FIVEtoFIFTY: Sandbox to Success

Cradle to Career Communication Plan

Skylar Workman
JOUR 456
 1

Table of Contents
2. The Current Situation

4. SWOT Analysis

7. Finding Our Audience

10. Key Messages

13. Implementing Ideas: Strategies, Tactics, and Measurement

 2

The Current Situation

Cradle to Career is an initiative that is focused on improving the community through
accessible opportunities and educational pursuits, put forth through a variety of different
leadership points throughout the area. The Collaborative Action Network (CANs) that Cradle to
Career encompasses is comprised of ten focused sections: Social Emotional Learning, Middle
Grade Math, Postsecondary Success, Social Emotional Learning, Health, Third Grade Reading,
High School Graduation, Career Employment, Family and Community Engagement, and Wrap
Around Supports. This teamwork structure represents the diversity of assistance available for
Muncie students, enabling them to succeed “from cradle to career.” Cradle to Career’s long-term
goal is to set children on a pathway out of poverty in order to support the sustainability of
Muncie families and the Muncie community. They collaborate with community organizations
within the CANs, working together for the prosperity of children, families, and the community.
This strong mission is what gives the most strength to the Cradle to Career program. The
goal of the program is one that almost everyone would agree is an important one. The Muncie
community has been in need of assistance for its students for a while, and it's important to start
tackling these big issues as soon as possible. Cradle to Career has conducted and compiled
extensive research, giving them insight into the needs of the Muncie community and its students,
and what the program has to do to assist the community in meeting its needs and overcoming its
challenges. The program is also modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which was a similar
successful program that can help Cradle to Career come up with more creative ideas and see
what has and has not worked for similar organizations in the past. It can use what it finds to tailor
a specific approach for Muncie and its students.
One of the main issues that Cradle to Career faces is its limited presence within the
community. Both the community as a whole and the program’s main target audience have low
levels of awareness of the program. The program currently has limited access to families who are
not involved with community organizations, such as the Boys & Girls Club or other
organizations involved in the program’s CANs. This means the program is not reaching those
who could benefit most from the program. It also may be harder for the program to reach this
target audience, since they have a lack of access to the internet and mobile devices, much more
than other parts of the community. The program will have to focus on reaching this audience in
ways other than through online media.
Some of Cradle to Career’s competitors include the YMCA of Muncie and the Heart of
Indiana United Way. YMCA provides childcare after school and during the day, holds activities
for both children and adults and has memberships and employment opportunities. Similar to
Cradle to Career, United Way fights for health, financial stability, and education for everyone in
the community. Unlike Cradle to Career, however, United Way covers Madison, Delaware,
Henry, Randolph, and Fayette counties. Their mission is: “To improve the quality of life in our
community by engaging people and organizations to advance education, income and health
outcomes for all.” This is very similar to Cradle to Career’s mission, which could be a positive or
negative thing for Cradle to Career. On the positive side, the programs could help each other
 3

make Muncie better. On the negative side, they could also potentially get in the way of each
other and their efforts. Since United Way is a much larger organization and is much more
well-known throughout the Muncie community, if one of the programs would be negatively
affected, it would be Cradle to Career. Since Cradle to Career has a much more narrow focus,
however, the two organizations might not affect each other that much.
 4

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:
● Strat comm professionals and
students involved (Mutually
beneficial partnership with BSUs)
● Lots of support through CAN
members / partnerships
● Authenticity of mission
● Inclusivity of program
● Strong mission awareness
● Long-term plan to continue support
● Community doesn’t have
preconceived perceptions of C2C
● Extensive research
● Measurable baseline for success and
progress
● Modelled after successful program
(Harlem Children’s Zone)
Opportunities:
● Collaborations with community
leaders and local companies
● Community willingness to
participate
● Opportunities to build an online
presence
● News media opportunities
● More grant opportunities
Weaknesses:
● Building grassroots awareness
● Lack of internal/external
communications
● Poor/weak messaging to the
community
● Inability to communicate with target
audiences
● Lack of internal communications
with CANs regarding necessary
information
● Unclear intentions for collaborations
with and expectations for CANs
● Low online / social media presence
● Lack of info on the website
● No baseline data
Threats:
● Weak connection to the community
● Potential lack of community
participation
● Parents/guardians might not want to
get involved
● Communication efforts may perform
poorly with target audience
● Lack of funding opportunities
● Lack of funding in promise
neighborhoods
● Inaccessibility / lack of access to
internet and mobile devices
● Potential lack of progress due to
length of program

