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Contents
POV's High Impact TV
Take this Heart
from Partners
Practical Advice
A Coalition Model
by Jackie Conciatore
The far-reaching outreach campaign built around the documentary Take this Heart is a study in potential for success born of a funder’s commitment to a public media project with outreach as its central mission. It also demonstrates the positive synergy of funders, filmmakers, television stations and community organizations collaborating on a social issue–in this case foster care–each within their area of expertise.
A VISION OF HOPE IS SHARED
In 1995, KCTS in Seattle approached area filmmaker Kathryn Hunt about documenting life in a foster family. The station had already been in discussions with The Casey Family Program about the issue of foster care. An operating foundation whose work includes placing children in long-term care, Casey would eventually use KCTS’ film to launch an ambitious multi-state outreach effort meant to enlighten the public. "The idea was to bring visibility to this often invisible population, and to counteract stereotypes and attitudes about foster care, particularly the idea that children in foster care are there because they’ve done something wrong," says Ruth W. Massinga, Casey’s Chief Executive Officer.
Right at the outset, Hunt envisioned a hopeful film, and after interviewing about 100 foster families, felt certain it was overdue. "We didn’t need another terrible story about foster kids. ... People were demoralized by those stories and didn’t take from them the idea that they could do anything to help." In the interest of editorial independence, while working on Take this Heart Hunt remained out of touch with Casey, which funded the film with the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Hunt’s one-hour cinema verité documentary about foster mom Tess Thomas and three of her charges is indeed a hopeful film. The positive tone derives not from any miraculous improvement in the boys’ circumstances, but from their resilience and Thomas’s example. She displays seemingly endless patience and tenacious hope for her boys. "The foster mother in Take this Heart was a fantastic woman," critical to the success of outreach efforts, says Pat Dressler, outreach director for South Carolina ETV.
Presented by KCTS, Take this Heart had its PBS premiere on a Friday night in January 1998. It wasn’t the optimal time slot, but many stations rebroadcast the film at different times in coming days and months. Ultimately, more than 120 stations aired it, including 24 of the largest 25 stations.
While Hunt was completing the film, work on the outreach effort began. Casey decided to sponsor local outreach efforts headed by public television stations. It would maximize the individual campaigns’ effectiveness by partnering stations with community groups working on foster care. For the local players–agencies or stations–the campaign could be what consultant Judy Ravitz calls a "moment of opportunity" for their cause, be that improving foster care services, increasing the number of homes available to foster children, highlighting the relevance of Take this Heart (and by association other station programming), or strengthening the film’s impact.
The national team would provide sufficient tools and resources to attract station participation and ensure the local efforts thrived even after the formal outreach was done. The resources would include grant dollars.
Thematically, the campaign would mirror the film’s hopeful tone, repeatedly sending home the message that people could make a difference in myriad ways. This approach was validated early on by focus groups in Maryland and Oregon, where viewers wanted to help, but were uncertain as to how. Says former KCTS Outreach Director Kristi Laguzza-Boosman, "Our premise after focus group research was that if people were informed about how they could get involved, and we could make that process easy, people would step up to the plate." The campaign would take much the same approach with stations, offering specific suggestions for outreach activities.
For this phase, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation joined the project as funders. The Child Welfare League of America would provide expertise and contacts on the community side and Ravetz’s Outreach Extensions would on the television side. The Benton Foundation became a partner as well, including Take this Heart materials on its Connect for Kids Web site.
As the online component of the campaign, Connect for Kids made foster care less invisible and showed ordinary
Americans easy ways to help in their own communities through volunteering, mentoring and becoming foster parents.
The Connect for Kids Web site linked visitors to the community projects surrounding Take this Heart that paired PBS stations with local foster care organizations. It also provided updates on how these projects were working to improve the foster care situation throughout the United States. Visitors could also find tools to assess the available resources in their communities and identify the greatest needs for foster care.
"You don’t have to be a foster parent to help kids in foster care," notes Paula Antonovich, director of Connect for Kids. Through this relationship with the Benton Foundation, the campaign gained exposure on a Web site that is visited by over one-quarter of a million visitors a month.
