How the Mayor, Council, or Sponsoring Organization Sets Things in Motion

It will be a strong start for a city, county or community if the mayor or county commission or some respected community organization decides to sponsor the Initiative to Reduce Crime by Strengthening Families. This will signal to the community that there is going to be a concerted effort to reduce crime by helping families grow closer. The issue is the ability to influence broad participation and get participation from:

the main newspapers to communicate all of the opportunities to help
social service organizations who will recruit families to help other families
churches and religious organizations who will recruit families to help other families
grocery stores, retail stores, and restaurants to distribute free family-building tools
schools to teach kids how to dialogue and take that knowledge home
employers to help out
etc.

Step One

Whoever sponsors the Initiative to Reduce Crime by Strengthening Families (from now on we will use the Mayor to signify whoever takes this leadership role) arranges for the payment of the license fee. The license fee pays for the right to use our Initiative to Reduce Crime by Strengthening Families program with the availability of many resources. We will provide your print shop with what is needed to print the Family-Building Dialogue Kits used by families to grow and help other families become stronger and healthier.

The license also makes available a lot of resources for inexpensive purchase by area retail stores, restaurants and employers.

Step Two

The Mayor declares the Initiative to Reduce Crime by Strengthening Families to news media and appoints some person within city government or a community organization to lead the effort. From that point on, the Mayor receives progress reports and occasionally makes appearances to promote the Initiative and motivate Initiative Partners (families, news media, stores, restaurants, social service organizations, service and fraternal clubs, employers, etc.)

Step Three

Leadership works with the media to promote the Initiative and invite participation of others as Initiative Partners. These Partners include Initiative Families, news media, stores, restaurants, employers and any other groups, organizations and services who want to be a part.

Step Four

Once the Family-Building Kits are printed and assembled, sales are begun. A city can sell the Kits for whatever they wish. If funds are very scarse for the license fee, we recommend selling them for $10 per Kit more than the cost of production. Remember that a Kit has 4 Sets of Family Treasure Cards, one Set for the purchasing family (Initiative Family) to use for its own growth and 3 Sets to help three other families build stronger family relationships and give kids valuable skills for lifetime success.

Our inexpensive license fee requires giving 20% of Kits away to motivated families receiving services through organizations serving the poor so that those families can help other struggling families that might not otherwise be reached.

We recommend that sales to families begin with motivated families who work for the city or county. A letter requesting the partnership of the area's churches and other religious organizations should also jump start sales and grow rapidly the number of families reaching out and helping other families.

Similarly, other organizations should be brought into the action, like social service organizations, service clubs, libraries, the area's largest employers, etc. The goal is to sell from 20% to 25% of the area's total families.

Step Four

As soon as there is time, schools are notified of the web site they can go to for fun lesson plans to teach their students good dialogue skills. Many schools will have already begun as a result of media coverage.

Step Five

Then, there should be an effort to recruit almost all of the grocery stores and very many of the restaurants and retail stores as Initiative Partners. Some will have already responded to the appeal in the newspapers and local television and radio stations.

Stores and restaurants are directed to specific web sites where they can purchase the inexpensive family-building resources they hand out free that also serve to bring people back to their stores or restaurants for repeat business and to get another different free resource.

Step Six

The recruitment of organizations to host family nights to teach dialogue skills can be done through the media. They can be directed to a web site address for instructions and ordering the Great Family Conversations Tool Kits.

Step Seven

Employers are eventually approached through media and word-of-mouth regarding the Family Adventures they can give out to their employees and their employees' contacts in the community.

Step Eight

As soon as they wish, the media can tell area family counselors and psychotherapists how they can be listed on a local web site or two as resources for families needing help. Almost all of the resources given out free suggest getting help at the first sign of problems in talking.

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