North Shore CDC

Communication
Audit
By
Rafael Arlequin

Introduction:
The purpose of this audit is to identify the strength of communication in an already
successful business. The North Shore Community Development Coalition is an organization that
is currently committed to better the life of low income families from the areas of Peabody,
Beverly and Salem. Also, providing these communities with some diverse services that allow
residents in need to enjoy quality, affordable housing, while also providing other services to the
community, such as English classes, and immigration advice.
In order to fully understand the communication aspect of the North Shore CDC one must
understand their business objective, which is to infiltrate low income neighborhoods by
improving the lives of families who are in much needed assistance to low income neighborhoods
by offering affordable housing, and also improving the quality of the entire area.
Methodological Approach
According to Census.gov, the median gross rent in Salem, Mass. is $1,063. While the
percent of people in the poverty line in Salem is 15.5% indicating that the service that North
Shore CDC provides is a highly needed one. The equation that allows residents to qualify for
affordable housing, average median income (AMI), it can be found in their website and it clearly
explains that, affordable housing means that a home will be sold or rented out to households
that make no more than the area 80% of the area median income. The data provided by the
North Shore indicates that, its possible to categorize household incomes into moderate (80%
AMI), low (60% AMI) and very-low (30% AMI) categories.

The AMI makes it possible for the organization to set housing cost that allows low-income
households to not spend more than one-third of their income on housing.
Since the North Shore CDC is in the business of providing assistance for residents in
need here is a greater detail of their resident profile. As stated in their elegant website 34% of
their residents are single parents, while 85% percent of their resident households are Hispanic.
As stated above the information gathered came from highly reputable sources such as the
Census.org and the North Shore CDC site, which is the site where investors and future clients go
to gather there secondary data, making both sources highly reliable.
All this data is relevant to this communication audit because it delivers a clear
understanding of the clientele of the North Shore CDC. It also allows for future investor to
understand the formula that makes feature clients qualify for the benefits and opportunities that
this organization has to offer.
Audit Results
The excellent quality level of communication displayed by the North Shore CDC is a
clear indication that they have a high-level commitment to keep their clients informed and up-todate with featured activities; such as neighborhood events, new community services and
engagement opportunities that allow for the locality to grow stronger and united. Their brochure
contains an outstanding amount of valuable information and is easily accessible, as brochures are
located in the main office and around property locations. Furthermore, North Shore CDC does a
great job updating their e-news portal with highly informative articles that detail the success of
activities and also help create awareness of the program around the community surroundings. A
great example of this is their Polar Plunge Marks NINE Years of Service for Beverly

Volunteer. This articles details the great tradition that has been form around the Beverly and
Salem, where the article states that 500 individuals took the challenge of jumping into extremely
cold waters, in the name of raising money for the non-profit North Shore CDC. The article also
indicates that participants included residents, North Shore CDC workers, volunteers and
investors. Such information allow the public to understand that this is a close community and
that everyone is connected and committed to overall success of the neighborhoods involve.

Recommendations
Although the North Shore CDC pours great efforts to keep in contact with their current
clients, it appears that they have some area to improve when it comes down to attracting new
clientele; starting with the overall structure of their web page, site that is full of knowledgeable
and valuable information. Unfortunately, for people who arent internet savvy the North Shore
CDC site could represent a challenge because it lacks the simple tools that would allow future
client to contact CDC representative at a faster rate. Also, users that might have some questions
or concerns about the organization have no tools that would allow for them to summit their
sensitive questions in a written form, while representative could reply at their earliest
conveniences. Such mechanisms would provide the North Shore CDC with the capabilities to
track the concerns or questions of the people surfing their web page, make a correlation on topics
that needs to be explained or clarified depending on the amount of trend regularity in which the
questions come up.
As established during their representative visit to Salem State, the North Shore has to
collect data that allows them to fully understand their clients needs and wants once they are

already part of the system. Such capacity would allow for the North Shore to tackle any
inconveniences that might be on the raise before the fully develop.
Here are a set of recommendations that might be beneficial for the North Shore CDC
communication plans, such as incorporating a discreet and easily accessible messaging system
on their main page. Or linking their social media inboxes to their sites, and letting users know
that if they have any questions they can just simply click, type and send any questions they may
have regarding the North Shore CDC services or opportunities.
Implementing a suggestion box around the community and collecting data that allows
them to understand directly the needs and wants of their current clients. Also, by bringing this
issue to light to the people in the neighborhood meeting allowing them to see that North Shore
CDC hears you and cares.
Conclusion
The North Shore CDC appears to be an outstanding organization that has great pride in
their work and in their communities. By allowing future clients to become more familiar with the
main web-page and providing a method that will allow for them to have access to the
information they need without having to search extensively their web site could become a key
tool that may lead into new future clients or investors. Also, empowering people to deliver their
ideas, concerns and questions is a great way to gather information from the community that
eventually can help the institution to market activities that might interest members of the
neighborhood and create a greater engagement and unity that eventually could be transform in
positive publicity that could attract future clients and investors.

Works Cited
"American FactFinder - Results." American FactFinder - Results. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
<http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?
src=bkmk>.
"North Shore Community Development Coalition." North Shore Community Development
Coalition Polar Plunge Marks Nine Years of Service for Beverly Volunteer Comments.
Web. 13 Feb. 2015. <http://northshorecdc.org/?p=1904>.