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>> Hi. Thank you.
It's Treci Johnson here.
I am a VISTA Outreach Marketing and Recruitment Specialist,
and I'd like to welcome everyone to today's webinar for VISTA's
on Writing Powerful Impact Statements.
Before we begin, please look at your screen
and you will see we're asking you a couple of questions.
>> This poll is going to help us not only direct the
conversation, but understand who's participating today.
>> As always, we invite you to actively participate
in this session, so there are several ways that you can do so.
If you have questions, you can submit them at any time
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by using the chat feature found on the right side of the screen,
but I see so many of you have already found it
and shared great information about where you're serving
and what project you're serving with so...
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This webinar is going to be recorded and will be available
on the Webinars for VISTA's page located on the campus,
and the slides for this presentation will be sent to you
in a follow up email along with additional resources
that we're going to discuss today.
Assisting me today will be Robin and Suzanne, and we're all here
to help you during today's session and to make sure
that your questions get answered.
Now, it's my pleasure to introduce today's presenters,
two of my colleagues from the state offices, Mary and James.
>> Mary Rolle: Thank you, Tracy, for that introduction.
Hello everybody and welcome to this webinar on Impact Stories.
Today, James and I will be talking about how to write
and share an impactful story about the work
that you're doing, but before we start with the agenda,
we'd like to take a minute to introduce ourselves
and talk a little bit about our background in national service.
My name is Mary Rolle and I work with the corporation
in the Texas Aid office in Austin,
and here at the state office, I work with VISTA
and senior corp projects across the state.
I've been working with the state office for a little
over a year now, so I'm still fairly new to the corporation.
As far as my national service background,
I was a Peace Corp volunteer from 2004 to 2006
in the Dominican Republic, and as a Peace Corp volunteer,
I did capacity building work
with women's groups along the Dominican/Haitian border.
And here in Austin, in 2010, I also served part-time
as AmeriCorps member while I was in graduate school,
and as an AmeriCorps member, I worked with Goodwill Industries
of central Texas, doing direct service work, and specifically,
I did financial literacy counseling
with community members here in Austin, Texas.
So with that said, James,
do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself?
>> James Griffin: Yeah, thanks Mary.
My name is James Griffin, State Program Specialist here
in Phoenix, Arizona, and similar to Mary,
run the senior corp program and the VISTA program
around the State of Arizona.
I got started with my national service straight out of college,
straight out of undergrad.
I did a AmeriCorps program called AmeriCorps
and Triple C. Some of you may have heard of it.
Travelled around the country doing different projects,
so I was -- had projects in California and Alabama,
in Louisiana, and then lastly, in Arizona, focusing mainly
on disaster relief and environmental projects,
which is what N Triple C teams tend to do.
After that I did another year of national service
with Student Conservation Corp in Florida
on a Wildman fire crew, and then yeah,
I've worked with a small non-profit
in Boston before joining the corporation just
about a year now, last January -- or I guess this January.
So yeah, so a little bit about me.
But yeah, moving on into what we're going to talk
about today with the agenda.
We're going to first just start off what is an impact story.
Several of you probably don't know what we're talking about,
so to get everyone on the same page around that,
and then what questions are answered in these stories
and why are these impact stories so important to us
and why we ask you to write them,
and when you're writing them, who is the audience
that you should be focusing for these stories and how we,
as the corporation use these stories
and how you can use them, as well.
And then we'll finish up with the different types
of impact stories.
There's three different categories.
And then we'll finish up with a couple examples of our own
and then as well as getting some
of your VISTA colleagues involved with their examples.
So first off, just to get everyone on the same page,
just wanted to give a short summary
of what an impact story is.
It's simply just a story
that shows how your work has made an impact in your community
through the different projects you're involved in.
It's a very, very brief statement.
It's not a two page you know, essay that you may have written
in college or something.
It's a very brief, nothing more than a paragraph, nothing more
than four or five sentences long that summarizes your --
a project that you may have been involved in or an event
that you were involved in as a VISTA.
So with that said, we just felt it would be helpful
to maybe break down the word impact and give meaning
for each of the letters.
So I is for informs.
Your story should provide information to those
in your organization, those in your community and state,
as well as a number of other people
about what your specific project is doing
to have an impact in the community.
M is for measures.
Your story should illustrate the results your project is having
by talking about the measures
of impact the project has on the community.
The P is for personalizes.
Your story should connect the audience with the outcome.
Make them want to care or relate to the people
that you are affecting with impact
by personalizing the story for the readers of the story.
A is for activates.
Your story tells an impactful story that leads the reader
to take some sort of action, whether it's you know,
for them to join national service themselves
or to volunteer in their community
to share the impact story with people in their network,
or you know, to raise funds and donate
to maybe your specific organization.
Whatever it be, a great impact story will activate people
to take action.
C is to cultivate.
Your story can open the door to new partnerships
with other organizations or elected officials, for example,
and this can lead to more sustainability
for your project once you're gone.
This cultivation leads to the project continuing.
And lastly, the T is for teaches.
Your story should teach others
about the great work you are doing in your community
and it allows us, as the corporation, to tell your story
and pass it on to other elected officials.
So that's a little bit of a brief summary.
I'll pass it on to Mary to go over the key questions
that your impact story should answer.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah, thanks James.
So now that we've learned about the basics of an impact story
and we've answered the question of what do we mean
when we say impact story, let's talk a little bit now
about the specifics about what exactly you're going
to include in your story.
And the reality is that when you think about all the work
that you're doing and its impacts,
that you probably could write pages,
and you really may not even cover everything
that you're doing, so it really can be a challenge to break
down what you're doing and narrow it down so
that you can concretely communicate your work
and its results in only four to five sentences.
It's like an elevator speech for your VISTA work, but in writing.
Another aside I should also add
that no two impact stories are alike.
While we're presenting here are pretty formulated structure
for writing impact stories, impact stories
by their very nature are really individual, so along the way,
you may find that you may not be able to answer all
of these questions, and you may not be able
to address a specific point, and that's okay.
What we're trying to convey here are some first steps
for thinking about what information your impact story
may have.
So in general, impact stories answer these questions.
One, where does the story take place?
Set the stage.
Two, what issue is it that you're working on?
What's the need statement for your story?
Three, who is involved in your story?
Who are your partners?
And four, how did you do it?
And five, of course, what were the results?
So next we're going to go through these questions one
by one and break them down a little bit.
Okay, so the first one is where.
Where does your story take place?
And this is the opportunity to set the stage.
Tell us about the setting that you're working in.
Some things that you can include,
or that you should include, your name,
the name of the VISTA member working on the project.
If it's more than three members working on a single project,
it may be best to just say the VISTA members at Habitat
for Humanity or for example, the VISTA members at Meals
on Wheels, rather than writing out the names
of all ten VISTA members that worked on that project.
But if we're talking about one or two members working
on a project, then you can list out the names
of those specific individuals.
You should also include of course,
the name of the organization that you're working at.
And also, we want to know the name of the city and the state
where you're working, and if it's a rural area,
you should provide some description in addition
to the name of the city and the state
so that people can know what we're talking about.
