Tara+Dibble


 * Please post your project proposal below in the following format:**
 * Project Title
 * Project Description
 * Project Goals
 * Audience Description
 * Projected Timeline
 * Technology To Be Utilized
 * Projected Budget
 * Do you need Departmental or Administrator approval? If yes, please indicate the steps you have taken.

Proposal Deadline: October 3, 2013

__ Note __ : Projects should be carried out in a two-month period following the Proposal deadline. All projects should be completed by November 14, 2013.

//**A Modern Approach to Parent Communication in a Parish Faith Formation Program**//

__** Project Description: **__

St. Stephen Parish, located in Valrico, Florida, has over 1,100 children registered in its parish faith formation program. Four distinct class sessions occur for children in the K-5 program and two distinct class sessions occur for the middle school program. Over 175 catechists volunteer with our program. Providing parents and catechists with the most current information related to parish activities, their children's classes, and opportunities within the parish and Office of Faith Formation remains a challenge with paper flyers and monthly newsletters serving as the primary mode of communication.

In 2012 a texting program through Parish Data Systems (PDS) was implemented for emergency communications but for day-to-day information dissemination, paper flyers continue to be our primary means of communicating with our large parent population. Attempts to use email and mass communication programs such as Constant Contact are too dependent on the parish records accuracy. More than 40% of emails in our system are incorrect.

Limitations to a paper flyer method include the time it takes to create and distribute flyers, the children's ability to provide parents with flyers, the catechists' ability to pass out flyers timely given their other responsibilities, and the parents desire to read all information provided after a class session. In collaboration with the parish's middle school youth minister I will create a Facebook page that allows for quick dissemination of critical information as well as to provide parents, catechists, and interested parishioners a daily contact with our program through a minimum of one daily posting relevant to the age group we serve.

The creation of an online community for our Faith Formation families is an extension of our parish mission to grow a community of faith/family. St. Stephen's full Strategic Direction can be found here.

__**Goals**__:

Goals for implementing this Facebook program include:
 * Increase the reach of the Office of Faith Formation to include parents, catechists and volunteers, and interested parishioners
 * Decreased reliance on paper flyers as a means of providing parents and catechists communications from the Office of Faith Formation
 * Decreased cost of consumables such as paper and copier toner as well as postage

__**Audience**__:

Primary audience includes parents of children registered in the Faith Formation K-8 programs. Secondary audiences include catechists and volunteers, interested parishioners (for example, the Pastoral Council), and co-workers.

__**Timeline**__:

Week 1 & 2: research/review diocesan and parish policies; obtain permissions Week 3: set up page Week 4: launch page and promote vigorously Week 5+: provide daily updates to create following

__** Technology utilized: **__

Workplace PC Personal mobile phone Facebook Parish eBlast system (to assist with launch of page) via Constant Contact

__**Projected Budget:**__

No anticipated outlay of funds required, consumables already covered by Faith Formation budget

__**Approvals:**__ Facility supervisor - Office of Faith Formation is located in our parish school, St. Stephen School. Permission by principal to operate a Facebook page on the school's network was approved after consultation of IT supervisor.

IT Supervisor - currently Facebook is a blocked domain; IT supervisor provided solution to access page on select computers on the school's network

Director of Faith Formation - per diocese best practices the Director of Faith Formation has all necessary login and password information

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