Erika’s Lighthouse Final Deliverables

Winter 2015

Marcel, Richard, Sanchita, Yu Jung, Yuri

Table of Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….2

2. Outreach Strategy Recommendations

I. Recommendation 1: Strategically Target Schools…………………………………..3

II. Recommendation 2: Saturate a District……………………………………………....4

3. How Salesforce Facilitates Outreach

I. Overview……………………………………………………………………...………....5

I. Tracking…………………………………………………………………………...……..6

II. Outreach…………………………………………….…………………………………...8

4. Key Findings from Research

I. District Board of Education……………………………………………………………10

II. Conferences……………………………………………………………………….…...11

III. Non­Profit Organizations……………………………………………………………...13

IV. Relevant Official Organizations………………………………………………………19

V. Elyssa’s Mission…………………………………………………………………....….22

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………...23

1

Introduction

Ten weeks ago, a team of Northwestern Student Community Consultants, Marcel, Richard, Sanchita, Yu Jung, and Yuri, was approached with a problem. Peggy Kubert, former Executive Director and current Director of Education and Programming of Erika’s Lighthouse, was seeking out ways to expand the organization’s programming. A thriving organization since 2004, Erika’s Lighthouse has worked tirelessly to provide mental health and depression adolescent education across communities in Illinois. Through the years, Erika’s Lighthouse has provided education in the form of captivating video series and presentations, empowering opportunities for youth wishing to advocate for mental health through teen panels, parent and teacher facilitation guides, community events to raise awareness among so much more. With such an inspiring and experienced organization standing in front of them, the team could not have been more excited to take on the challenge of expanding Erika’s Lighthouse’s programming. Through the weeks, we have contributed hours of research, outreach, and analysis in order to figure out how best to help Erika’s Lighthouse. We initially began this process by doing our own research on Erika’s Lighthouse and also asking Peggy many questions regarding Erika’s Lighthouse’s history, past and current initiatives, and outreach strategies. After developing a comprehensive understanding of Erika’s Lighthouse, we then visited the organization to get to know the other key players that make Erika’s Lighthouse possible. We then entered the research phase where we we looked into the feasibility of expanding Erika’s Lighthouse into more schools by working alongside high­level structures (government departments, district board meetings, etc.). We also reached out to a number of organizations similar to Erika’s Lighthouse to see how they were able to expand their programs. From there, we consolidated our data, looked at our understanding of Erika’s Lighthouse, and made a diagnosis of how best to move forward. So now, we will go into our strategies, research, and recommendation in more detail.

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Outreach Strategies Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Strategically Target Schools

Strategically targeting schools minimizes the amount of time and effort needed in outreach. Below are the possible criteria for classifying a new school as a possible target school. 1

Is this school in a district where at least one school is using the program?/ Is this school a feeder school?

Has this school had teen panel or other awareness events?

Does this school have a teen club?

Are there existing contacts in the school?

Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Category 4 Category 1: Utilize existing contacts to get in touch with a school official, mention the awareness events and the other schools in the district already using the program. Category 2: Encourage teen club members to speak to their advisor/teacher about Erika’s Lighthouse, email/call school officials. Categories 3 & 4: Ask for referrals from other schools in the district already using the program.

1 The first three criteria will likely be met in the order given in the table. However, it may often be the case that Erika’s Lighthouse comes across contacts for new schools even when the first three criteria have not been met.

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Recommendation 2: Saturate a District

When searching for schools to target, it is also helpful to reach out to schools in districts where Erika’s Lighthouse has a strong presence. This is advantageous for a number of reasons.

1. Enables Multiple Referrals If Erika’s Lighthouse program is already being used in many schools, multiple referrals to a single school may be possible.

2. Increases Influence

If Erika’s Lighthouse is in majority of the schools in a district, it is easier to meet with the superintendent or the director of curriculum to approve the program for all schools in the district. This is what happened with Township High School District 214 when Elyssa’s Mission was able to meet with the Assistant Superintendent.