NATIONAL OUTREACH BEGINS
Public television staffs generally get more requests for outreach support than they can handle. Says Laguzza-Boosman: "Every week you’re getting stuff in the mail from different organizations and producers who are doing documentaries on tremendously important, valuable subjects. And they’ll send you slicks, or information you can use, but unless they provide funding it is really difficult." The effort seems a "huge waste," as most of the materials end up in the trash, she says.
Going into this competitive field, Take this Heart had at least two advantages: extensive support materials and–although not a lot of money–some funding for stations. The campaign "was the longest and most intense project we had done up to that point," says Karen Quebe, outreach director at KLRU in Austin. "But because of the level of resources, the dollars and the wealth of materials developed, it made the job easier, because we could concentrate on the issue locally instead of having to develop all those materials."
The support materials the national outreach team developed included:
A 19-MINUTE VIDEO, Searching for Family, produced for KCTS by Take this Heart Associate Producer Kurt Streeter. Using scenes from the film and additional footage, the video was an overt pitch on behalf of foster kids, designed for screening at educational sessions on foster care. "The video was much more a call to action," says Laguzza-Boosman. "That’s why outreach people loved it. It identified who these kids were and what they needed and how the public could help." Concrete suggestions included becoming a tutor or mentor, donating goods and services, or hiring foster teens. The outreach partners distributed 1,375 free copies to child welfare agencies and TV stations and an additional 7,500 later on. Today the video is still used to educate policy makers, recruit foster parents and train staffs.
A TOOLBOX meant to jump-start and guide stations’ outreach efforts. This print packet included: background on foster care; a look at root causes and solutions; information about the film including updates on the boys and Tess; an overview of the campaign; grant application and guidelines; suggestions for outreach activities on- and off-air; two surveys to help stations assess their communities’ foster care needs; an action plan; and press releases and photographs.
A DISCUSSION GUIDE, designed to accompany screenings of Searching for Family .
A VIEWER GUIDE containing bios and updates on the Thomas foster family, background on foster care, and ways to help.
A FOLLOW-UP PROGRAM produced by KCTS–a panel discussion moderated by Ray Suarez, then-host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation .
What was the result of all this incentive? The funders awarded five $20,000 service grants, to KCTS and to public televisions stations in Austin, Detroit, Los Angeles and Maryland. Thirty additional stations received $2,500 action grants to coordinate outreach with community partners. In addition to the 35 stations winning grants, 11 others took up the outreach effort, for a total of 46 stations participating, including 11 state networks.
STATIONS SET GOALS, TAKE ACTION
With the help of The Casey Family Program divisions in 13 states,
and the Child Welfare League, stations identified community partners
including foster care and adoption programs, foster parent groups, social
service departments and other advocacy or service groups. The partnerships
offered several advantages. Says Ravitz: "When [public television
stations] partner with community groups, they get first of all,
commitment, because that is [the community groups’] organizational
mission. They know the issues. They know the turf." Stations for their
part are well positioned to convene community agencies that may regard
each other as competitors or have other historical differences. "The
station is fabulous when it comes to being a neutral, objective convener,"
says Ravetz.
Once established, the local partnerships either brainstormed to identify goals or conducted formal assessments to determine the appropriate focus for their communities. Virtually all set out to promote the Take this Heart broadcast and raise awareness of foster care issues. Many stations, including KCTS, also decided to concentrate on issues related to youth transitioning out of foster care. In this, they chose to highlight a problem also illustrated in Take this Heart . Other stations set out to increase the number of foster parents or those seeking information about becoming parents. Still others chose to recognize the contributions of foster parents. In Western Pennsylvania, WQED and partners decided to focus on raising awareness of the need for African-American foster parents.
To achieve these goals and in preparation for the national January broadcast of Take this Heart , stations undertook myriad outreach activities.
Some of the more common included:
SCREENINGS OF Searching for Family , with discussions. Many of the screenings would feature panel discussions that had politicians, policy makers, foster parents and alumni at the same table.