After finding Cradle to Career’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it’s
clear that, while the program has many strengths and opportunities, it also has quite a few
weaknesses and threats that it needs to overcome. One of the program’s main strengths is that it
has support from organizations within the community. It’s supported by its Collaborative Action
Network (CANs) partnerships and its partnership with Ball State University. The program’s
 5

mission itself is another big strength, as it's authentic and inclusive, and most people would agree
that it’s an important mission. C2C also has a strong awareness of what its mission is and exactly
what it means to achieve, with a long-term plan to continue support for Muncie and its students
in the future. The Muncie community is also not knowledgeable about or more often not aware
of C2C and its mission, which can help the program as community members don’t have
preconceived perceptions of the C2C program, which can therefore allow for C2C to control the
way it’s initially presented to those in the community.
C2C has also compiled and conducted extensive research on Muncie students, the
Muncie community, and how those compare to other communities across the state and the
country. Because of this, C2C also has a measurable baseline for the success and progress of the
program. This can help C2C track where it’s at and how it’s impacting the community. Lastly,
the Cradle to Career program was also modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which was a
similar successful program. C2C can see what did and did not work for the Harlem Children’s
Zone when deciding how to implement parts of the program or how to reach certain target
audiences.
Along with C2C’s strengths, the program also has many weaknesses. Its main weakness
revolves around its communication, both internally and externally. The program is largely
unknown within the Muncie community due to its lack of communication with the community
and its inability to communicate with its target audiences. It also seems to lack internal
communication with CANs, such as Ball State, even when regarding information that could be
considered crucial to the campaign. There also seems to be unclear intentions for collaborations
with and expectations for CANs, as C2C fails to communicate those things.
C2C is also building grassroots awareness, which can be a positive thing, as it was also
mentioned as a strength, but can also be considered a weakness because of the lack of awareness
the community has of the program and its mission. Alongside this, C2C has a very low online
and social media presence. Its website is not built for the community or its main target audiences,
is unnecessarily wordy and confusing, and lacks important information. Overall, it’s somewhat
hard to find when searching for it online, as it comes up second when searching “Cradle to
Career” on Google. Lastly, the program has no baseline data to measure the levels of awareness
that the community has of C2C.
The program also has some opportunities to take advantage of in the future. This includes
more collaborations with community leaders and local companies and organizations. As the
community becomes more aware of the program, C2C should be able to build relationships with
more of the community than it has already. There is also a community willingness to participate
in programs that better the community and its students, as shown by other programs. C2C will
also have opportunities to build its online presence and will have more media and grant
opportunities in the future as well.
Threats to C2C include a potential lack of community participation. Whereas it’s been
shown that the community as a whole is willing to participate in similar programs, getting the
target audience to participate in the program is what will be hard for C2C. Parents and guardians
 6

might not have time to or simply might not want to participate in the program, and
communication efforts may perform poorly with the target audience. There is also a lack of
funding in Promise Neighborhoods, which may affect C2C’s program, and those in Promise
Neighborhoods disproportionately do not have access to the Internet or mobile devices, limiting
the ways in which C2C can reach them. Lastly, there could be a potential lack of progress due to
the length of the program. Since it would most likely take an entire generation to see the full
effects of the program, the community might decide it isn’t worth it anymore and stop
participating in or supporting the program.
 7

