Building a Community of Child Advocates

1
Building a Community of Child Advocates

• Sybil Turner
• University of Massachusetts - Boston
• Media Community Building
• Spring 2010

2
The CASA Community

• The Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA)
  network consists of
• National Court Appointed Special Advocate
  Association (National CASA)
• 1150 CASA programs and remote offices across the
  country
• 70, 919 volunteers
• Judges
• Guardian ad Litem attorneys
• Funders
• Board members
• Former foster youth

3
What does CASA do?
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Building Community Through New Technologies and
Social Media

• There are many types of new technologies and
  medias that are intended to build and strengthen
  communities. For a community that has been
  growing since the first program was established
  in 1977, have these new technologies been
  effective for community building and outreach?
  How does story telling strengthen outreach
  efforts ? This presentation will take a look at
  some of these new technologies, how they are
  being used and the intended outcomes.

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Community Outreach in the past

• From the national level
• Newsletters
• Email Listserves
• National CASA Conference
• PSAs
• Locally
• State conferences
• Local trainings
• Local fundraising events
• Local newsletters

6
Whats new?

• Social Networking
• Podcasts
• Digital Storytelling
• Webinars

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New Technologies and Social Networking

• Podcast on How New Technologies Help the CASA
  Network
• National CASA CEO Michael Piraino talks about how
  new technologies are helping members of the CASA
  network improve volunteer advocacy for abused and
  neglected children.
• http//casaforchildren.libsyn.com/index.php?post_y
  ear2010post_month03

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Benefits of Social Networking

• Increases ability to gather and share information
  that will benefit children in court
• Relationships are closer regardless of geography
• Creates access to a pool of current and former
  volunteers with a wealth of information
• Not isolated but rather a part of something else
• Increase in connections existing and new
• Avenue for motivating people
• Connections and sharing happens faster

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Social Computing Online Interactions

• February 2010
• New Volunteer Inquiries 2,407 in February
  4,742 Year-to-date
• New Email Newsletter Subscriptions 313 new in
  February 734 new Year-to-date
• YouTube Videos Watched 3,350 in February 5,205
  Year-to-date
• Audio Podcasts Accessed 1,894 in February
  3,252 Year-to-date
• New Twitter Followers (net) 57 added in February
  for a total of 233 followers 96 new
  Year-to-date
• Facebook Page Views 10,294 in February (1,840
  unique) 15,214 Year-to-date (3,511 unique)
• Facebook Fans (net) 909 new in February (5,246
  total fans total) 2,680 new Year-to-date
• Facebook Page Member Interactions 433 in
  February 693 Year-to-date
• 
  (Forrester, 2010)

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Facebook presence

• The Facebook fan base continues to grow and
  a
• resulting increase in interactions and page
  views was evident in February.
• (Forrester, 2010)

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Social Computing Online Interactions

• March 2010
• New Volunteer Inquiries 2,424 in March (2,254
  volunteer)  7,166 Year-to-date (6,826
  volunteer)
• New Email Newsletter Subscriptions 530 in March
  1,264 Year-to-date
• YouTube Videos Watched 2,229 in March 7,434
  Year-to-date
• Audio Podcasts Accessed 1,480 in March 4,732
  Year-to-date
• New Twitter Followers 73 added in March for a
  total of 306 followers 169 add Year-to-date
• National CASA Facebook Page Views 7,003 in March
  (2,482 unique) 22,217 Year-to-date (5,993
  unique)
• New Facebook Page Members (net) 1,322 added in
  March for a total of 6,568 fans 4,002 added
  Year-to-date
• Facebook Page Member Interactions 642 in March
  1,335 Year-to-date
• (Forrester, 2010)

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What does this mean?

• More people
• increased online interactions
• Increased online interactions
• increased community building and outreach

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• Life before You Tube
• purchase air time
• print advertising space
• mailing copies of PSAs
• You Tube More Viewers
• More Viewers Greater Awareness

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Benefits of You Tube
The February 1 Black Voices post included an
embedded version of the Make a Lifelong
Difference YouTube video, which resulted in an
abrupt upward spike in video viewing. It also
increased the number of volunteer inquiries (25
of all February inquiries were received on that
day) and the number of podcast downloads, which
were listened to over 530 more times in February
than in January. (Forrester, 2010)
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Podcasting

• What is Podcasting?
• A podcast (or netcast) is a series of digital
  media files (either audio or video) that are
  released episodically and often downloaded
  through web syndication (http//en.wikipedia.org/
  wiki/Podcast).

