Executive Director/Staff Report
March 2015
PUBLIC POLICY AND Communications
First 5 Association – Michelle Fadelli participated in a strategic communications session at the First 5 Association, as they work on plans for communications and messaging.
Breakfast – Mark your calendars for Friday, April 24th from 8:30 to 10 am for First 5 Marin’s Annual Policy Breakfast at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Rafael. Our guest speaker this year will be Kris Perry, the executive director of the First Five Years Fund in Washington DC (and the former executive director of First 5 California and also First 5 San Mateo County).
Government Relations – Amy and Michelle are scheduling meetings with the new county supervisor, Damon Connolly, and with the chief of staff to State Senator Mike McGuire (as a follow up to the recent meeting with the Senator in the State Capitol).
Our new chair, Sister Joan Hanna, will be presenting First 5 Marin’s Annual Report at the Board of Supervisors meeting on March 17th. (This will not be an agenda item or full presentation; just a few remarks during the public comment period and distribution of the report.)
[Please note: MarinKids will be making a formal presentation to the Board, presenting the 2014 Data & Action Guide, on Tuesday, March 31st at 10 am. Please plan to attend if you are able.]
Marin Communications Forum –
- February 26 – Strategic Communications. More than 60 people signed up for this workshop about drafting a strategic communications planning, messaging and campaigns. Jeff Gillenkirk from New Message Media presented, using his firm’s new anti-soda campaign (“Open Truth Now”) as the example.
-Follow up – Interest was so great that we scheduled a follow-up session on March 10th to review goals, messaging, outreach tools and campaigns as a group. The response is very positive. (Thanks to Veda Florez, who works with Marin County Elections, volunteered to prepare materials for this workshop.)
- March 26 – Crowdfunding. This workshop will give participants an overview of “crowdfunding” (soliciting online contributions for a project, event or item to be purchased), with an emphasis on use by government agencies, schools/school organizations and non-profits. Presenter Rodrigo Davies wrote about crowdfunding for the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and we are pleased to have him travelling to Marin to share his expertise. [Read his SSIR piece at ]
- Save-the-Dates – upcoming dates are: April 21 (MarinKids – statistics from the new 2014 Data & Action Guide to be presented by Kathy Tabor from MarinKids); May 28 (Using the Library as a Communications Resource); June 25 (Op-eds & letters to the editor , with IJ Editorial Editor Brad Breithaupt); and July 23 (Using Data to Tell Your Story, with jdcPartnerships)
Media – Michelle worked with Commissioner Dr. Lisa Leavitt on an op-ed related to vaccinations and personal belief exemptions; this piece was submitted to the Marinscope newspapers, scheduled for publication on May 18th. She is also working with Dr. Matt Willis, the Marin County Public Health Officer, to submit a new commentary piece on the new state legislation regarding vaccinations.
Month of the Young Child– Marjorie has been representing First 5 Marin at discussions around the Month of the Young Child (April 2015). First 5 Marin will have a booth at the April 12 kickoff event at the Bay Area Discovery Museum and at the April 18th closing event at the Northgate Mall. We will also participate in the Canal Neighborhood Early Literacy Fair on April 10th. We will offer new parent kits as a giveaway at each event.
New Parent Kits – Marjorie has been working hard to distribute our new parent kits. Over 450 kits have been distributed this fiscal year, with large distribution being done by the SF-Marin Food Bank, Venetia Valley School. (We have a lot of English and Spanish kits in the office; commissioners may contact if you’d like any for your office, partners or clients.)
Social Media – Michelle and Marjorie continue to share news and information on Facebook. The number of participants has grown rapidly, and the “reach” for our daily posts is expanding. Commissioners are invited to: like and share our posts, and to add comments. We need you!
- First 5 Marin – 981 likes (followers)
- MarinKids – 633 likes
- Marin Breastfeeding Coalition – 336 likes
- Marin Communications Forum – 189 likes
- Voces de Marin – 101 likes
Vaccinations – In addition to drafting an opinion editorial (see Media above), Michelle has been posting and sharing major news articles on the First 5 Marin Facebook page; the response has been strong. Several of these articles have also been posted on our website.
In addition, Michelle has connected with staff to Senator Pan (author of the bill regarding personal belief exemptions), and shared news and opinion-editorials from Marin County. She also provided referrals to people who can provide expert testimony on the bill.
Voces de Marin – Marjorie is working on the agenda for the next meeting of Voces de Marin on Thursday, March 19th. This workshop will focus on legislative advocacy at the school board, city, state and federal levels. She is convening some Latino/community leaders to help refine the agenda, with a focus on advocating for Latino issues to elected bodies and elected officials in Marin County.
Next session: Marjorie isworking with Paul Cohen at Legal Aid of Marin on a workshop about legal assistance for the Latino/Spanish speaking community in Marin; this event is scheduled for Monday, May 18th. We have asked Paul to provide examples of cases handled in different jurisdictions or in different issue areas—housing, employment, immigration etc.
[Voces de Marin meets bi-monthly at the Connection Center. For more information, email .]
Other Activities
Amy attended the United Way’s Rise Together convening, intended to explore the efforts currently underway in Marin to reduce the number of people living in poverty.
Amy also attended the San Fracnisco Foundations meeting introducing the new CEO and exploring the landscape of issues and opportunities in Marin that might be of interest to the Foundation.
Staff conitues to work with the First 5 Association and jdcPartnerships on the state-wide Systems Change convening scheduled for April 10th in Alameda. A primer and other materials are in their final stages and final recruitment will be done in March.
Converations and potential collaborative efforts with MCF around both HEAL efforts in Marin and 0-3 investments continue with staff from both organizations.
Meetings
Marin Strong Start Coalition
Marinkids Governance Committee
ECE Partnership Meeting
First 5 Association Advocacy Committee
CHI Transition Planning
Executive Director/Staff Report1