Finding Our Audience

According to Cradle to Career’s Communications Plan, its key audiences are broken
down into four categories: families and students, community leadership, CAN leaders and CAN
members, and unconventional stakeholders. The target audiences that C2C needs to focus on
encompass students and their families, community leaders, and other community members.
C2C is specifically targeting residents of Muncie’s Promise Neighborhoods. It needs to
target both children and parents/guardians in those communities. The first target audience from
this category is parents. Most children under the poverty line live in single-parent homes, and in
lower-income communities across the country, a large portion of households with children are
comprised of single moms. These single moms are high school graduates who are generally 25 to
34 years old and work more than one job to support themselves and their children. She tends to
keep busy with work and therefore has less time for hobbies and other interests. She primarily
gets her news and information through word-of-mouth. She is important to target as she needs to
be an active participant in her children’s educational journey in the C2C program.
Another similar target audience for C2C to focus on is the grandparents of children in
Promise Neighborhoods. Many children either live with a grandparent or are cared for by a
grandparent. These grandparents are retired and live off Social Security and possibly public
assistance, such as food or housing assistance. They are involved in their church and other
similar community groups. They primarily get their news and information through more
traditional media, especially newspapers and local television news. They have more free time
than the single mom target audience since they don’t work. Therefore, they have more time to
spend with their grandchildren which can be a vital part of their grandchildren’s educational
journey in the C2C program.
The next target audience that C2C needs to focus on is the children who can benefit from
the program. Since the program starts at kindergarten readiness, C2C should focus on children
ages 3 to 4 years old. These children aren’t attending preschool, and therefore might already be
falling behind other children their age in regard to their education. Their hobbies and activities
include coloring or other arts and crafts, playing with toys such as building blocks or trucks, and
playing outside. They tend to have few adults they trust, such as a parent, grandparent, older
sibling, or another parental figure in their life. They might put more trust in their favorite
character or TV figure. C2C can reach them through advertising on TV during certain programs
or free social events featuring popular children’s characters.
Another target audience is community leaders. This would be the pastor of the local
Christian church. He is 55 to 65 years old and is a large part of his community, where he is a very
influential figure. People listen to the things he says and considers them to be important. He
values family and community. A big part of his life involves helping and giving back to the
people of his church and the people around him. He has a bachelor’s degree, makes a modest
income, and lives in housing provided by his church. He primarily gets his news from
word-of-mouth and traditional media, such as TV or newspapers.
 8

The last target audience for C2C is other community members. This could be an older
woman, older than 70 years old, who wants to find a way to give back to her community with the
money that she has. She has little to no close family to leave her money to, so she wants to find
an organization she can support instead. She is not college-educated but instead has the money
left by her deceased husband. She is retired and has a lot of free time, which she spends watching
TV, participating in social activities with friends and other members of the community, and
partaking in niche hobbies such as cross-stitching or quilting. She primarily gets her news and
information from word-of-mouth at social outings but also gets some news from traditional
media, such as TV and newspapers.
Overall, Cradle to Career has many target audiences it can focus on. One thing that many
of these audiences have in common is their reliance on word-of-mouth. Since these target
audiences tend to be reached most easily in more traditional ways, C2C does not have to focus as
much energy on social media and online advertising to reach these audiences. Whether focusing
on word-of-mouth, TV, or newspapers, which are all ways many of its target audiences get their
news, C2C can move forward and begin to target these audiences in the ways they can more
easily be reached.