For example, here in Texas, if you're working in Lufkin, Texas,
many people may not know where Lufkin is, so it would be good
to add some description around that; for example,
the VISTA member is working at Habitat for Humanity in Lufkin,
Texas, a small city in east Texas, and then you can go
on to tell your story.
But that way, the readers will know it is
that the story takes place.
And also include, if it's applicable,
the name of the event where the impact happened.
Let's look at the next question.
What is the issue area?
This is where we need to discuss the community need
or needs being addressed.
What is the need statement for your impact?
Why is it that you're doing the work that you're doing?
And because we're talking about VISTA here,
the ultimate goal is to alleviate poverty.
So the core of it becomes
in what area you're working to combat poverty.
And here at the corporation, we have six focus areas
that we work in, and these focus areas are disaster services,
economic opportunity, education, environmental stewardship,
healthy futures, and finally, veterans and military families,
and these focus areas are the areas in which VISTA's work.
So in general, your needs statement will align probably
with one of these focus areas.
Are you building, for example,
capacity for an organization that's working
with homeless veterans?
Or maybe you're working in an organization that works
with at-risk children in a school,
or maybe providing financial literacy counseling to adults.
And so these are the community needs
that are being addressed by your work.
This is what is answering the what is your issue question.
So let's look at our next question, the who question.
Who is involved?
Who are you working with?
Who are your partners?
Some potential partners that we thought
of along the way are partnerships
with other national service programs; AmeriCorps state
and national members, N Triple C members or senior corp programs
that may be working in your area and may have worked
with you on this story.
Or maybe you're working with other public
or non-profit agencies.
And of course, what about funders?
If we're talking about fund raising, who is the public
or philanthropic agency that's granting you the funds?
And this is important information
to note in your impact story.
Also, let us know if there's any high profile people
that were involved, city or state officials
who attended the event.
Did your work get noticed by high profile people?
Let us know about that.
And also tell us who was affected by the impact.
Who were your clients?
Tell us a little bit about who is impacted
by the work that you're doing.
Are we talking for example, about veterans, older adults,
kids, the environment, etc?
And finally, was there a prominent news service
that covered the event?
These are all things that contribute to your impact.
Okay, finally, how are you addressing the problem?
And this is where we get to point --
to the point about the work that you're actually doing,
and this is your chance to brag.
Don't be modest.
A lot of times, we want to hide behind our accomplishments,
but this is really the chance for you to tell us what it is
that you're doing that is creating all these
great impacts.
So what are the kinds of things that you might be doing?
Well, for instance, VISTA will be talking
about capacity building work, and so what type
of capacity building work resulted in the impact?
Some common capacity building activities that we came up with;
fundraising, in-kind, or monetary donations.
They both count towards that of course.
Grant writing, recruiting or training volunteers,
designing new programs.
And these are just some of the ways in which VISTA's
across the country engage in capacity building work
that really results in those impacts
that we're talking about.
Okay, so our final question;
what are the results of your effort?
This is the, what is the impact of your capacity building work,
and this is the chance to show off your success.
Numbers, numbers, numbers; please use all of the data
that you may be collecting.
Use your current reporting and data collection systems.
Look to monthly and quarterly reports,
reports that you may be submitting to us here
at the corporation or to other funders for information
on clients served, new programs generated, that type of stuff.
And so what kind of numbers are we thinking about?
For example, amount of money raised.
Again, include those in-kind donations too.
But along with the money, think about the impact.
What is the ultimate result?
So let's say okay, you raised $1,000,
and what is the impact of this money raised?
What will the money be used for?
Will there be, for example, additional number
of meals served; or for example, additional number
of individuals receiving case management services?
Keep thinking through these things
about the ultimate results
and the ultimate impact of your work.
Or for example, tell us the number of volunteers recruited.
And again, think about the results
of these volunteers recruited.
What will these volunteers be doing?
Will there be an additional number
of children mentored by these volunteers?
These are all the ultimate impacts of the great work
that you guys are doing around the country.
So in addition to the numbers, also consider using quotes
from clients served or volunteers
in your impact stories.
As long as they're short quotes,
sometimes these quotes can be really powerful
and give a really good personal voice to your impact.
So while your work may seem simple of the surface,
it's when we really dig down into the impacts
that you can clearly and concisely of course,
state what the impact of your work is.
You didn't just write a grant.
You wrote a grant that brought $1,000 to an organization,
which allowed them to serve 50 more children.
Your work brings results, and it's really being able to talk
about these results that's important.
So I'm going on -- turn it over to James here
to talk a little bit about writing these impact stories.
>> James Griffin: All right.
So now that you know a little bit more about impact stories,
and specifically, the questions that need to be answered
in those stories, we thought it'd be helpful to go
over a couple quick tips
about writing an effective impact story.
First off, it's very, very important to start with the idea
that whoever is reading the story knows absolutely nothing
about your project, your agency, or your community,
and it is your job to inform them of the great work
that your project is doing in the community.
Next, it's also very important to set the stage, as Mary said,
by providing a quick overview of the issue area
that you're addressing with your project as well
as the community that's impacting,
or that you're having an impact in.
Also, make the story interesting by using active action words
and descriptive words to make the reader want to continue
to read and pass the story on to others.
It's also extremely important to talk about the different --
as Mary said, the number, numbers, numbers that you know,
the numbers of volunteers you recruited, the hundreds
or thousands of dollars that your fundraiser raised.
You know, use those numbers to brag about the results
that you're having in your community.
Next up, it's also really important not to use acronyms.
Every agency, you know, the corporation included,
we use acronyms all the time.
You know, we have our own little jargon, our own language,
but it's very important to avoid using them because going back
to tip number one, assuming
that whoever's reading this knows nothing about your project
and these acronyms could just confuse them.
So avoid using them, or at least,
spell them out the first time and then use them after that.
Finally, as I mentioned earlier, it's a short summary
of your project, so get straight to the point.
Don't waste words on non important information.
Quickly set the stage and get to the facts,
get to the true impact, the true numbers
that you had in your community.
Okay, so I'm going to transfer back to Mary just
to go over some examples.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah, thanks James.
So now that we've talked a little bit about the questions
that we have going into impact stories and a little bit
about writing them, we thought we would step back
for a little bit and talk
about an actual real life example of an impact story.
And so I am going to read this impact story, but as I read it,
I would like for you to think about what is missing
in this example, and let me think about what's missing,
keep in mind that it's key questions.
You know, where does the story take place?
What is the issue area?
Who is involved?
How are you addressing the problem
and what are the results?
I'm going to read it and I want you to think
about what is missing, and if you can take the time
to use the chat feature, which folks are
so lovely using all ready, and write down a brief statement
about what is missing here.
What do you think you want to know more about?
What should the writer have included
when they wrote this impact story?
I'm going to read it now.
It's a VISTA member at School on Wheels, worked with staff
to present the education celebration
at the Indianapolis Marion County Central Library.
The event grossed over $200,000 to support School
on Wheels' mission of impacting homeless children.
So $200,000, that's a lot.
This is great.
So what are we thinking about what's missing?
Let's look at the room and chat.
The how and the results.