3. Improves Sustainability

a. All or most schools in a district using the same program facilitates peer interaction, making it less likely that schools stop using a program or switch to a different program.

b. Logistically, it is easier to track multiple schools in one district than multiple schools in multiple districts. Communicating with one or two persons from the district (e.g. superintendent or director of curriculum) may provide enough information about the program’s use in the district. This means fewer emails and phone calls.

4. Provides a Reproducible Model

Once Erika’s Lighthouse has saturated a district and has kept track of the details of the process, it can use the same strategy to move on to another district. Once this has been repeated several times, the accumulated results will make the inter­district variations more predictable. Some questions that might be answered include the following:

a. Who is the best person to talk to when initially contacting the school? b. After a significant portion of the schools in a district has implemented the

program, who is the next district official to talk to? c. On average, after how many exchanges of phone calls or emails will there be an

in­person meeting? d. How effective are teen panels and teen clubs in facilitating the implementation of

the program?

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How Salesforce Facilitates Outreach

Overview

campusCATALYST team created an organization structure tailored to Erika’s Lighthouse’s needs by utilizing Salesforce. As Salesforce can be used in countless different ways with its many functions, campusCATALYST particularly focused on devising the best format that efficiently divided data by categories without unnecessary complications. Below are the key organizational features to Erika’s Lighthouse’s Salesforce account.

Each school was entered in as a single account­­ no omits or overlaps.

Information about contacts were entered under the account (school) category.

Adding multiple contacts under a single account (school) without confusion was also made possible.

The next two sections will explore how this organizational method facilitates the two most important tasks of Erika’s Lighthouse: tracking existing schools and reaching out to new schools.

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Tracking

Ideally, Erika’s Lighthouse should try to establish one or two primary contacts in the school with whom it can consistently and frequently stay in touch. Maintaining such ties with the participating schools can lead to a number of benefits.

It is easy to confirm the program’s continued use in the school.

It speeds up the referral process.

It enables feedback‒having a group of responsive program users who can ask questions or make recommendations can help future outreach as well

Tracking is particularly crucial given that schools are usually not loyal to any one program. This may be part of the reason why Elyssa’s Mission was able to introduce their programs to schools already impacted by Erika’s Lighthouse. campusCATALYST team made tracking easier by using Salesforce to do the following:

1. Organizing information such as name, title, phone number, email, and contact source of one or more contacts in a school

­ The contact source category is a drop­down menu to facilitate organizing ­ Keeping information about the contacts’ roles in school (under the title category) allows

Peggy to see the trend in which school officials are most helpful and responsive in implementation of the program

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2. Allowing mass­emailing

3. Recording Activity History

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Outreach

Schools are introduced to Erika’s Lighthouse in numerous ways, and they are also in numerous different stages of implementing the program. Erika’s Lighthouse’s Salesforce can do the following to facilitates the organization of outreach­related information:

1. Assigning different account stages to each account (school)

Prospect All schools Erika’s Lighthouse does not have any presence in

Target Schools with existing contacts, programming, presence in district

Approach Schools with which you have made initial contact (email, phone, meeting)

In Progress Indefinite period, back and forth contact, getting programming into the school

Closed / Success Program is implemented in school

Closed / Recycle Did not succeed, follow up next year

Non­School Account is not a school

The table shown in page 3 provides possible criteria for differentiating prospect schools, which are all schools that Erika’s Lighthouse does not have any presence in, from target schools, which are schools that Erika’s Lighthouse have decided to actively pursue. The following stages are shown in the drop­down menu in the Account Stage section so that future sorting and organization is easier.

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2. Documenting existing programs

As schools often use more than one program, (e.g. they might have a teen panel as well as TDSHH program), multiple programs can be chosen for a school Below is a sample of the overall account view. It includes all the information considered essential in tracking and outreach and allows them to be viewed and edited in a single page.

Further details regarding the Salesforce portion of the deliverable can be found in the Salesforce training guide.

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Key Findings From Research

District Boards of Education

Overview Reaching out to District Boards of Education is an effective strategy to reach multiple schools at once. Getting approval by the Superintendent or Director of Curriculum will distribute Erika’s Lighthouse’s programs to all or most of the district’s schools.

