all students to earn 60 hours of service learning in order to graduate. Our goal is to provide a new, exciting way for
Seattle
youth to earn their service-learning hours by providing them space to host an issue on the PSO website.
Hosting a group involves:
· One semester commitment
· Willingness to improve your civic awareness
· Identifying a local issue you want to do something about
· Interacting with the following 21st Century learning tools: blogging, video production, photography, social networking, and podcasting.
· Reflection
· Community Action
Plan:
Local youth, in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Seattle – Metrocenter Branch and the University of Washington Center for Civic Communication and Engagement, will participate in a semester long civic engagement project. Youth will gather for 15 hours of training at the beginning of each semester. The trainings will include: an overview of the project, service-learning 101, an opportunity to identify their issue, blogging 101, video production 101, and other relevant trainings.
After the initial 15 hours of training, youth participating in this project will be paired with an undergraduate student participating in the U of W CCCE’s Becoming Citizens program. Their role is to provide support, resources, and additional training when needed. In addition, all participants will attend a mandatory monthly meeting to engage in additional trainings, and troubleshoot issues.
Each participant will also be required to organize a community service activity utilizing the tools available to them through PSO, primarily social networking tools. The following are a list of possible activities:
· Meet-ups
· Serving food to the homeless
Organizing a rally
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
November 6th, 2007 at 01:53pm
Chris Tugwell
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Hello, all! Please review the plan of action for partnerships over the next few weeks below. If you could respond with a blog comment to a) let us know whether this plan looks good to you, and b) indicate whether you have any personal contact with anyone at the organizations listed, we’ll go ahead and begin contacting these potential partners.
THE ASK: We will be asking contacts whether they can provide us with content that we can put on our website, crediting them as the source, for our website soft/hard launch.
THE INVITATION: In turn, they will be invited to attend our soft launch party. This will provide an opportunity for them to see what we’re doing, see their content on the site, and to help test the website if they are interested. This is also an opportunity to begin thinking about ways we might be able to work together as the site launches and grows.
THE CONVERSATION: We will use our conversations with potential partners as an opportunity to informally inquire about possibilities for further collaboration in the future, whatever form this may take.
THE ORGANIZATIONS:
1. Youth in Focus: They produce youth photography. Amber has an existing relationship with staff there we could build on.
2. Seattle Public Library: The MacArthur grant stipulates that we will work with the library, so it is important we continue to explore this option. There may be a way we can get involved with their May All Ages Arts Night, which Toby and Chris discussed with Jennifer when they met with her. Amber will follow up to coordinate.
3. Pongo Publishing: This is a new organization with potential content to contribute. Chris has made contact with them, and they have expressed interest in partnering at some level.
4. Artworks: Have a website but don’t display student work on it. Perhaps they would be interested in contributing photographs of past student work on the PSO website.
5. Power of Hope: Their mission is “youth empowerment through the arts.” They have a website but use it to promote programming and do not post youth works. They may be interested in partnering with us, so it’s worth a conversation.
6. Arts Corps: Arts Corps offers free arts education classes to kids in grades K-12. They have a very limited amount of work posted on their website, so it would be worth reaching out to them to have a conversation.
HOW? Who will contact these organizations in the near future?
Amber: Youth in Focus, Seattle Public Library
Chris Tugwell: Pongo Publishing
Toby: Artworks, Power of Hope, Arts Corps
WHAT’S NEXT? Once we’ve talked to some initial content-producing partners, it seems like the next outreach should be to organizations that explicitly work with diverse youth.
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
November 6th, 2007 at 10:50am
Toby Campbell
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Seattle Public Library
Chris Tugwell and I met with Jennifer Bisson on October 5th. We asked Jennifer about possibilities for collaboration, and she focused on the group of teens she is working with at the downtown library once a week (they meet from 4-5pm Thursdays). The teen group at the library this year will be divided into a myspace group, an audiocast group and a marketing group.