Yeah, how did they -- what is it that they're presenting
about an education seminar?
What is this?
What is the result?
They raised $200,000 but you know,
what are they going to do with it?
You know, what exactly did the VISTA's do?
This is great.
How many children were impacted
and what is the definition of the celebration?
Another comment here; what was the money used for?
I think that that's a big point here,
and that's what I see mainly, is what is this money used for.
It says that they're impacting homeless children,
but impacting can mean a lot of things,
so I would be really curious to learn what it is
that they're talking about.
Let's see what else.
What was the event?
What exactly was the mission?
Where? All great things.
Number of people served, percentage,
all those kind of things.
So there's definitely some things
that are missing in this story.
So let's go on to the next slide.
And James and I actually pulled this out of a recent report,
and this was actually the full impact story that was submitted,
and you'll see as we read it,
not all of the questions are answered,
and that may be an okay thing, it may not.
You know, we may have some questions
that were not answered.
So we also have to think
that we're only writing an impact story in at most four
to five sentences, so we may not really be able
to answer all of these questions.
But let's look at what the story is.
So I'm going to read it.
VISTA members at a School on Wheels worked with staff
to present the Education Celebration to over 500 guests
and 40 sponsors on Friday, April 26,
at the Indianapolis Marion Country Central Library.
Peyton Manning and Mitch Daniels were special guests
at the event, which grossed over $200,000
to support School on Wheels' mission.
School on Wheels provides one-on-one tutoring
and educational advocacy
for school age children impacted by homelessness.
So we can see here that there's a lot
of really great information that's included
in this second draft of the story that we read earlier.
The one thing is the 500 guests and the 40 sponsors,
gives us a little bit more information
about what is this Education Celebration
that we're talking about.
We still don't really know exactly what the VISTA
members do.
It just says they worked with staff.
It may have been good to provide some more descriptive words,
but we do have a little better of a sense of the scope
and the size of this education celebration.
Those numbers are really powerful, you know.
If it's an Education Celebration with 50 members,
it's a very different celebration;
not that it's a wonderful celebration,
but it's a different celebration than when we think
of such a large-scale celebration with 500 guests.
We also have Peyton Manning and Mitch Daniels attending,
which is exciting, and which kind of gives us a peek
into the importance of those, you know,
VIP name dropping things that we were talking about earlier.
If there is, state or local officials that were involved,
those can really add a big impact to the statement.
And then finally, that last sentence,
School on Wheels provides one-on-one tutoring
and educational advocacy
for school age children impacted by homelessness.
That's the great sentence there.
That's the results sentence that I think really was lacking
in that first guest -- that first pass of the example.
So that last sentence, what is it
that they're doing with this money?
Well, they're providing one-on-one tutoring
and educational advocacy
for school age children impacted by homelessness.
So this tells a little bit more about the story
and what exactlywas taking place and what the impacts would be.
So we thought we would just show this,
and this is actually a real life example.
This did happen, and so we thought we would just share it
with you so that you get a sense of really what it is
that an impact story may look like.
Okay, so thank you everybody for your comments
and your participation on this.
It's great to hear your thoughts on these impact stories.
And like I said, you know a lot of times,
the story may not answer every single question
and it may not even be possible to answer every single question
with four or five sentences, but what we really want
to do is provide those as a framework so that you can think
about your impact and think about what you want to pull
out for your impact story.
So I'm going to turn it over to James.
>> James Griffin: All right, thank you, Mary.
So you might be wondering why we're making such a big deal,
why we have this whole webinar around impact stories and why
for myself personally, just about every time I'm talking
with one of our VISTA projects here in Arizona,
I'm emphasizing the importance of these impact stories.
They're greatly important.
One, as we've already mentioned,
they help tell the project story,
help tell the impact you're having in the community as well
as a number of different other things; for instance,
building new support for the VISTA program
or building new support for your specific local organization
by informing the community about the work that you're doing.
An impactful story can also lead to new partnerships.
So for example, let's say you write a story and post it
to your organization's Facebook page.
Someone at another organization reads it and reaches out to you
or your organization to partner
and create more sustainable projects for the future.
It also helps -- stories also help engage community leaders.
So for example, the stories inform mayors
and other community leaders
about the impact your specific project is having
on the community and this is greatly important
to keep the community leaders updated
on your projects in the community.
The stories can also help recruit new members
or new volunteers.
Going back to the you know, the example of posting it
on your Facebook page, let's say a member
of the community reads your impact story
on your organization's Facebook page and says wow,
that sounds like a really great project to be a part of.
I want to be a part of that," and they end up volunteering
and signing up to be a volunteer.
And this again, just creates more sustainable impact
in the community.
And then lastly, it just helps keep us at the Corporation
for Community Service -- National and Community Service,
sorry, to tell your story
about the great work that you're having.
So all these reasons and many,
many more is why these stories are so important.
So with that said, you might be wondering who's reading these?
Who's the audience when you're writing these, and I wanted
to point out I put that picture of President Barrack Obama
on this slide specifically because as the last bullet point
on this slide points out, Members of Congress
and other elected officials --
you know, each state office pass these stories
up to headquarters each month in D.C., and these stories are read
by elected officials just to stay informed
about what's happening in their different states
and what's happening nationally with national service,
and that can lead to a number of different things,
including continued funding of the National Service Program.
So obviously, that's really important.
So just keep those elected officials
in mind when you're writing.
But with that said, there's a number
of different other audiences that can read these;
for instance, your members of your community,
that want to stay updated
with what's going on in the community.
Also, members of your agency, specifically,
maybe like upper management, which you know,
they don't know exactly the great details
about what each project is doing, but a quick summary
of what each project is doing can keep them updated
with the overall impact.
Also, the stories keep your volunteers updated and connected
with the overall mission of their volunteer service.
Another audience would be maybe your clients
of your organization, just to keep them updated again
with the overall projects that the agency is involved in.
And then your organization can also use these stories you know,
to help create new funds, whether it's using them
in different grants that you might try to get new funds
for your organization.
And then lastly, your state office.
For me personally, and I know other state program specialists,
you know, we don't have that much one-on-one contact
or one-on-one interaction with you guys, with the VISTA's,
and we rely on these stories to stay in fall --
to stay informed on the impact that you guys are having
in your community, so very important to us
as well as state office.
All right.
So you have written this great impact story
that answers all the questions that Mary talked about;
the what, the where, the who, the how,
and provided the results.
But now, what do you do with it?
How do you share it with others?
And if you guys want to, in the chat feature discuss you know,
some different ways that you might if you've written them,
how you guys might share it around your community.
But just for the interests of time, we'll move on.
And yeah, so the main thing, as you can see from this slide,
is just to share, share, share with as many different people
as possible, and this is just a brief list of people
that we could think of.
So for instance, your agency leaders,
your board of directors, your different colleagues,
and I know the two VISTA's that will be presenting later,
will talk about this some more
and who they've shared their stories with.
But yeah, like I said, just the main thing is just share it
with as many people as possible.
Post it to your organization's Facebook page or post it
to the AmeriCorps VISTA Facebook page,
which you'll see is a link on the slide there.
