Memo 4

Your Final Report:
How Can You Use It for Educational Purposes?

We have mailed you a clean, laser-printed draft of the Parenting the First Year evaluation report for your county! When you look it over think about how it serves your needs, but also think about any changes you would recommend we make in the future for other Family Living Agents who do this project.

You also should receive the foul proof, showing all the changes you made and also the changes we made here. If you are not satisfied with the report in its present form, including any of the changes we have made, then please mark suggested changes on it and send it back to me (or send changes by email). I promise rapid turnaround on re-drafts. We should only issue the report to the public when every co author is satisfied with the final product. You should also receive, as an email attachment, a copy of the report in pdf format for printing copies.

We are happy with the report. Key people should probably receive copies of the full report; these might include hospital administrators, members of your local collaborating groups (such as Kiwanis Clubs), your local Human Services Department (if applicable), local media, your state and congressional representatives (if you think this appropriate), and key Extension colleagues. Anyone who you mentioned in your acknowledgements page might appreciate receiving a report.

Some Extension Family Living Agents have formally issued reports like this at a public meeting, like a meeting of the hospital board or a press conference with your collaborating agencies. This is a good way to generate local media attention and thus public education. If you wanted, you could give a power point presentation of the results (that we provide) to your local collaborators. For press conferences, you might also try to include one or two parents who can say what they like about the program. Here are some other things you could do with the report:

• Portions of the report could be used to make an impressive presentation to local service clubs, lunch and learn groups, etc.)
• You might consider making a one - or two - page summary of key findings, perhaps a two fold, which could be distributed to anyone who doesn't receive the full report, and which could be handed out at any presentation. Click here to see a sample of such a handout (PFY 2-Fold Evaluation Summary Sheet).
• You could write up the results as a series of three to five press releases for the local press, including a graph from the report with each press release. Papers are likely to respond with enthusiasm to this, both because it is local hard news and because we supply a professional looking graphic. Click here to see a 5-part sample press release series for your use. You will need to revise it to suit your own results. Other Extension Family Living Educators have already had success getting this entire series of press releases published.

Other “promotional materials” to use for educational presentations are available as well. These include:

• a table top display of the Parenting Newsletter Series.
• a flyer on Early Childhood Brain Development that points out how the newsletters address important features of early parenting competence, and also address some of the major threats to early brain development.
• a Statewide Summary Report and references to our published studies evaluating the effectiveness of the Parenting Newsletters (includes abstracts of each article).
• a Power Point Presentation of your evaluation report.

Recall that UW-Extension has other educational resources for young parents. In any public education you do on Parenting the First Year, don't miss an opportunity to plug our other resources. You may also have local publications or upcoming events that you will want to spotlight, so people see the Parenting the First Year newsletter project as part of a larger and more impressive project, namely the Your County Extension Office in all its multifaceted splendor.

Email us if you want to discuss your educational options for following up on the report (dariley@wisc.edu or costergr@wisc.edu). Whatever you do, please be sure to send copies of materials, press coverage, etc., to us so I can keep track of the statewide impacts, and so we can pass your good ideas on to others.

In essence, you should expect that only a few people will actually read the full report. But the full report can prove invaluable in two respects. First, it is an impressive product that establishes you as a competent researcher with reliable information about the topic we have investigated (this is especially important in your dealings with health professionals). Second, you can draw from the report for a wide variety of educational materials and activities.

We have enjoyed working with you on this project, and we will be proud to have our name next to yours on the title page!

Forward!