Challenges campusCATALYST initially looked at district boards as the best strategy. However, there are multiple challenges associated with this method.

1. A board meeting’s main purpose is to discuss internal affairs of the district. Districts will very rarely invite external speakers to introduce a program, if at all.

2. Board meetings are usually the final stage in getting a curriculum or a program approved. General consensus from the principals, teachers, and staffs of the individual schools is necessary for both being able to present at a board meeting and being able to implement the program after the approval.

Possible Solutions

1. According to Dr.Dill Varga, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum at Maine Township High School District 207, superintendents, principals, or teachers will often talk about a program they have heard of at a conference in board meetings. Establishing connections with school officials may be the best way to introduce Erika’s Lighthouse at these meetings.

2. Meetings with superintendents are possible via referrals and connections. Elyssa’s Mission’s Signs of Suicide was approved by the Assistant Superintendent at Township High School District 214 to be used in all of its schools.

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Conferences

Health teachers, school administrators and mental health conferences are obvious opportunities to spread the name of Erika’s Lighthouse across professionals in their respective industries and lines of work. Pros

1. Reaches a wide audience of people who have the potential to become contacts and advocates for programs

2. Relatively simple to present and network at 3. Typically happen annually at the same time each year, which makes these reliable

opportunities Cons

1. Takes time to write applications 2. There exists competition for relationships as similar non­profit organizations will also

likely be trying to establish contacts with the relevant people

Location Name District Target Audience Start Date Website

Miami, FL

Anxiety and Depression Association of America National

Health Professionals, Advocates 4/1/2015

http://www.adaa.org/resources­professionals/conference­education/conference/why­attend

Baltimore, MD

27th Annual Suicide Prevention Conference Maryland

Maryland Healthcare Professionals 10/7/2015

http://trainingcenter.umaryland.edu/Pages/Suicide­Prevention.aspx

San Diego, CA

National Conference on Education National

School Administrators 2/26/2015

http://nce.aasa.org/

Norwood, MA

New England Secondary School Consortium New England

Educators (Secondary) 3/26/2015

http://newenglandssc.org/conference

San Diego, CA

National Association of Secondary School Principals IGNITE National

Principals (Primary, Secondary) 2/19/2015

http://www.nasspconference.org/

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Conference

Seattle, WA

Shape America National Conference (*Has a Conference for every Geographic Area in America) National

Health/Gym Educators 3/17/2015

http://www.shapeamerica.org/events/convention2015/

Moorhead, MN

SHAPE American Central Conference Central

Health/Gym Educators 2/5/2015

http://www.shapeamerica.org/about/districts/central/conference.cfm

Springfield, IL

Illinois Association of School Administrators Illinois

School Administrators 9/30/2015

http://www.iasaedu.org/domain/22

Normal, IL

Illinois Association of School Social Workers Illinois Social Workers 10/1/2015

http://iassw.org/professional­development/conference/

Bloomington, IL

Preventing Suicide Among Youth and Young Adults: Everyone has a Role Illinois

Clinicians, Educators, First Responders, Health Educators, Nurses, Physicians, and Social Workers 4/29/2015

https://ipha.com/event/details/5/statewide­suicide­prevention­conference

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Non Profit Organizations

Throughout our project, we talked with a number of similar non­profit organizations that work with local schools in order to engage, empower, and educate youth. Below you can find the major insights from each organization; One Goal: One Goal is a group that operates within Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in order to make college graduation possible for every student. Through speaking with them, we discovered;

Word of Mouth: In reaching out, one of the most effective strategies was getting teachers within the school to advocate for the program. Overall, teachers, assistant principals, and principals are the most effective at getting this done.

Emphasize Minimal Costs: Often times schools lack the capacity or budget to incorporate new projects regardless of how interested they are, so really do emphasize the financial accessibility of your project.

District Plays a Role Later: The districts were able to spread One Goal into more schools (some even across state lines), but this took place after the program became more established and had more clout.

