Head Start of Lane

County
Creative Brief

2016

History/Overview/Big Picture of
Head Start

The Head Start organization as a whole began as an eight-week summer program in 1965, and
was introduced in order to help break the cycle of poverty by providing a program to meet their
emotional, social, health, nutritional, and psychological needs. It was originally handled by the
Office of Economic Opportunity, but was later transferred to the Office of Child Development.
Head Start of Lane County provides pre-k education, along with social and cultural developments
to children and families in the local area. Children are introduced to the basic ideas of words, letters, and numbers in the classroom. Playtime, both indoor and outdoor, is provided for the promotion of physical health and social learning. On top of these things, Head Start of Lane County also
provides on-site dental, hearing, vision, and nutrition screenings and education in its programs.
Head Start exists to prepare children and their families for primary education and life itself. They
seek to give children the skills and knowledge to become successful students and people, and primarily aim to help children who may not have those opportunities otherwise. By providing introductions to education, healthcare, socialization, and mental health, Head Start aims to ensure the
success of its participants in the future.

Social Media Audit

Head Start only participates in Facebook. Their timeline is sparsely populated and a large majority of the posts are promotions or information about events that the program is involved with. There
are a few images and videos on their Facebook page, but they provide almost nothing in terms
of information or promotion: One was a video of a woman writing on a whiteboard, and another
was of the aftermath of a large rainstorm. Both videos are dated. They also have a YouTube channel, but it only contains one video and no subscribers.
There were 4 posts in the last month, all of which were promotional. The first post was encouraging
parents to enroll in Head Start; the other 3 were recruiting messages for a clean-up project that
Head Start was involved in.

Value Proposition
Head Start is as a non-profit organization that provides the opportunity of education and childcare
to children from low-income families. Head Start also gives both children and parents care to help
them create better relationships.

Observation and Insight

Insight: Head Start is a long-standing organization built on family values and morals. Although it
is primarily known as a preschool or daycare system, Head Start wants to be known as a family-strengthening organization with many programs and services (SEEKERS, etc). These services aim
to provide low-income families with the skills and tools necessary to provide for their children and
increase their standard of living.
Question: What programs (beyond SEEKERS) does Head Start provide to adults in order to enrich
their lives, and how do we shift the view of Head Start from a preschool to a family-support organization?

Positioning Map
Research of other preschools in the Eugene
area proved that Head Start is extremely
competitive with one of the most expensive
preschools in Lane County, Oak Street Development Center, which costs over $700 a
month for their four-day program. We also
compared Head Start to three other preschools, Eugene Sudbury School, St. Paul
Parish School, and Big Little School. Those
schools all ranged around $250 a month
for their four day program, and Head Start
had more programs and services than those
preschools.

Problem Statement
Head Start is asking us to help them improve their awareness to low-income families who possibly
need their services, find volunteers to help with their classes, get more donors in order to enhance
their facilities, and increase interest of parents to engage more with their children who are in the
Head Start program.

SWOT Analysis

Messages
Donor Message: A good job and a stable financial life are not easy to achieve especially for
children who grow up poor, and Head Start wants to give those children the opportunity to reach
their full potential by giving them the educational tools they need but cannot afford.
Volunteer Message: Head Start provides children from low-income families access to the education
they deserve, and they are always in need of volunteers to help them change the lives of more
underprivileged kids in Lane County.

Audience Profiles

Our target audience is middle-aged mothers and fathers (~30-50 y/o) who have an average annual salary of $60,000+ per household. A perfect candidate would be a parent with strong, traditional family values. These people could be reached primarily through social media (Facebook,
LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc) and television/radio advertisements.

Customer Personas
Our first hypothetical persona is a Mark Smith, a potential donor. Smith is a 35-year-old software
engineer with an average annual income of roughly $60,000. He lives with his wife and two
young children, and is very involved in his community and his childrens extracurriculars. He may
be persuaded to donate to Head Start by appealing to his family-man side, and showing him
that donating is a great way to give back to the community he is currently raising his children in.
Our second hypothetical persona is Cheryl Monroe, a potential volunteer. Cheryl is a 50-year-old
retired middle school teacher. She lives with her husband and has two independent adult children.
Cheryl is growing restless in her retirement and sees volunteering at her local Head Start as a way
to get involved with school-aged children again, which in turn gives her a sense of accomplishment
and joy.

Works Cited
Eugene Sudbury School. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2016, from
http://eugenesudburyschool.org/
Head Start of Lane County. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2016, from
https://www.hsolc.org/
Oak Street Child Development Center. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22,
2016, from http://www.oakstcdc.com/
Saint Paul Parish School.Friday, April 22. (n.d.). Retrieved April
22, 2016, from http://www.saintpaul-school.org/