Name Target Group Demographics More Description

Sarah Parents Age: 25-34 ● Single mom
(Students/Families) Education: High ● Busy with work; less
School time for hobbies and
Job: 2+ other interests
Income Level: low ● Gets most news/info
through word-of-mouth
Connie Grandparents Age: 65-70 ● Involved with church
(Students/Families) Education: High ● Gets news/info through
School newspapers and local
Job: Retired TV news
Income Level: low ● Have more free time to
(Social Security/public spend with
assistance) grandchildren
Gavin Children Age: 3-4 ● Trust few adults; trust
(Students/Families) Education: No TV characters/figures
preschool ● Can be reached through
Hobbies: coloring/arts TV ads/free social
and crafts, toys events
(building
blocks/trucks), playing
outside
 9

Daniel Community Leaders Age: 55-65 ● Large part of his

Education: Bachelor’s community; very
Degree influential figure
Job: Local Pastor ● Values family and
Income Level: community
lower-middle ● Likes helping
people/giving back
● Gets news from
word-of-mouth and
traditional media
(TV/newspapers)
Glenda Other Community Age: 70+ ● Little to no close family
Members Education: High ● Wants to give back to
School her community
Job: Retired ● Has money left from
Income Level: her deceased husband
upper-middle ● A lot of free time: TV,
social activities, niche
hobbies
● Gets news/info from
word-of-mouth, TV,
and newspapers
 10

Key Messages

Target Audience: Parents of children in Promise Neighborhoods

Key Messages:
1. Education is now more critical than ever.
a. “As of 2020, 65% of all jobs in the United States require a postsecondary
education or credential.” (C2C website)
b. “Americans who lack a high school diploma have the highest rates of
unemployment (12.4%) and the lowest median weekly earnings ($477 per
week).” (VCU Center on Society and Health)
2. Parental support is important for student success.
a. “Students with involved parents have a 98% average school attendance
rate, which contributes significantly to academic achievement.” (Positive
Action)
b. “95% of students with actively involved parents have better mental and
physical well-being, providing them with a good foundation to excel
academically.” (Positive Action)
3. Muncie needs to catch up in education and income levels.
a. Muncie’s median annual income ($45,910) is not a living wage for any
family composition where children are involved. (C2C website)
b. Indiana ranks 43rd in the US when it comes to the percentage of people
with Bachelor’s Degrees. (NAEP)

Target Audience: Grandparents of children in Promise Neighborhoods

Key Messages:
4. Education is now more critical than ever.
a. “As of 2020, 65% of all jobs in the United States require a postsecondary
education or credential.” (C2C website)
b. “Americans who lack a high school diploma have the highest rates of
unemployment (12.4%) and the lowest median weekly earnings ($477 per
week).” (VCU Center on Society and Health)
5. Grandparents can have a big, positive impact on children’s lives.
a. When lacking positive adult role models, grandparents can serve as a
constant, reliable presence for children.
b. Since grandparents tend to have more free time, they can spend more time
with their grandchildren, helping with school, etc.
6. Student success is a team effort.
a. “Nearly 87% of children’s time is spent out of school and mainly at home
(NAESP)”, showing that students need support from more than just their
teachers.
 11

b. If students feel like the people around them take their schooling seriously,
they too will begin to take it more seriously.

Target Audience: Students (Middle/High School) in Promise Neighborhoods

Key Messages:
7. Higher education is now more important than ever.
a. “As of 2020, 65% of all jobs in the United States require a postsecondary
education or credential.” (C2C website)
b. “Today’s competitive job market continues to prioritize candidates with
additional education post-high school, with 99% of the jobs since 2010
going to employees with at least some postsecondary education.” (IDOE)
8. High school diplomas (or equivalents) are essential in today’s world.
a. “Americans who lack a high school diploma have the highest rates of
unemployment (12.4%) and the lowest median weekly earnings ($477 per
week).” (VCU Center on Society and Health)
b. “Whether a student is seeking enrollment, employment, or enlistment
leading to service, obtaining a high school diploma is an essential first
step.” (IDOE)
9. Every community member plays a role in the success of Muncie’s children, and
Muncie itself.
a. “Children grow emotionally, intellectually, and physically through both
their relationships and their community.” (Children’s Bureau of Southern
California)
b. “The more supportive communities children are a part of, the more aware
they become of our interconnected world.” (Center for Children and
Youth)