Find the “Action People”: One Goal was able to get a meeting with the CEO of CPS, however this only happened once the group was tossed around a bit from contact to contact. Eventually, they came across the person in charge of the OAS School Committee who then got them in touch with the CEO. They also were able to get in touch with post secondary career services and a number of counselors.

Do High Level Trainings: Facilitating trainings with school chiefs (something organized by the CEO) was definitely a good way of getting One Goal’s mission into the right set of ears.

Ask the Right Questions: In meeting with potential new schools, asking that they articulate what their needs are and what they think is possible through a partnership is more effective since their response usually aligns with the service you are trying to provide.

Partnerships: When meeting new partners, definitely be clear on what the relationships should look like. Communication is key.

Jumpstart: Jumpstart is an organization that places colleges students into low­income preschools in order to provide them with supplemental literacy tutoring.

Neighborhood­based Approach: Jumpstart operates more so by targeting schools within a specific area since they have a list of school requirements that not every school is able to meet.

Testimonials/Referrals: Having schools with successful Jumpstart programs is useful since they will normally reach out to other schools and refer them to the Jumpstart program.

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Name Recognition: Since Jumpstart is a national program, people are more likely to recognize its name and seek out their services.

Preference for Bottom­Up: Jumpstart usually does not use the district level in order to expand to more schools since doing so would require more research. Plus their program requirements make it so that doing so would also be more difficult.

Supplies for Dreams: Supplies for Dreams is an organization that provides supplemental education and enrichment opportunities for children enrolled in Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

CPS Partnership: Having a partnership with CPS really helps in getting out to schools. They have an internal champion/advocate who does a lot of the outreach work for them.

Limited Spots: They operate on an application model, so often times that will take one out of every ten or so schools that apply.

Emphasize Minimal Costs: Supplies for Dreams provides all the materials that they use in their programming, so the school need not do much in order for their programs to be effective.

Y.O.U: Y.O.U provides a holistic set of services (from afterschool programs to clinical counseling) to ensure that out of school time for students is safe, healthy, and engaging.

Clear Communication: Before launching into a partnership with a school, it is important to make sure that everyone is on the same page and knows the expectations that come from a partnership.

Districts are Tricky: The politics and key players behind district mobilization can be complicated. Depending on the size of the district and other factors, a lot of things just look very differently.

Pilot First: If you seek to reach out to the district or present to a number of schools, it is good to first have a pilot of your program done so that people see clear results. Usually a pilot program should take between one and two years. Try to have some data.

Ensure Capacity: Often times, schools may be excited for a program, but do not actually have the capacity to support it so make sure that interest does not way out feasibility.

Government Usually Is Not Relevant: When there are heavy issues surrounding programs, then reaching out to different government departments could help. Usually (at least in Skokie) what the public health or education department want falls flat if the schools themselves do not see the value in it.

Parents Matter: Getting parents to support and advocate for your programs really goes a long way. Leveraging relationships with parents from the outside is a bit tricky though, so already having a partnership with a school first usually helps.

Use your Literature: The National Center for Community Schools and National Coalition for Community Schools provide a lot of good written materials in accessing school readiness. Do not be afraid to seek that out!

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Family Matters Chicago: Family Matters empowers families and children to be positive forces of social change through holistic services such as tutoring, after­school enrichment workshops, volunteer opportunities,etc.

Attack from Multiple Angles: It is definitely important to reach out to individual schools for outreach, but it also helps (at least within CPS) to try to reach out to CPS’ regional office for institutional support.

Principals Not Always the “Go­To Person”: Usually principals have to sign off on new initiatives, however getting even a single teacher could be just as useful a source of advocacy.

Below here are some more relevant non­profit organizations that we found including the emails of contacts that can be reached out to for partnerships or further advice if necessary! In this work, partnerships and communication are keys to success so definitely give these organizations a look.

