afterschoolnetwork

Overview: Understand how to use & engage business partners as active members of the coalition at both the network and local level.

Ideas:

- Prepare kits (biz to biz; biz to community; comm. to biz)
- Read State of Corporate Citizenship in the US by Center for Corp. Cit. @ Boston College, funded by Hitachi & LISC
- Host Summit - invite editors of newspaper, business courier, workforce issue groups
- Ask companies to survey their employees (before summit).
- Publicize what companies have done (survey, results, changes)
- Corporate Voices for Working Families - use their resources
- Solicit letters of support from people businesses care about (track record); i.e. Pres. of Chamber of Commerce, pol. party leaders, Gov. & attach letter quote in body of email invitation
- Invite speakers who don't just provide lip service, but those who have a corp. plan
- Lots of time for Q&A (what's impt to them; dialogue among themselves, peer email network among people attending summit)
- Include employer-sponsored childcare providers, like Bright Horizons
- What do you want them to do? Balance telling & offering meaningful alternatives to cash, i.e. mapping, time off for employees to volunteer, tutors - e'ee's, spokespeople - legislative efforts; IT
- Commitment cards with suggestion opportunities
- Add more biz people on board (school bd members, regional networks/regional planning teams)
- Email invites followed by printed invites (peer to peer; CEO to CEO) followed by phone calls (come, suggest alt.)
- Press release to business reporter (survey of working parents)
- NC: 1/3 biz, 1/3 public sector; 1/3 nonprofit ---> synergy
- engage county commissioners, school superintendents