TOLL-FREE NUMBERS. During the film’s broadcast, many stations scrolled numbers viewers could call for information about becoming foster parents, volunteering or helping in some other way.
LOCAL PROGRAMMING. At least 14 stations produced local programs and reports on foster care topics. Stations also produced local promotional and educational spots encouraging folks to become foster parents and volunteers.
RADIO SHOWS. Local radio stations, both those licensed to entities participating in the outreach and others simply interested in the topic, devoted talk shows and reporting to foster care issues.
PRINT CAMPAIGN. Some stations managed to insert promotional materials in government paychecks, church bulletins, and the like. In many communities, newspapers donated ad space. Stations also featured Take this Heart in their program guides.
EVENTS RECOGNIZING FOSTER PARENTS. In Austin, KLRU’s team reached 800 parents with thank-yous delivered in ceremonies or in a big Mother’s Day flower delivery to foster parents in 11 counties in central Texas.
LOCAL OUTCOMES REPORTED
Individually, groups reported heartening–but often intangible–outcomes. A few had hard data proving the intended goals. In Austin, for example, the state Department of Protective and Regulatory Services reported for the campaign’s targeted region a 33 percent increase in inquiries about becoming a foster parent. KCTS’s outside evaluation showed that by the end of January, 174 callers requested information from the referral service its coalition set up; 43 percent were people interested in becoming adoptive parents.
Other outcomes pertained to added services or more concerted efforts around foster care. Austin’s KLRU piloted an on-air training program for foster parents; it is now evaluating the success of that multi-state project. In Pittsburgh, the foster parent appreciation night that debuted during the campaign is in its third year. After Portland’s tune-in campaign, the community partnership organized a statewide summit on foster care.
Perhaps the most significant outcome for communities was the achievement of new levels of cooperation among public and private agencies. Again in Austin, KLRU convened agencies to address problems of youth leaving foster care. The groups ultimately signed a Memorandum of Agreement saying they would continue to work on the issue after the outreach project was done. Today, the 13 agencies continue to collaborate.
If the outreach effort proved beneficial in some communities, it also
was a boost for stations, strengthening their place in the community.
Outreach is a natural function of public broadcasting’s mission. As Ann
Sunwell, Outreach Director of Twin Cities Public Television says: "It’s
one of the things that distinguishes us from commercial television.
Whether you’re looking at membership, corporate funding or foundation
funding, it’s a way to show how we’re different, and extend the value of
what we do into the community." Many of the outreach efforts won
gubernatorial or mayoral support in the form of proclamations. Virtually
all projects won media coverage, much of it significant–features on youth
in transition or foster families, etc.
And the partnerships helped in day-to-day ways. In Twin Cities, agencies that worked on the Take this Heart campaign later referred foster families to the station for Ready to Learn services. Dressler of South Carolina ETV says she’d call on her former partner "in a heartbeat" the next time she needed to for a campaign.
THE SEATTLE CAMPAIGN: A LESSON IN COALITION BUILDING
Improved communication strengthens systems and services, which was dramatically demonstrated in Seattle. KCTS and the Casey Family Program worked with an 80-member coalition and an 18-member steering committee on a campaign that had three goals: to increase public knowledge of the realities and needs of foster children and families; to increase the number of individuals and groups who take action to help; and to highlight the needs of youth in transition, with specific goals to increase the number of mentors, job opportunities and resources.
With such a large group, KCTS was able to mobilize an army of people. Not counting spin-off presentations, the station calculates that almost 2,400 people attended presentations given by its public relations subcommittee or other members of the coalition. Behind the scenes, the group worked to improve community services. First they customized the list of ways individuals could help foster children, then decided which agencies would manage calls for each of the functions listed. One Church One Child of Washington State, for example, would handle calls from people wanting to be foster or adop tive parents. Then the coalition set up an 888 Clearinghouse number and a common system for handling calls. If all went as planned, one call would get the information sought.