Organization Website Description / Issue Area

Contacts

Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health

http://www.icah.org/ Sexual education programming

Roxane Medina Padilla (Peer Health Ambassador Program Specialist) roxane@icah.org. Tiffany Pryor (Chicago Land Organizing Manager) tiffany@icah.org

826 CHI http://826chi.org/ After­school tutoring, creative writing workshops, field trips, in­school support, English language help

Amanda Lichtenstein (Director of Education) amanda@826chi.org

Peer Health Exchange

http://www.peerhealthexchange.org/

Give teens the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions

Brittany Merritt (Chicago Program Director) brittany@peerhealthexchange.org

BuildOn http://www.buildon.org/

Gives teens the chance to work on service learning opportunities in their own communities

Jill Katz (Director of Development: Chicago) jill.katz@buildon.org.

Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Taskforce

http://grassrootscurriculum.org/

Edits and creates curriculum tools that focus on justice and civic engagement. They could be really helpful to reach out to since

Cecily Relucio Hensler (Co­Director) cecily@grassrootscurriculum.org

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they focus on curriculum development

Chicago Youth Programs

http://chicagoyouthprograms.org/

Improves the health of teens by expanding life opportunities and building capacities

N/A

Communities in Schools of Chicago

http://www.chicagocis.org/whoweare/Introduction.asp

Provide health education and other services to underprivileged youth

Emily Jones (Senior School Partnership Specialist) ejones@chicagocis.org Jacqueline Guerrero (School Partnership Specialist and Associate Trainer) jguerrero@chicagocis.org Taymah Jones (School Partnership Specialist) tjones@chicagocis.org Jason Triche (School Partnership Specialist) jtriche@chicagocis.org Annie Rezac (Senior Community Partnership Specialist) arezac@chicagocis.org Karen Roddie (Behavioral and Mental Health Specialist and Intern Program Manager) kroddie@chicagocis.org

Family Matters http://www.familymatterschicago.org/

Provide youth health and enrichment after­school programs

Gretchen Nord (Director of Development) gretchen@familymatterschicago.org

Girls in the Game http://www.girlsinthegame.org/

Provides girls with athletic opportunities and also nutrition and health education. They also do after school work and other enrichment activities

Margaret Miles (Teen Programs Manager) mmiles@girlsinthegame.org

OneGoal http://www.onegoalgraduation.org/about­us/

Provides educational opportunities to underperforming high school students in order

Thomas Dickson (Senior Director of School Partnerships) thomas.dickson@onegoalgraduation.org

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to ensure that everyone can go to college

Teach for America Chicago

https://www.teachforamerica.org/where­we­work/chicago

A national program that sends recent college graduates into under­resourced urban and rural schools

N/A

Youth Guidance http://www.youth­guidance.org/

A youth enrichment program that focuses on creating and implementing school based programs that enable at­risk youth to overcome obstacles

Malika Graham­Bailey (Director of Community and After­School Programs) mgraham­bailey@youth­guidance.org

Youth Organizations Umbrella (Y.O.U)

http://www.youevanston.org/

Youth development, tutoring, enrichment programming

Melissa Carpenter (Community Schools Director) melissa.carpenter@youevanston.org Erin Moore (Community Schools Director of Skokie) erin.moore@youevanston.org Amy LaDuke (Community Schools Director of Chute Middle School) amy.laduke@youevanston.org

DPQ Project http://www.dbqproject.com/

Curriculum reform organization, focus on critical thinking, history, writing and equity

Chip Brady (Co­Founder) chip@dbqproject.com

Jumpstart Chicago http://www.jstart.org/where/midwest

Jumpstart is an organization that places colleges students into low­income preschools in order to provide them with supplemental literacy tutoring

Rachel McHugh (Associate Program Director) rachel.mchugh@jstart.org

Planned Parenthood of Illinois

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned­parenthood­illinois

A national provider of reproductive healthcare

N/A

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Here is a list of a few more organizations that do similar work, but that are based out of Northwestern.

