Community Colleges and Higher Education Advocacy

Douglas Gould and Company has years of experience with playing a crucial role in fueling the national dialogue on access to higher education for all. We provide communications strategies and technical assistance to support the policy and public advocacy initiatives of foundations, their grantees, professional networks and educational advocate organizations. Our commitment to this issue and our experience in the field has led to productive partnerships with advocates who are making a strong case for higher education access as the lynchpin for social and economic opportunity for Americans and people throughout the world.

The scope of our work encompasses conducting communications audits and needs assessments and translating jargon-heavy research-based data into convincing, media friendly messaging. We identify and train appropriate spokespersons, partner with the media, develop new media streams (Web sites, blogging, etc.) and collateral materials, all of which enable our clients to communicate effectively with their constituents and with policymakers.

The Joyce Foundation's Shifting Gears Initiative
This initiative targets five Midwestern States that are struggling to expand public investment in preparing adults already in the workforce with the skills to fill 21^st Century jobs. All of the states are going through profound economic transformation brought on by the decline of traditional manufacturing jobs and the needs of emerging industries. Douglas Gould and Company has been providing strategic communications support and advocacy training to Shifting Gears grantees and working with the Joyce Foundation to effectively communicate the impact of its work. A grant for this work was made to PublicVoice, an operating foundation started by Douglas Gould and Company in 2008.

Kentuckians for Community and Technical Colleges
Douglas Gould and Company is working with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to develop and launch a state-wide advocacy campaign for smart investments in Kentucky's students, workers and the state's economic future. This includes in-depth interviews with nearly two dozen stakeholders, drafting and finalizing a message platform and sound bites for staff and leadership as well as providing a framework for proactive media pitching and placement. Building upon national work with the other state's community college systems, Douglas Gould and Company has also advised the local advertising firm on messaging for the system. Currently, the agency is working closely with KCTCS leadership at the highest levels to train system advocates on messaging and advocacy, as well as creating and maintaining content for the launch of an advocacy Web site and social media outlets.

Mobilizing Support for California's Community Colleges
Douglas Gould and Company, along withthe Neimand Collaborative, conducted a study to assess the viability of a public will-building campaign to construct and mobilize support for California's Community Colleges. The study built upon an extensive opinion research and message-testing project carried out by the Neimand Collaborative, in consultation with Douglas Gould and Company in the summer of 2007, which found strong support for the colleges, and desire for improvements. The study was funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation.

Make the Case for California's Community Colleges
Based on the message and opinion research funded by the Hewlett and Irvine Foundations in 2007, Douglas Gould and Company wrote and widely distributed with its own resource: Make the Case for California's Community Colleges, an advisory outlining promising communications opportunities and insight on avoiding pitfalls for advocates. This useful resource is for anyone seeking to build greater public will for community colleges.

Corporation for a Skilled Workforce - Tomorrow's Workforce
Douglas Gould and Company oversaw the first phase of a multi-year research and communications project funded by the Lumina Foundation to understand how to improve educational outcomes for Latino immigrant workers through partnerships between employers and community colleges. Douglas Gould and Company disseminated the first phase report and is now advising the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce partners on ways to strategically promote this work in order to meet the needs of this rapidly growing population.

Center on Education and the Workforce - Georgetown University
Working closely with director and noted labor economist Anthony Carnevale, Douglas Gould and Company developed positioning, branding, and messaging for the launch of the Center on Education and Workforce. Using a market-driven, empirically-based approach, the Center conducts research and provides information and in-depth analysis that informs education and labor-market decision makers in three core areas: jobs, skills and people. The Center is a unique collaboration between The Lumina Foundation for Education, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Ford Foundation.

Hewlett Leaders in Student Success
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the RP Group hired Douglas Gould and Company to provide communications support for the first annual Hewlett Leaders in Student Success luncheon on best practices in basic skills education. The key outcomes were framing for the new program, a successful event and visibility for four California community college honorees. Douglas Gould and Company developed key messaging, talking points, a national press release and speeches for seven key speakers. Coverage in Community College Week helped raise visibility and fueled dialogue centered on ensuring that adults who enter college under-prepared can have a pathway to success.

The Ford Foundation's Community Colleges: Bridges to Opportunity initiative kicked off a national effort to expand educational and economic opportunity for under-prepared adults at community colleges. As the communications partner in the initiative, Douglas Gould and Company led a national opinion research and message development project that led to the creation of strategic message recommendations and training for hundreds of spokespeople. Over the initiative's five- year span, Douglas Gould and Company provided tailored state-specific strategic communications planning and implementation, press strategies and the development of materials, events and other resources. The agency is frequently tapped to speak and at national conferences, especially on its leading resource Making the Case for Community Colleges - Tools for Communication Advocacy, a Google top-10 result for keyword "advocacy strategy". The agency also developed www.communitycollegecentral.org, a national hub for the dissemination of Bridges resources including Webinars, case studies, toolkits and Bridges to Opportunity for Underprepared Adults: A State Policy Guide for Community College Leaders. The project culminated with the creation Profiles of Opportunity, an online video series that highlighted stories of success from the states involved in the initiative. The videos continue to be a viral success, drawing thousands of visitors on YouTube.


Pathways to College Network
Reforming K-12 education policy and best practices to improve outcomes and facilitate access to higher education for underserved students is the goal of the Pathways to College Network. Beginning with advice on the organization's communications infrastructure, Douglas Gould and Company created a strategic communications plan to engage partners, raise visibility and promote the mission of college access and success. Other support included training national spokespeople, drafting new materials, restructuring Web communications, informing the development of the College Access Marketing Web site and a research-based framing and messaging brief.

Ford Foundation's Pathways to Higher Education Initiative
Providing opportunities to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities, through access to higher education, is a worldwide issue that we are proud to support. Douglas Gould and Company has created numerous materials designed to support the efforts of The Ford Foundation's Pathways to Higher Education initative to enable greater numbers of poor, minority, or otherwise under-represented students to obtain a university degree. These efforts to transform the practices of higher education institutions outside the United States include developing a Web site, www.pathwaystohighereducation.org that offers information on more than 50 universities, along with resources such as research, reports, books, news articles and presentations. Another important component of our messaging program was creating a brochure of case studies focused on five universities in Latin America and their efforts to include a wider student body. We continue to build on this work, developing and updating Web site content and writing new case study brochures to include universities in Asia and Africa.

We developed a brochure highlighting the Pathways to Higher Education Initiative, which is focused on increasing opportunities and access to indigenous groups and other disadvantaged populations. The brochure is a collection of case studies developed with program officers and freelance writers from around the world. It highlights the work of programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia that are working to address issues with access to higher education.

Community College Research Center
Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Douglas Gould and Companyworked to create communications tools for and enhance the visibility of CCRC, the nation's leading independent voice on community colleges. Ongoing media relations and the promotion of CCRC's award-winning book Defending the Equity Agenda resulted in placements in major trade and top-marketnational daily newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, Education Week, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Community College Week, as well as local television and radio outlets. Douglas Gould and Company also produced Podcasts, improved online communications products, wrote talking points and full length speeches and drafted and placed op-ed pieces.