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National CASA Podcasts
New Podcast A Volunteer's Story by Jo-Anne
Vanin Massachusetts CASA volunteer Jo-Anne Vanin
explains how she views her role as a volunteer
advocate and why she chooses to do this important
work.
http//casaforchildren.libsyn.com/index.php?post_y
ear2010post_month03
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What is Digital Storytelling?

• Digital Storytelling is the practice of using
  computer-based tools to tell stories.
• Short, first-person video-narrative
• Combination of recorded voice, still and moving
  images, and music or other sounds

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A New Project Storytelling Booth
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Intended Outcomes (Interview with Rebecca
Grossman, National CASA Training Specialist)

• Q What do you hope to accomplish?
• Two things obtain stories we can post
  over the web via audio or video mainly as a way
  to explain what we do. I think our mission will
  come across much more understandably when it is
  told through a story than any other way. And we
  hope to create a database for people who are
  willing to be contacted to tell a story in the
  future but were not able to at the conference.
• Q How will you measure success?
• If we actually get some stories that we
  can use for the web or if we find folks who are
  willing to be contacted in the future for story
  sharing.
• Q What challenges might arise?
• Lots! This is the first time we are doing
  this so I am sure there are a lot of things we
  dont know that we dont know. We dont have a
  ton of time to get the stories from people. 15
  minutes with one person does not allow us to
  really dig deep into the narrative. What if no
  one is willing to do it? Technical issues with
  equipment or editing might arise.
• Q How will this project benefit the CASA
  Community?
• I think good stories could be used for
  telling our story to future volunteers, people
  who donate money, potential staff, judges, youth
  and the public at large. Plus, for folks who are
  already in the CASA community it helps to hear
  stories to relate to and learn from.

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The Project in action

• Feedback in real time
• Network more with existing connections
• Roving interviews
• People were excited and encouraged
• Former foster youth interested in field of
  journalism was mentored as the interviewer

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How Did it Go? (Follow-up Interview with Rebecca
Grossman, National CASA Training Specialist)

• Q How many stories were collected (on-site and
  connections for the future)?
• I would say about 50-ish.
• Q What was the most notable success or positive
  outcome?
• The stories were much more powerful than we had
  expected.
• Q What lessons did you learn?
• Most people dont mind video.
• Q Will you do this project again?
• Yes!
• The first edited audio interview was posted to
  the National CASA Website on May 3, 2010
• http//casaforchildren.libsyn.com/index.php?post_i
  d611226

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Community Media Across the Network

• The Maryland CASA Association used their local
  Public Access TV station to film an informational
  video on the work of CASA volunteers and posted
  it to You Tube. http//www.youtube.com/watch?vA5P
  5oN60VR0featurerelated
• Several state and local CASA programs have
  created Facebook and Twitter pages for their
  organizations as an additional way to connect.

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Extended Community

• Other child welfare organizations are also using
  social networking sites like facebook and
  twitter.
• Digital Stories from the field http//www.nrcpfc.o
  rg/digital_stories/

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Conclusion

• New technologies are not intended to be instead
  of they are in addition to. National CASA,
  like many other organizations, is using online
  tools and new media forms to build and strengthen
  its already growing community. New technologies
  provide another way to create a stronger more
  connected network where people feel more
  supported and more connected. Storytelling
  provides a community separated by distance a
  source of inspiration and is another way to
  explain the mission and create more awareness for
  the organization. These tools provide a fast and
  easy way to reach out to new people as well as
  stay connected with those already established in
  the community.

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Building Community Through New Technologies and
Social Media

• Community Building
• Another Way
• Outreach
• Stronger
• Storytelling
• More Supported
• Outcomes
• More Connected

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Sources

• Center for Digital Storytelling. (n.d.).
  http//www.storycenter.org/index1.html
• Digital Stories From the Field (n.d.). National
  Resource Center for Permanency and Family
  Connections. Retrieved April 28, 2010 from
  http//www.nrcpfc.org/digital_stories/
• Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling. (n.d.).
  Retrieved April 30, 2010 from the University of
  Houston website http//digitalstorytelling.coe.u
  h.edu/
• Forrester, Dave. February 2010 Online Metrics
  Report to National CASA staff. March 24, 2010.
• Forrester, Dave. March 2010 Online Metrics
  Report to National CASA staff. May 3, 2010.
• Grossman, Rebecca. Personal Interviews. April 2,
  2010 and May 3, 2010.
• Housley, Sharon.(n.d.). What is Podcasting.
  Retrieved April 28, 2010 from http//www.podcasti
  ng-tools.com/what-is-podcasting.htm
• Wikipedia. (n.d.). Podcast. Retrieved April 30,
  3010 from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast
• www.CASAforChildren.org