Organization Website Description / Issue Area

Contacts

Project SOAR (YMCA) http://www.mcgawymca.org/youth­teens/after­school­care­activities/mentoring/project­soar­news/

Youth mentorship program run through the YMCA

N/A

Jumpstart See above See above Micaela Moran (Jumpstart Northwestern Coordinator) micaela.moran@northwestern.edu

Northwestern University Center for Civic Engagement

http://www.engage.northwestern.edu/

University office responsible for connecting students to civic engagement opportunities both in Evanston and Chicago

Robert Donahue (Associate Director) rjd230@northwestern.edu Heidi Gross (Program Manager) heidi­gross@northwestern.edu

Supplies for Dreams http://www.suppliesfordreams.org/

Supplies for Dreams is an organization that provides supplemental education and enrichment opportunities for children enrolled in Chicago Public Schools (CPS)

N/A

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Relevant Research, Advocacy, & Government Organizations

Below is a list of research, think­tank, and governmental organizations that have missions or initiatives that align with those of Erika’s Lighthouse. Many of these organizations either operate nationally or outside of Illinois, however it still bears importance to look into the work of these organizations. Often times, tapping into organizations of this stature could create partnerships or, at the very least, seeing whom they work with could provide some helpful future partnerships. Additionally, many of these organizations have publications or templates of mental health education curriculums and interventions on their websites, so even getting Erika’s Lighthouse’s materials on their websites could prove beneficial. In the end, organizations of this stature might be difficult to tap into, however once a partnership is established or a conversation had, the possibilities for expansion and exposure monumentally increase.

Organization Website Issue Areas Depression Specific

Headquarters

National Institute of Mental Health

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/

Research, Understand, Treatment No Bethesda, MD

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill

http://www.nami.org/ Care Services, Treatment No Arlington, VA

Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance

http://www.dbsalliance.org/ Support, Education Yes Chicago, IL

University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center *personal contact*

http://www.depressioncenter.org/ Research, Treatment Yes Ann Arbor, MI

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

http://www.aacap.org/

Advocacy, Education, Research No Washington D.C.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

http://www.samhsa.gov/

Leads public health efforts, part of US Department of Health & Human Services No Rockville, MD

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)

https://www.afsp.org/

Research, Education, Advocacy Yes New York, NY

Suicide Resource http://www.sprc.or Promotes public health Yes Waltham, MA

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Center g/ Illinois Chapter: http://www.sprc.org/states/illinois

approach to suicide prevention

Miami University Center for School­Based Mental Health Programs

http://www.units.miamioh.edu/csbmhp/index.html

Research, education, Clinical Services, Clinician Training No Oxford, OH

Adler University Institute on Social Exclusion

http://www.adler.edu/page/institutes/institute­on­social­exclusion/about

Research, Outreach, Awareness No Chicago, IL

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools

http://www.healthinschools.org/

Policy, Advocacy, Research, Education No Washington D.C.

National Association of Social Workers Illinois

http://www.naswil.org/ Education, Advocacy No Chicago, IL

National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention

http://actionallianceforsuicideprevention.org/

Advances the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention

Yes Washington D.C.

Say It Out Loud Illinois

http://www.mentalhealthillinois.org/

Education, Advocacy Yes IL

Mental Health America of Illinois

http://www.mhai.org/

Mental Health Promotion, Treatment

Yes IL

National Center for Community Schools

http://nationalcenterforcommunityschools.childrensaidsociety.org/

Consultation, Capacity Building, and School & Organization Partnership Facilitation

No New York, NY

The Coalition for Community Schools

http://www.communityschools.org/

School ­ Organization Partnership Facilitation, Education, Advocacy

No Washington D.C.

Chicago Department of Public Health (For general outreach efforts, contact Jay Bhatt the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cdph.html

Prevention, Treatment, Education

No Chicago, IL

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Jay.Bhatt@cityofchicago.org) (For outreach efforts revolving the “Healthy Chicago 2.0 Initiative” contact Sheri Cohen sheri.cohen@cityofchicago.org)

The Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership

http://icmhp.org/index.html

Prevention, Education Yes Chicago, IL

LifeSavers Training Corporation

http://www.thelifesavers.net/LSTC/

Training, Education, Youth Advocacy

Yes Carbondale, IL

Suicide Prevention Services

http://www.spsamerica.org/

Education, Advocacy and Collaboration

Yes Batavia, IL

It Only Takes One http://www.itonlytakesone.org/

Education, Resources Yes Chicago, IL

In case you also would like to get in touch with offices run through the Illinois Department of Public Health, here is some contact information;

