Using TV To Get Your Message Across

Presented by Pat O'Brien and Chester Jackson, You Gotta Believe!
NYS Citizens' Coalition for Children, Inc.
13th Annual Statewide Adoption Training Conference
Adoption 2002: Linking Promises to Possibilities
May 10, 2002 • Albany, New York  

Workshop Outline

What YOU GOTTA BELIEVE Believes:

• AFAMILYISNOWHERE
• Every teen WANTS to belong somewhere
• Every teen requires at least one functioning adult upon whom they can rely unconditionally

Community Education, Community Recruitment: Two sides of the same coin

• Our belief system tells us that once people are educated to the need...
• They will help us recruit or be recruited
• Recruiting is EVERYONE'S job!

Pro-Active Recruitment Mindset: Means utilizing...

• Alternative non-traditional recruitment methods
• Every means of getting your message heard
• Thinking out of the box

How Did We Get Here? We believe in the power of sharing time and space

• Original assumptions no longer valid
• Teens present themselves best when they have nothing to lose
• Prospective families HEAR best when they have nothing to lose in the exchange

Television Statement

• Understanding that prospective families are ABSOLUTELY everywhere
• Key to success is maximizing your community exposure
• There is no more powerful medium
• Virtually complete freedom of content

Why Community Access?

• Cost effective
• Long range possibilities
• Opportunities as broad as your organization's initiative
• Television defines our world
  • Trends
    • Pet rocks
    • Cabbage Patch dolls
    • Pokemon cards
    • Barbie ad infinitum
  • Clothing
    • Bell bottoms
    • Elephant bells
    • Baggy jeans
    • Skin tight jeans
    • Designer jeans
  • Habits of daily living
    • Remembering the Marlboro Man
    • It's Miller Time
    • MADD
    • Nixon's perspiration in the 1960 debates
  • Limitless possibilities

How Do I Get On Cable TV? Call your local cable outlet

• Find out about requirements
• Determine who is best suited to handle equipment and technical aspects of project
• Studio vs. remote

Becoming A Certified Producer

• Register for an orientation
• Proof of identification
• Proof of residency
• Attend and complete Remote Editing or Television Studio workshop series
  • Remote Editing Workshop
    • Explores possibilities of remote production
    • Highlights main aspects of production, pre-production and post production
  • Main Studio/Mini Studio
    • Explores possibilities of in-studio production
    • Studio equipment
    • Lighting, sound, set design
    • Floor management
    • Directing

What Are The Drawbacks Of Do-It-Yourself TV?

• Studio vs. remote?
• What to do next?
• What images should/would you use?
• When does marketing become exploitation?

Making Cable Access Accessible: I just don't have the resources to commit to such an intensive endeavor

• Utilizing volunteers
• Incorporating pre/shooting time with what you are already doing
• Maximizing your production time 

6/14/02