A key first step in implementing your district arts plan is to establish guidelines for communication and advocacy. Transparency, effective communication, and sustained advocacy are important ongoing aspects of the work over the long term, and will help to ensure the success of the district arts plan.

One valuable approach that has been used by districts in Santa Clara County to develop their communications and advocacy plans was adapted from the Spitfire Strategies Smart Chart 2.0 (http://www.spitfirestrategies.com/). Conducted as the final step in the annual action planning process, this step engages the Community Arts Team in the identification of audiences, values, messages, messengers, and advocacy tactics, the details of which are recorded into an Arts Program Communications Planning Chart. The chart may be enlarged to poster size for the purpose of group facilitation or — even more efficiently — may be projected from a laptop computer during the meeting and directly typed into by a designated team member.

Click here [Word Doc: 37KB] to access the Communications Planning Chart, which is provided in Microsoft Word format to facilitate adaptation to your needs.