Target Audience: Community Leaders (Local Pastor)

Key Messages:
10. Muncie needs to catch up in education and income levels.
a. Muncie’s median annual income ($45,910) is not a living wage for any
family composition where children are involved. (C2C website)
b. Indiana ranks 43rd in the US when it comes to the percentage of people
with Bachelor’s Degrees. (NAEP)
11. Student success is a team effort.
a. “Nearly 87% of children’s time is spent out of school and mainly at home
(NAESP)”, showing that students need support from more than just their
teachers.
b. If students feel like the people around them take their schooling seriously,
they too will begin to take it more seriously.
 12

12. We are building opportunities for Muncie’s youth.

a. Local pastors often connect children to appropriate small groups, Bible
studies, Sunday School classes, and other educational and learning
opportunities.
b. Local pastors can serve as or connect children to role models and mentors.

Target Audience: Other Community Members (Not in Promise Neighborhoods)

Key Messages:
13. Muncie needs to catch up in education and income levels.
a. Muncie’s median annual income ($45,910) is not a living wage for any
family composition where children are involved. (C2C website)
b. Indiana ranks 43rd in the US when it comes to the percentage of people
with Bachelor’s Degrees. (NAEP)
14. Student success is a team effort.
a. “Nearly 87% of children’s time is spent out of school and mainly at home
(NAESP)”, showing that students need support from more than just their
teachers.
b. If students feel like the people around them take their schooling seriously,
they too will begin to take it more seriously.
15. Every community member, regardless of whether or not they have children, plays
a role in the success of Muncie’s children, and Muncie itself.
a. “Children grow emotionally, intellectually, and physically through both
their relationships and their community.” (Children’s Bureau of Southern
California)
b. “The more supportive communities children are a part of, the more aware
they become of our interconnected world.” (Center for Children and
Youth)
 13

Implementing Ideas: Strategies, Tactics, and Measurement

Hypothetical Campaign Length: June-August 2024

Goal: Raise awareness of C2C with target audiences and overall community, by increasing
word-of-mouth by 25% by August 2024.
● Strategy: Integrated communications campaign
○ Tactic: Traditional media campaign
■ Local TV, local newspaper, local radio, OOH (billboards, bus stops)
■ Measurement: 1 major local TV spot, 5 local newspaper clips, 3 local
radio appearances, and 1 billboard.
○ Tactic: Social/online media ad campaign
■ Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, website display ads
■ Measurement: 1,000 impressions + 500 clicks.
○ Tactic: Email/direct mail campaign
■ Brochures/postcards distributed to main target audiences
■ Digital flyers emailed to potential donors and clergy
■ Measurement: 100 clicks.
○ Tactic: Doorknock campaign
■ Brochures/postcards distributed to main target audience
■ Going door-to-door in Promise Neighborhoods
■ Measurement: Reach 100 people face-to-face + Distribute 250 pieces of
collateral.

Goal: Improve communication between C2C and its audience, by increasing its Facebook
follower count by 25% by August 2024.
● Strategy: Active social media communication
○ Tactic: Create and post social media posts
■ Simple infographics, posters
■ Measurement: 10 digital infographics/posters created.
○ Tactic: Actively engage with audience by replying to comments, commenting on
others’ posts, and sharing others’ posts
■ Measurement: 3 posts weekly + 1,000 weekly account impressions.

Goal: Increase participation in the C2C program by 100 students in the 2024-2025 school year.
● Strategy: Host free fun events for children and community
○ Tactic: Free after-school tutoring/childcare for students K-12
■ Measurement: 20 children participating in the program weekly.
○ Tactic: Weekend lunches with educational games and free food
■ Measurement: 50 adults/children attending weekly.
● Strategy: Participate in community events
 14

○ Tactics: Booths at the Delaware County Fair, MCS open houses/games/other

events, job fairs, etc.
■ Measurement: 3 events attended with booths + 500 pieces of collateral
distributed.