We discussed the possibility of letting the library borrow the YMCA’s video equipment or collaborating with them to make videos for their audiocast group. Teens could collaborate on interviews and editing – maybe around authors that come to town. The library also has spring programming planned around theater and hip-hop. May 2nd will be the all ages arts night again. Immigrant and hip-hop focus is likely. We discussed the possibility of posting their student’s book reviews. We also discussed having our youth meet in person. Writers in the schools seemed like a good possibility for doing a joint project as well.
Chris Tugwell followed up with Jennifer over email a couple of weeks after our meeting, and we are attempting to move forward with a small-scale collaboration with them in the short term.
The Vera Project
Toby had the opportunity to meet with several staff from the Vera Project at the end of October. Staff their expressed an interest in concrete partnerships that dovetail well with their current activities and mission. They receive dozens of inquiries regarding potential partnerships each week, so they must be selective and strategic about the partners they choose to work with.
My feeling (Toby) is that we should keep a partnership with Vera in mind for the future. They’ve got a great youth governance structure that we could learn from, and the physical venue space they have for shows would be a wonderful resource to pair with our website and curriculum on civic engagement once the Puget Sound Off project develops further. For the time being though, I think we should hold off on partnering with Vera until we can approach them with something concrete that is thoughtfully tailored to their mission and activities.
Further Partnerships Update
Toby and Chris Tugwell are working together to come up with a short list of partners we would like to reach out to in the near term, and will continue to reach out to new partners in the coming weeks.
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:03pm
Toby Campbell
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I want to continue the discussion that began earlier in the week with Toby’s post on partnership development. The next two quarters will be quite important for the Becoming Citizens program, as we design a program that hopefully will complement PSO for some time. As I mentioned at the UW-group meeting on Tuesday, several possible models for doing this have emerged. I want to lay these out in order to (1) ask for feedback/suggestions; and (2) encourage us to think about the BC program as we develop partnership models, which have important bearing on what the BC program can do.
Track A: One model for BC interaction with the SoundOff emerged from a recent meeting with Lois at Service Learning Seattle (we are speaking again soon to look at some other ideas). In Track A, students would be placed directly with an organization (as most are now), and find ways for the work already going on to have an outlet on PSO. For example, with Service Learning Seattle, BC interns would work with public school 8th graders to learn to communicate the work they are doing in their service placements through the PSO. Beyond simply communicating about their experiences, this could also be an opportunity for those youth to connect to more information and deeper engagement about the issue (e.g. learning about a bill in Olympia that is relevant to their project).
Track B: Another possibility would be for BC students to spend their internships facilitating management teams with various organizations around the city. Here, again, BC students would be working with a continuing group of youth at a local community organization or community center (perhaps a library?). They would be working as small sub-groups of the larger youth management team.
Track C: A third possibility would extend the Service Learning opportunities of public school youth to include participation in the PSO, perhaps on a management or editorial team. In this case, the youth would earn their service learning ours directly from us, and BC students would be assigned to work with a group of such youth. I will talk to Lois soon about whether Service Learning Seattle would be open to that kind of partnership.
Track D: A final model for BC/PSO interaction would be the workshops Toby described in her post early this week. This would be the least demanding in terms of BC students’ schedules or the commitment of partners. BC students would intern with the CCCE (much the way the Focus Group interns did in the spring), they would design or at least learn to run skills workshops on various aspects of PSO (e.g. blogging, video production), and they would use PSO as the framework for the workshops. Workshops could be given at organizations either one-off or perhaps in a sequence (like two meetings separated by a week, with an assignment in between). This would give a large number of youth in many organizations exposure to PSO and the opportunities we offer; however, there would be no way to ensure that they continue to use PSO or that further content is produced after the workshop(s).
I think that, at least for the next two quarters, we probably will be best off with a combination of these tracks. Designing a program for BC interns doing different projects should not be a problem. I’d appreciate any feedback, suggestions or new ideas.
Entry Filed under: partner strategy
October 26th, 2007 at 05:21pm
Chris Wells
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