Tweet it if you know -- if you tweet, here a couple people
that you could tweet it to.
So again, just want to emphasize share it
with as many people as possible.
That's the key thing.
The key thing is just to get the word out.
All right.
So moving on, we as a state office break these stories
into basically three categories, and I'll go in more detail
with an example on each one, but real quick, successes;
by far the number -- highest percentage of stories
that we get are in this successes category.
Number two is coming attractions and then challenges
and what we call an other category.
So yeah, as I mentioned, successes is
by far the most common that we get
and it's pretty self-explanatory.
You know, the story involves any time you're involved
in a successful project or event as a VISTA, write about it.
You know, as I mentioned before, it's your time to brag
about the accomplishments that you have participated in.
So an example is Alliance
of Arizona Non-Profit VISTA member calling Wallace's grant
writing talents for the Food Bank, netted the organization
over $1.4 million in grant funding this year.
And the funding supports many of the Food Bank operations,
including the rural branches of the Food Bank,
Summer Meals Program, and the Emergency Food
Assistance Program.
The key fact is the Food Bank's largest program distributing
meals to over 60 locations and providing individuals
in a food crisis with two
to three days worth of nutritious food.
So again, this is a great time for you guys to brag
about the different projects you know.
For instance, like this one, the $1.4 million
that the grant helped raise, and again, for the mission
of helping people in food crisis.
So again, these are the majority of the stories
that we get are successes, but we do have two other categories.
So the next one is coming attractions.
Coming attractions is where you would write
about any interesting upcoming events or new projects
or new partnerships that you
or your organization are working on for the future.
So an example of this is the Nike N7 Sport Summit takes place
in Beaverton, Oregon, April 18 through the 20th.
The event brings together native youth
and native youth serving organizations,
including the Nike N7 Let's Move an Indian Country VISTA member,
members from Portland, Oregon, Temecula, California,
and Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico.
VISTA member Lila Walsh will present
on healthy traditional food
and sustainable gardening at two sessions.
So yeah, as again this category is our time
to discuss any interesting events or partnerships
that your program is working on for the future.
So last category is kind of the catch all category.
It's your time to, you know, discuss any obstacles
that you have to overcome with your programming
or within your community as well as your time
to discuss special meetings or events with high profile people,
as we'll see in this example.
On June 6th, over 350 attendees participated
in the 2013 Massachusetts Conference on Service
and Volunteering in Marlboro, Massachusetts.
CNCS CEO, Wendy Spencer, was the keynote speaker
and also facilitated a round table discussion
with National Service projects and partner organizations.
So again, this is the category where you'll talk
about you know, any important meetings that you might have
with mayors or in this instance, the CEO of our agency
that the Corporation for National Community Service.
So these stories don't necessarily have you know,
what we've talked about in the past, the numbers, the numbers,
the numbers, the results, but it's more of just a FYI kind
of thing, and also, any obstacles that you might have
to overcome in your community.
So this is the three categories.
I'm going to transition back to Mary,
who will introduce the VISTA's
who will be going over their examples.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah, thanks James.
I just thought I'd touch on you know,
going back to what James said, there's a real value
in being able to concisely relate what our impact is.
You all are doing great work around the country,
and just being able to have a statement about that work
and its impact has a really powerful effect.
So now that we've looked at what impact stories are,
we've learned how to write impact stories
and also we've discussed what James went through;
some of the types of impact stories.
And mainly, we're talking about successes here.
We are going to invite two current VISTA members
to join us online, and they are going to talk with us
and describe well, the process, the translating the work
that they're doing into an impact story.
First, we have Scott from Campfire USA.com.
He's council here in Austin, Texas,
and then we have Anna Alcott, who serves with Northland Care.
It's in Prescott, Arizona.
And we've asked both Scott and Anna
to share a few things with us.
So what we've asked for them to tell us is one,
to describe their work, what it is that they're doing,
and what it is that they chose to write an impact story about.
Two, we've asked them to speak about the process
of translating their work into an impact story.
How did they look across all the stuff that they're doing,
all the great work that they're doing, identify one thing
and then actually turn it into an impact story
that concisely tells their work and its results
in four to five sentences.
And then finally, we've asked them to share with us what it is
that they've done with the impact story,
how it is that they've shared it, who they've shared it with
or you know, what they plan to do
with it even after this webinar.
So those are the three things that we've asked them to talk
to us about, and we're really excited to have them here
with us, and I think it's interesting especially
to hear the process of that transformation from looking
at the work that you're doing into actually coming
out with one of these fully formed impact stories.
So with that said, Scott, the floor is yours.
>> Scott Frederickson: All right.
Well thank you and welcome everyone.
Thank you for listening today.
My name is Scott.
I'm with Campfire in Austin, and I guess I'll start
by talking a little bit about Campfire.
Campfire is a youth development organization,
working to strengthen families through outdoor,
nature based educational activities, and different trips
and such, and there's a lot of ways we do that.
We have after school programming.
We have different clubs that we call traditional clubs.
There's what's called Family Nature Club,
which is families kind of going on hiking and backpacking trips
and such, and there's other more focused clubs.
And through all of this, they're kind of linked
through this program called Absolutely Incredible Kids,
which is part of our after school curriculum,
as well as part of the curriculum
for our traditional clubs.
And AIK is a program that we do year round that has to do
with raising awareness about water conservation.
Water conservation is a major issue here in Texas
because not a lot of people are aware, but Austin in particular,
in Central Texas is under stage two drought restrictions right
now; meaning that for the past 10 years,
we've been having a shortage of rainfall
and our aquifers are currently depleting,
which has pretty serious ecological consequences a little
bit further down the road.
So part of what Campfire does is promoting of our metalism
through our programs and doing service projects related
to water conservation.
We've kind of adopted this issue as kind of our like main focus
for the next five years.
So what AIK does is it has kids participate in service projects
in school and then formerly,
we had an event called The Walk for Water.
That has now been kind of re-tooled and refocused
and is now called The Walk for Nature
that takes place in the fall.
And The Walk for Nature is all about getting families
and kids outdoors and out to this event to kind
of celebrate the work that they're doing
for the AIK program, as well as raising awareness
about this issue to the public.
And my job as community outreach is working as part
of a communications team -- quote, unquote.
So part of my role for that project is
to engage community partners, cultivate new partnerships,
working to compose our media and marketing strategy, as well as,
kind of sitting on the planning committee working
with the programming and such, as well as recruiting
and managing volunteers.
A large part of my job is contacting our community
partners and finding out ways that we can cross-promote,
the ways that we can help them and they can help us,
whether that be having a booth at our event, or we table at one
of their events, you know, and just finding ways
that we can work together to kind
of mutually help each other.
Another part of that is reaching out to new partners
through sponsorships, through soliciting in kind donations.
We were actually able to get $500 of merchandise donated
from Cabala's Outdoor Sporting Goods Shop to our organization
that we then used to buy a kayak that we raffled off.
So that's part of my job as well.
And so how do we then turn that into an impact story?
First, I think it's really important to be concise.
A large theme throughout this presentation has been brevity,
and that's really important.
