- Organization Name:
- Gulf Coast Teaching Family Services, Inc.
- Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
- Gulf Coast Teaching Family Services (GCTFS) is submitting our new newsletter. It was created using several programs of the Adobe Creative Suite CS3 (including InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop). GCTFS had not produced a newsletter in a few years so a committee was created to rethink the concept. This first issue is the result of their work.
Our old newsletter was in black and white, and mainly sent to our clients, community partners, and staff. The new version is different as it is an advertisement in disguise. GCTFS has a need to grow its donor base. The newsletter is used as a way to approach potential donors not by asking them for money (though we mention a link to make a donation) but by giving a voice to our clients and show our impact on the community. The innovation is that we included general interest articles to match our client’s stories (for example, gardening tips next to the article about our group home gardening day) to keep our readership interested.
- What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
- GCTFS offers programs that help people with disabilities and the elderly. It is difficult to sum up what we do in one sentence. The newsletter is an opportunity to isolate a few programs and present them to the readership. For example, we were able to focus on our Therapeutic Foster Care program and our personal services for disabled veterans through our clients’ stories.
The newsletter also offers the opportunity to meet the people we work with (and that a donation would help). For example, we published Andrew’s article, one of our clients in the Supported Living program. The newsletter illustrates that the people we care for are not so different from them, and that they might actually share common interests.
It also has a positive impact on our clients, encouraging them to cultivate their talents. Andrew was extremely excited when he saw his picture and essay. He immediately asked if he could write another piece for the next issue!
- How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
- The newsletter was mailed a week prior to the contest submission, so it is too early to measure the full impact. We have already been approached by a local news affiliate to do a story on foster parenting as a direct result of receiving our newsletter.
We plan to send the newsletter quarterly and alternate those mailings with donation request letters. The newsletter provides a link to our website that we will be monitoring for visitor traffic. We hope this newsletter will create interest for our organization that will result in inquiries for our programs as well as donations.
- Creative Submission - Files
-
-
-
-