The coalition was happily surprised to see its system sailing along right out of the dock. Laguzza-Boosman would write in her project report: "We had taken a system that had been complicated, unresponsive and difficult for the community to access, and had put in its place one that was customer-service oriented, easy to access, efficient, accountable and clear." Ultimately, the state took over the clearinghouse service, hired one of the steering committee members to run it, and funded a new statewide mentoring network.
Laguzza-Boosman is such a fan of the coalition model that she’s using it in her new work on sustainability issues. "So often outreach is the station working with one or two organizations and dictating what outreach would be. It’s not as effective as bringing together at least a dozen members who are working on that issue and have them develop the content, " says Laguzza-Boosman.
Casey’s Director of Advocacy Susan Weiss agrees the entire community must participate in setting the outreach agenda, but adds that "stations are a wealth of knowledge about how to most effectively use media for education, for making change and raising awareness."
EVALUATING THE CAMPAIGN
Of course, the project was not without challenges and disappointments. Time, or lack of it, posed one challenge. With scores or even just several partners on board, stations need more of it to effectively communicate. For her work at the national level, Ravetz found communicating with 30 stations and PBS a significant challenge. She had to begin the process with stations months before the film aired and the most intensive outreach began, to ensure they were invested in it, she said. The same was true for stations working with community partners. Laguzza-Boosman estimates a successful community-based campaign requires at least four months, which this campaign did provide. And, as always, the stations felt they could have done more if they had more funding.
One of the project’s disappointments was the it didn’t generate more tune-in. In part this was due to the poor time slot the show had for its national premiere. But also, says filmmaker Hunt, the national outreach partners simply weren’t as practiced at marketing and public relations as they were at outreach. "Casey very much wanted a big public television audience," says Hunt. "But they were inexperienced in how to achieve that. We should have had ads in the New York Times Magazine and such. We should have done concurrent media to promote it." The outreach itself was "fabulous," clearly effective, and where it was strongest there was larger tune-in, according to Hunt. Casey’s Weiss says, "In retrospect it was a lesson in the need to invest in both the outreach and the public relations around the film."
Given the sheer number of community actions, it’s difficult to capture the total of outcomes and activities reported. But Kathy Kingery, Casey advocacy specialist, says the number of products distributed and groups involved in the project are a measure of success: 46 communities and stations participated in the campaign, including 11 statewide networks; 1,375 community packets went out; at least 8,500 copies of the 19-minute video, 150,080 viewer guides, and more than 600 Toolboxes. During the campaign, the Benton Foundation reported 200,000 hits each week to the Take this Heart pages of its Web site.
There’s no question the issue of foster care gained momentum after the
campaign. Since the film aired, Casey has repeatedly extended the life of
the outreach effort, which is now named the National Foster Care Awareness
Project. In February, the project expanded from the four original
partners–the two Casey foundations, the Packard Foundation and CWLA–to a
17-member coalition. Its current focus is youth in transition, for which
it is working on several different tracks: raising public awareness;
educating policy makers; disseminating and developing information for
practitioners; and broadening constituencies. The last includes an effort
to "increase the capacity of foster parents as advocates and strengthen
the voices of alumni," says Kingery.
The project saw some of the results it is working for in November, when President Clinton signed an act that commits $700 million over five years to independent living programs. The act also allows states for the first time to devote a portion of federal independent living funds to services for youth between 18 and 21 and to extend Medicaid benefits to youth who have aged out of foster care. There are similar pending legislative initiatives at the state level. "Our main objective was to raise awareness and make sure different organizations did put this as high priority on their policy agenda," says Casey CEO Massinga. "And I think we can see that that really did happen."
In the end, perhaps the most notable aspect of the Take this Heart project was the fact that community-based outreach had a top priority. While the high level of commitment to outreach did not in this case generate remarkable tune-in to the film, it did succeed in fostering many partnerships among public television stations and among community agencies, some of whom were not previously communicating at all. Stations furthered the use of a collaborative model that in cases led to visible positive change for foster families. KCTS even managed to establish a new statewide information referral system. And the campaign generated tools and resources that community agencies will be using for years hence on behalf of this population, which today is more visible than it was prior to Take this Heart .
Jackie Conciatore is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.