Consider the questions and get down to the point, so who,
where, what, how, and the results.
And my story here, I've kind of outlined the different parts
of that and it sounds weird writing them
in the third person, but it's really important to do that just
because of the ways you're going to use them.
You could use it for submitting a grant proposal.
You could use it to put as part of a tweet.
You could have a link to it on your website.
There's a ton of different ways to do it.
So you can see in mine,
I've kind of highlighted a bit vaguely some of the results
that I had or some of the participation that I had
on this project, and what that allows you
to do is it allows the people to understand how you are involved,
but also gives them an opportunity to ask you questions
and then describe a bit more of your impact.
And then we've been talking a lot about results.
In our particular event, we were able
to meet all our fundraising goals,
because the event the year before wasn't as much
of a success as we would have liked,
but this year we really put a lot of work into it
and we actually saw 500% increase
in our fundraising goals as opposed to the year before.
And any time you can have a statistic
like that it's really great to include that.
I think people respond very well to numbers
that than you can then describe in a bit more detail.
And your impact may not be as tangible as that all the time.
Your impact may be if you work with the elderly,
maybe having spent time talking with somebody
in a senior care home.
Your impact may be, you know, helping a child understand
like kind of a complex subject or like relating
to them a certain way.
It's easy to consider your impact
when you just really think about everything you did
and it may not be, you know, as easy as writing a number down,
but everything you're doing is impactful.
So just important to consider the questions and then translate
that into describing what it is exactly what your job was.
So then what do we do with our impact story?
Who wants to hear it?
Community partners are big ones.
Your community partners are supporting your organization
and allowing you and your organization to do the work
that you do, so it's really important to kind
of give them validation and let them know
that their support is going to something that is worthwhile.
Donors as well, kind of the same thing; they want to know
that their investment in you is actually doing good work.
And it certainly is well if you're working very hard
for individual causes.
Potential sponsors as well; when you're seeking partnerships
and sponsors having tangible results like these and stories
like these that are really in a brief,
concise nature are really good to have on hand just so you --
if it's on your website,
you could have a link to it, you know.
You say hey, I'm with this organization.
This is what we're doing, that they can read these and kind
of have an idea what it is that you're doing.
And you can share it through social media.
This has been a major theme as well.
They're great for tweeting.
You can tweet an individual sentence of it,
and then that allows people --
that starts a conversation, you know.
In your annual report as well, it's really good
to include this kind of stuff.
And then I guess additionally, just really consider how
to describe your impact
in the most full way possible while not trying
to tell more than you need to.
And my classes in college, I studied creative writing and one
of my teachers liked to use this metaphor where -- you --
if you're selling a bicycle,
you could write a long ad describing every part
of the bicycle and it would tell them everything they need
to know.
Or, you could have a sign that says bike for sale
and it solves all the same -- or answers all the same questions
that that really long ad that no one really has time
to read, you know.
So I guess that's really all I have for you.
I'll turn it back over to Mary at this point,
unless there's anything more you'd like me to add.
>> Mary Rolle: That's great.
Thank you, Scott, for sharing with us about your work
with Campfire and sharing your impact story as well.
We will, after the session, we'll open it up for questions
so if folks have questions for Scott, we'll provide a time
for that in the future, but for now,
let's hear from Anna in Arizona.
>> Anna Alcott: Clinic in Prescott, Arizona.
And so what we do is we provide medical care to people living
with *** Aids, but in addition to that,
we also provide health education as well as prevention, testing,
all that kind of stuff, for people in the general community.
And that's where I come in.
So my role as a VISTA Health Educator
and Outreach Coordinator involves forming partnerships
with local community organizations, so most recently,
I've been working with the local Health Department
and with the local Reentry Project.
I also establish and maintain connections
with at risk communities in our area.
We mainly serve Prescott's large recovery population.
It's known as the recovery capital.
But we also maintain a presence in homeless shelters
and in the three local colleges.
>> Mary Rolle: Anna, this is Mary.
I'm going to -- can you speak up just a little bit.
Folks are saying that they're having a hard time hearing you.
>> Anna Alcott: Oh, sure thing.
Sorry about that.
>> Mary Rolle: Thank you.
>> Anna Alcott: Sorry, everybody.
We also -- I also implement *** education and testing programs.
So what we do is go into recovery homes, so living homes,
homeless shelters, college dorms, etcetera,
and give presentations on what *** is, how it's transmitted,
and what it means to be living with *** today,
and if permitted, we also offer rapid *** testing opportunities.
I also secure funding and ensure sustainability
of outreach programs, so basically doing research
to ensure that the projects that I help build will continue
when I'm finished at my site.
So here are just some images from some events.
On the left is a poster for a testing event
at a college locally, and on the right, is a picture
from Free *** Testing tent that we had at the Arizona Stand
Down for Homeless Veterans.
So here are some tips for writing an impact story.
When I start writing an impact story,
the very first thing I do is take -- is revisit my guide.
So this helps me to recollect my thoughts and reform my drive,
because I may not be thinking of every little thing on that list
at the moment, and it's an excellent reminder
of what I'm here to accomplish in Prescott.
So it's the second thing I do is look back at my calendar
because I forget half of the things
that I've done every month and I admit
that my memory isn't top notch.
But looking back at my guide and my calendar,
that's how I kind of start the process.
It helps me identify a specific project or event
that I was particularly proud of and kind of just set the stage
for just -- for getting in the mood
to write the impact statement.
And then assess your impacts.
So what is in the community because of your work
that otherwise would not be available?
This should be relatively simply to answer so chances are
that as a VISTA, you are meeting an unmet need in your community,
so your entire position is working towards providing
something to your community that wasn't there before.
And I think it's really empowering
to think of it in this light.
So without you, so and so wouldn't have happened.
This will give you an ego boost as well
as help you pinpoint exactly what it is that you're bringing
to the table in your community.
Finding numbers and capacity building work;
my biggest struggle with writing impact stories is finding
numbers in the work that I do personally.
So a lot of what I've been doing is related to capacity building,
so I've done things like create a curriculum,
I've strengthened partnerships, I've standardized protocols,
things that aren't very numerical by nature.
So what I have to do
when I write impact stories during months where I work
on these documents is to project my hopes
for what they will accomplish in the future.
And so an impact story that I shared in the next slide,
what I did was project numbers of the people I plan on reaching
as well as how many organizations I'm reaching
out to, and even though these numbers are yet to be realized,
they are still powerful.
Be a braggart.
So this is something that maybe doesn't come naturally to a lot
of you, and it certainly doesn't come naturally to me,
and my VISTA supervisor is constantly reminding me
to give myself credit.
So basically it boils down to this; the impact story is
about you and no matter how important you think the people
are that you work with, this is the time to brag about yourself.
So you need to draw on some of that ego boost that you get,
that you got when you were assessing your impact
and just gloat away.
Create a buzzword lexicon.
So as you all know, buzzwords are just powerful,
action packed words and buzzwords are
to impact stories what [inaudible] is to a comic book,
so they give it some oomph.