Name of Office Number

Office of Health Promotion 217­785­4093

Office of Health Care Regulation Education and Training

217­785­5132

Office of Men’s Health 312­814­1080

Center for Minority Health Services 217­782­4977

Office of Women’s Health (Chicago) 312­814­5278

Office of Women’s Health (Springfield) 217­524­6088

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Competitor ­ Elyssa’s Mission

Elyssa’s Mission is a competing program of Erika’s Lighthouse, offering middle and high schools variants of their education materials. They are in approximately double the schools Erika’s Lighthouse is currently in as of early 2015, and some of these schools are shared between both programs. Collecting some data on their outreach and program, we have a good sense of how they have been getting their program into schools. Breaking down their outreach strategy:

1. Cold Call 1. Approach school social workers working in suburbs 2. Have the school social workers refer them into a school and begin a dialogue 3. This hopefully leads to meetings and discussions where the program becomes

implemented 2. By Referral

1. Schools that the program is already in or advocates refer the program to other schools

3. Extension into Feeder Schools 4. District Expansion

1. It seems like to get district endorsement (which seems the most time efficient), a meeting with superintendent or the like is a necessary step

5. Name Recognition 1. Schools have been contacting them cold because of name recognition.

6. Illinois Association of School Social Workers (IASSW) Conference and Webinars It is a worthwhile consideration that while Elyssa’s Mission may be seen as a competitor, they have the same mission as Erika’s Lighthouse, and being simultaneously in the same school or school district as part of education in different grade school years might provide students with a broader scope of depression from two sides.

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Conclusion

Summary of Recommendation

Based on our research of Erika’s Lighthouse’s operations, various outreach methods and the information we have collected from a myriad of official organizations, we identify several possible opportunities for improvement in our target of increased program expansion:

1. In the organization of the program expansion process, especially at the outreaching stage

2. In the tracking of EL presence in both prospective and current schools From our findings, we recommend a two­part resolution. The first part is an organized, bottom­to­top outreach approach that would most efficiently spread EL’s program to schools, thereby advancing EL’s mission. It begins by contacting a particular person and developing them into an advocate so that EL’s programs climb the school hierarchy into a decision­making administrator. By reaching out via conferences, personal school contacts, and referrals, the success rate is much higher in comparison to the top­to­bottom approach (reaching out first to district boards, cold­calling administrators, speaking with government or other official organizations), where there is qualitative evidence that the opportunity for EL to enter is low based on findings. The success rate of bottom­to­top is further amplified by district­level growth, where a partnership with one school in a particular district opens the doors considerably to another school in that district. We believe this method will be a more organized and time­efficient way of approaching the issue of contacting schools and convincing them that Erika’s Lighthouse’s depression education program is a superior choice. The second part of the recommendation is a tracking system built on SalesForce that will provide Erika’s Lighthouse with a systematic way of tracking schools and their respective contacts, from the prospective stage to the program accepted stage. The biggest upside of SalesForce is its ability to sort through entries by categories, which can assist with Erika’s Lighthouse by providing options to systematically sort through prospective target schools and consistently follow­up. Through research, we determined parameters of particular importance were at the contact level:

1. Contact Source

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a. Personal Contact / Referral b. Conference c. Workshop d. Partnership e. Other

2. Contact Information a. School b. Email c. Number d. Location e. District

We have added all suggested parameters on Erika’s Lighthouse’s current SalesForce account, but this can be modified based on user preference moving into the future. We believe this is a way for Erika’s Lighthouse to move out of the Google Documents space for workflow management (not only just school tracking, but finances and other opportunities as well) and into a more professional program at the same no­cost price point. As Erika’s Lighthouse grows to become a larger organization with more schools in its program portfolio, having SalesForce as a workflow management system will make school processing and data entry less taxing on time with simultaneously higher functionality.

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