So whenever I stumble across a word or phrase that makes me go,
"Yeah, that was pretty good," I like to type it
into a word document that I keep just for that purpose,
and so that way, when I'm stuck, I can go back to it
and pull sentences out of those buzzwords.
And lastly, take a breather.
Now this is one of the most important things
to do while writing anything.
You have to step away for a little while,
and if you have the time to leave it
for a day, that's excellent.
If you're running short on time, it's still important
to take even a little break, even just 10 minutes or so
to collect yourself and then be able to come back
to it with fresh eyes.
So this is an example of an impact story.
I know it looks kind of like a block of writing there,
but everything's in there.
So I'm not going to read it off, but I would like to point
to the last sentence there, and it says,
the curriculum will be utilized
at approximately 15 organizations including outreach
presentations at recovery homes, senior living houses,
and homeless shelters, and its goal is to reach 2,000
at risk individuals by August 2014.
So here, I'm outlining why it's important and I'm doing
that projection that I spoke of earlier.
So there are no real numbers yet,
but I am specifying what I hope the numbers will be.
So what to do with an impact story.
We've talked a lot about social media.
So there's a reason for that.
So we live in a new age
and social media has an amazing capacity to spread information
and to reach new audiences,
so it's a great thing to take advantage of.
But you shouldn't forget about classic media.
So if you've been working on something of particular interest
to your community, you should try your hand at distilling it
or elaborating upon it to make it appropriate
for the local paper, a talk radio show
or maybe even an advertisement for your agency.
So chances are that a portion of your audience relies
on classic news sources, so it's important to remember
to utilize those, as well.
You could include it in your organization's annual
giving letter.
You could share it with your college
or universities alumni association.
This is a way of reaching out to future VISTA's.
And you could -- I think it's also important to share it
with the people who helped you to get where you are today.
So I personally like to share it with the people
who wrote my recommendation.
It's a nice way of kind of keeping a monthly contact
with them because they really do want to know what you're up to.
And that's all I have for today, so thank you, Mary.
>> Mary Rolle: Thank you very much, Anna, for sharing with us
about your great work and also your process
to write an impact story.
I know that there's lots of gems of wisdom there.
So now we want to open it up for questions.
Theresa, can we please open up the lines for questions?
>> Theresa: Yes, thank you.
If you'd like to ask a question, please dial star one.
Please be sure to record your name when prompted.
I do need your name to introduce your question.
Again, please dial star one and record your name.
One moment, please.
>> Mary Rolle: Thanks, Theresa.
So as we're waiting for questions to line
up on the phone, if you have questions, please use the Q
and A box on the screen and Treci,
do we have any questions online?
>> Treci Johnson: Yes.
Actually, Angela wants to know could you use this type
of statement as a flyer or just to leave with partners.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah.
I think that all of those are great.
I think when we talk about flyers though, we have to think
about what the intention of a flyer is.
If it's a flyer to tell people about the work that we're doing
or you know, when we talked
about the coming attractions type of impact statement,
if we're talking about those kind
of flyers, then that's good.
If we're thinking more marketing, media, publicity,
this may not be the best way to go about it because we are
like Anna mentioned, we're looking at big blocks of text.
So if we're thinking in a marketing strategy,
and I know that there's other trainings out there for that,
this may not be the right venue for that because we are looking
at text heavy things and we're trying to get across a lot
of information in a very short amount of time.
Treci, are there any other questions on the -- online?
>> Treci Johnson: Yes.
There are a few people who have chimed in to say you know,
what if someone wasn't available to listen to this discussion,
or if you want a copy of the Power Point,
or will they be able to get a recording of this,
and so I just want to give everyone a head's up that yes,
we will be putting this under the webinars on demand section
of the campus, and you'll have all those resources.
As well as, a email following this webinar,
you will get the Power Point and other resources
that were shared during this discussion.
So if you want to make sure that you can get extra review
of the materials, don't worry.
It'll be there.
Or, if you want to share it with someone who was unable
to attend, we will also have that available for you.
>> Mary Rolle: Thank you, Treci.
Theresa, do we have any calls, questions on there [inaudible].
>> Theresa: There are no questions on the phone line.
>> Mary Rolle: Okay.
>> Treci Johnson: All right well Mary,
there is another question from Christina.
What if members aren't readily available?
For example, I got a small grant to have a violence prevention
for violence prevention workshop at an all women building
and partnered with -- oh, it seems like Robin answered
that for her so sorry about that.
>> Mary Rolle: Okay.
[Laughter].
>> Treci Johnson: No, I mean
but other people probably have the same question.
What if numbers aren't readily available for everyone?
>> Mary Rolle: Robin, did you answer that question already?
>> Robin: No, we were just letting them know
that the presenter was answering it.
>> Mary Rolle: Oh, okay.
>> Robin: All right.
That's what we let people do, so...
>> Mary Rolle: If there aren't numbers available readily,
Anna mentioned this in her chat when she was talking
about how she developed this curriculum and you know,
it was great but, you know, she couldn't speak to what was going
to happen with it, but it's still really a great success
to develop the curriculum.
So what she did, which I thought was great was she said,
you know, she plans to implement this curriculum with something
like 2,000 people by October of 2014.
So I think that that is a really great way of getting around this
because a lot of times with capacity building work,
we're setting the stage for those impacts.
But when we think about things like writing grants,
generally when we're writing the grant, we like to talk
about what we're going to do if we get the grants.
So in that case, I would make sure to qualify it of course,
with saying, you know, with this grant, we plan to serve,
you know, 500 children at this elementary school and, you know,
through a tutoring program that involves 50 volunteers.
But just be careful to qualify it with the plans too,
so that there isn't a lot of confusion about whether
or not these children have been served
or these volunteers are actually working on there.
But I think that especially, when we're talking
about capacity building work, a lot of times we're talking
about our anticipated, and in that case,
just a qualifying word like plans to, or expects to,
or hopes to, is the way to show that.
So Treci, any other questions?
>> Treci Johnson: Yes.
Chevette[assumed spelling] has a great question.
So we know what impact statements are
and the different components to them,
but when should a VISTA use them?
When should they be thinking about using these?
>> Mary Rolle: Well, you know, here with the corporation,
we submit like James said, we submit monthly reports.
So a really easy way to use these right off the bat is
to send them on to your state office.
We use them internally in a dozen different ways.
It's a great way to show the work that you all are doing
around the country, and it helps us to concisely show the impact
of this on a national level for, you know, it stays the same,
policy makers in Washington, you know.
So, that's kind of an easy way to use them is to send them
into your state office.
Other ways that we were talking about, you know,
use them in local newspapers, if you have a newsletter.
If your organization does, this is a really nice way to say,
"What are the VISTAs working on now?"
And, you could have a little half page thing, and you could,
you know, VISTA could write an impact story
about what the great work is that they're doing there.
So, those are kind of some ideas, and I know that James,
also, went over some other things.
You know, you can post it on Facebook.
Anna was talking about, you know, sending impact stories
to the folks that have, you know, helped you along the way
to help them get a picture of what you're doing as a VISTA.
So, those are some of the ways
in which you can use impact stories just right
out of the box.
>> James Griffin: Yeah, and I just want to time in with --
use them in a timely basis, you know.
We -- like, we love hearing them, you know,
when they're six months old, but we're, probably,
not going to pass that up to headquarters just because it is,
you know, six to eight months old.
So, you know, when you do write them, pass them on right away
to the -- to your State office, as well as posting
on Facebook and what not.
So, use them in a timely manner
after the project is complete or the event happens.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah, that's a great point.
An impact story that say there is a great event that happened
in 2001 doesn't have the same impact
as the great event happened in, you know,
December 4 of 2013 [laughter].
Treci, any other questions?
>> Treci Johnson: Yes,
James wants to know why do we often get request
to convert volunteer activities to monetary figures
by avoiding some non-measurable types of projects
which would do lots of good otherwise.
>> Mary Rolle: I think that that's a really good question,
and it brings into, you know, a lot of other questions
when we think about, you know, the numbers to the impact
and all of that kind of thing.
You know, whether we like it or not, a lot of times,
folks when they see numbers, they see something else.
Whereas, when they see, you know, descriptions of impacts
that doesn't, necessarily, carry the same weight.
But, I think that if you -- we are talking about, you know,
a project that has volunteers that are working
on really great things,
and they're doing really great things.
And, maybe, it doesn't have to do with a grant
or anything like that.
That is still a really great impact.
And, I think that, you know,
just because we're saying we have an emphasis on fundraising
in this presentation, if you have a project, you know;
for example, Anna's story about creating a new curriculum
that is not fundraising related and I think
that is a really powerful impact.
So, feel free to disassociate the two,
and if you have volunteers that are doing great work
that you are helping to mobilize and train.
That is a great impact story.
>> Treci Johnson: And, another question from Tara.
She's going to be presenting soon in Kansas City and ask,
"What it be a good use of my impact story
or statement during that presentation?"
>> Mary Rolle: Without knowing the details of the presentation.
I'm not sure that I can really fully answer that,
but sure why not?
I think it's never a bad time to tell people about the impacts
that we're making in our communities.
Teresa, do we have any questions on the phone?
>> Teresa: There are no questions at this time.
>> Mary Rolle: Okay.
Treci, any other questions Online?
>> Treci Johnson: Nope.
None -- None, that haven't been answered already.
So, if anyone else has a question that they would
like to submit through the Q and A feature, please do so.
Steve wants us to know that he has a question coming.
So, we are waiting for your question, Steve.
>> Mary Rolle: Excellent, I'm very excited.
>> Treci Johnson: In the meantime,
there have been several questions about where
on the VISTA campus, you can access the webinars On Demand?
If you look in the TAT [phonetic],
Robin has pasted this URL several times, for you all.
And, also, in the Q and A that everyone can see,
she's answered that question, too.
So, thank you for bringing that up several times.
And, we're glad to know that you are actively seeking this
information out [background talking].
Okay, Sidney wants to know how often do you write
impact statements?
>> Mary Rolle: I would generally say, once a month.
James, what do you think?
>> James Griffin: Yeah, I mean, I'd say as much as possible.
Definitely, you know --
definitely, after any kind of big event.
You know, noteworthy event --
or project that you participated in.
But, yeah, as much as possible, definitely, and pass them
on immediately to the State office and, you know,
post them as we've mentioned in a timely manner.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah, it might be a good idea to, you know,
set a calendar reminder and say, "Hey,
I'm going to spend an hour today, you know,
every month to think about an impact story."
Because, a lot of times, you know, life passes us by,
and we get really busy and caught up in other things.
So, I can understand the question about scheduling them.
>> Treci Johnson: Lylette wants to know --
I'm doing a community cleanup with a few other VISTAs,
should I use that as an opportunity
to write an impact story?"
>> Mary Rolle: Sounds like a great impact story.
Yeah, I think that community cleanups are, definitely,
impactful and have great results for a community.
So, you know -- in my opinion, no impact story is too small.
We impact people on individual basis, and that is just
as important, and we want to hear about that, as well.
>> Treci Johnson: Christopher asks, "Would it be appropriate
to include the impact statement or story when writing a grant?"
>> James Griffin: Definitely [laughter].
Yeah, I mean, as I mentioned, yeah -- I mean, it could,
definitely, lead to future funding for your organization.
So, you know, you might have to modify it
for each different kind of grant.
But, yeah -- yeah, definitely, use it.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah.
I agree with James.
I'm definitely in favor.
I would make sure to read the grant instructions
to make sure you're answering all the questions.
But, I think that being able to concretely
and concisely write your results
or your impacts is a great thing.
And, it can be used in a myriad of different ways.
And, I think, definitely,
on grant applications, they have a place.
Any other questions Online, Treci?
>> Treci Johnson: Yes, so we just got Steve question in.
>> Mary Rolle: Okay [laughter].
>> Treci Johnson: So, [laughter] Steve says,
"He's mining [phonetic].
It's hard to identify impact.
Also, just reviewing Online research
for a grant writing team of an Excel spreadsheet of companies
in Kansas that perform matching gifts,
my sense is that Kansas' big brother
and big sister is uncertain how best to use VISTA.
I have suggested writing a weekly blog,
but receiving weak response, so far,
even with several prototype columns."
>> Mary Rolle: I'm not sure that I understand the question.
I think when we talk about how best to use this --
but I think a good place to start is what Anna was talking
about with her VAD; is to looking at the activities
on your VAD, and, you know, of course, checking them
with your projects, too, to make sure
that those activities are what you're working on.
And, then, that's a great place to draw inspiration
from where your success is to look at your VAD.
>> Treci Johnson: And, I think it's, you know, maybe,
it's a two-part question, here.
The second half is saying
that he has suggested writing a weekly blog.
He hasn't gotten a good response, yet,
but would something like a weekly blog be a suitable place
for doing ongoing impact stories?
>> Mary Rolle: Definitely.
I think that would be a great place
for ongoing impact stories, and if we talk about writing them,
monthly, we could have, you know, a monthly column
on whatever the VISTA is doing, now, and what's the great work
that you all are doing.
>>Treci Johnson: Great.
Now, Roshonda is looking ahead and saying,
"How can you use your impact stories
after your VISTA story -- after your VISTA service?
>> James Griffin: Yeah, well, I mean,
from a personal experience, I think just, you know,
using it in job applications, even, you know,
when you're trying to get a new job after your VISTA term,
you know, use those, either verbally, you know,
in interview processes or --
you know, if they ask for writing samples or what not.
And, then, also, as Anna said, you know,
keep your network connected
with what you're doing during your term, but, also, after,
you know, people that have helped you get
to where you are, right now.
Keep them informed on what your --
what you did throughout your year.
So, use it that way as well.
>> Mary Rolle: That's a great point, James,
and like we were saying, "It's kind of that, you know,
the elevator speech of your VISTA service in writing,
but it can, also, be the elevator speech, you know,
when you talk about it, as well, and, especially, you know,
when folks ask you questions in interviews about your results.
These are great things that you can quickly come back to.
>> Treci Johnson: Jasmine has a question that sort of goes
with what you were talking about --
activities outside of a VISTAs VAD.
She's saying, "Like all VISTAs do, sometimes,
have those one off activities, and they are a great experience
for the VISTA and the organization."
But, is that something that she should consider doing an impact
statement about?
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah, of course.
I mean, all VISTA work on --
hopefully, produces great results.
So, I think that's definitely something that you should look
to do an impact story.
The side note, if your activities are very much outside
of your VAD, you may want to revisit the VAD as well.
But, as far as impact statements go, please look to the totality
of the work that you're doing because I'm sure
that there are many things that you can write about.
>> Treci Johnson: It seems
that Seprina [phonetic] is letting us know
that she has a question that's waiting for us on the phone.
>> Mary Rolle: Great.
Teresa, you want to queue up.
>> Teresa: [Inaudible] on the audio side.
Please press Star One.
>> Mary Rolle: Do we have any calls, Teresa?
Do we have any questions on the phone?
>> Teresa: At this time, there are no questions on the phone.
>> Mary Rolle: Okay.
>> Teresa: I'm sorry.
One question did just pop in the queue.
One moment -- Okay, now, your line is open
>> Seprina: Thank you.
So, my question was specifically --
I had the question about the VAD,
and I've been following my VAD, but there's, also --
because my organization is so large, and I've had
so many different impacts.
Like, we just got an externship program started that I was able
to set up with one of the colleges, here, in Tucson,
which I know is like a great impact as far
as capacity building because it's something that long
after I'm gone, they'll have like this influx
of volunteers coming in to assist them.
But, I know when it's come time, at the beginning of every month,
for me to write my statements since it is kind of off
of what my VAD is, it's hard to --
I guess, distinguish how to put that in there, appropriately,
I guess, or to show that I'm making an impact just
in different ways, you know, every month?
>> Mary Rolle: I think that sounds
like a great impact story, and I think that it would --
I would, definitely, look to, you know,
starting up that new program is a wonderful thing
to write an impact story about.
So, I would keep going with that.
>> Seprina: Okay.
Alright. Yeah, well, yeah -- and that was the other thing.
It's like how -- I guess, how do you, you know, put it in there?
It's just -- is that something that you just kind
of write separately -- that's not really a part of that?
Is that how it works?
>> Mary Rolle: Well,
impact stories are different from you VAD.
I mean, they're independent stories.
So, that you could write one on a WORD document,
and it would still be your impact story.
>> Seprina: Okay.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah.
>> Seprina: Alright.
Thank you.
>> Mary Rolle: You're welcome.
>> Teresa: Thank you.
I'm showing no other questions at this time.
>> Treci Johnson: Okay.
Great -- As a follow up to Steve's question about the blog,
I think he's wondering how would he write that first blog post.
Given the fact that a blog, you know, is typically longer
than how long you're saying the impact statement is.
So, is it, he's combining that statement into the blog post or,
you know, how would you go about doing that?
>> Mary Rolle: Well, it depends.
I mean, if you want to stick to the impact story format,
you could put a couple of them in there, and just say,
"Here were our impacts from the last month."
But, I think if you are interested
in doing a larger description of an event
or a successful project, then, maybe,
this is not the right format.
You know, because it is four to five sentences.
If you do have the time and the space
to write a one-page blog post,
and that's what the audience is looking for.
Then, you may want to consider that.
But, what we're looking
for in impact stories are really concise pictures,
snap shots of the good work that folks are doing.
>> James Griffin: Yeah, but with that said --
yeah, I mean, you could, definitely, use it to --
or you could use your impact story as kind of a basis, and,
then, kind of expand from there.
If, for instance, your blog is, you know, more --
a longer story, you could, definitely,
use your impact story, and, then, expand it.
And, then, going backwards, you can cut it down as well.
Going back to, I think,
one of the earlier questions using the flyer as a way,
with the impact story.
You know, you can take it out, and so it doesn't read,
necessarily, as a story, story.
But, you know, use bullet points or something,
and pull like the numbers or pull like the impact from that
for the flyer purposes.
So, yeah, it can work both ways, but -- yeah, our stories,
as we've mentioned, are four to five sentences.
And, then, you can make them shorter for flyers
or make them longer for blogs, definitely.
>> Treci Johnson: Christopher has a question that's sort
of a follow up to that.
What methods of communication do you all think are the most
effective when it comes to delivering an impact statement?
Would it be something written or in an email
or is face-to-face just as effective?
>> Mary Rolle: When we -- Here in our [inaudible] we're,
specifically, talking about written impact stories,
and those can take the form of emails to folks.
Face-to-face, I guess, we would more be talking
about conversations, and that's something we talk about --
true elevator speeches which would be good to draw
from your impact story.
James, do you have anything else to add?
>> James Griffin: Oh yeah, I think -- I mean --
yeah, it's usually through email and written.
That's what we're discussing, right now.
Yeah, definitely.
>> Treci Johnson: Okay, Sheena wants to know if the impact,
overall, is coming from the organization and help
from the steps that you are taking as a VISTA.
Is it okay to highlight the actual organization, as a whole,
instead of singling yourself out for the work that you're doing?
>> Mary Rolle: I think then...
>> James Griffin: Yeah, definitely,
talk about your rendition, you know, as we've said in several
of the examples of, you know, VISTA at Joe Smith, at such
and such organization, serving in, you know, whatever city --
Texas, but, yeah, you definitely want to point out what agency
or what organization you as a VISTA is serving at, definitely.
>> Mary Rolle: Yeah, and what we're really interested
in is what you as a VISTA did at that organization
that you're serving at.
So, while, a lot of times we work in partnerships
with other organizations or other staff people,
and we're really interested in what you did as a VISTA.
What is your work?
Treci, any other question?
Treci Johnson: That is all that I see at the moment.
>> Teresa: I have no other questions over the phone line.
>> Mary Rolle: Okay, well, thank you all
for your really thoughtful questions.
We're looking forward to seeing lots of great impact stories.
Before we sign off, we want to close with offering
up some concrete next steps to guide you
in writing your own impact story.
So, first - think about your work, your successes,
your challenges, your coming attractions.
Second - identify the questions.
Where does the story take place?
What is the issue area?
Who is involved?
How are you addressing the problem?
And, what are your results?
And, third - sit down and write an impact story, and, then,
finally, once you've written your story,
be sure to share your impact.
So, thank you all for being with us this afternoon.
We look forward to reading your impact stories
and to learning more about the work that you do in its impact.
Right now, I'm going to turn it over to Treci
for the evaluation of the session.
Treci Johnson: Thank you Mary and James
for today's presentation and a special thank you to Scott
and Anna for being brave enough
to share your stories with everyone.
Before you all go, if you could please take a moment to fill
out this evaluation, we would greatly appreciate it.
We want to be able to continuously improve webinars,
and your input is what helps us to do that.
And, while you're doing that,
I just want to keep you all informed
about an upcoming webinar we're having on December 12th.
That will be our next one which is Living
on the Living Allowance [phonetic].
But, as always and as we've reiterated throughout this
session, you can check out the ongoing learning section
of the VISTA campus to get the complete schedule
of VISTA webinars, as well as view webinars On Demand.
So, if ever you miss out on something, don't feel...