Strategy Plan

Client: Focus for Ethnic Women

Professor Bernard Gauthier

K. Slattery, M. Schwenker, C. Momo, M. Avalos, M. Ojigbo

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October 2012

Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3 SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Strengths.................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Weaknesses ............................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Opportunities ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Threats........................................................................................................................................................................................ 6 Optimal list of Goals......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Optimal list of Audiences............................................................................................................................................... 8 Strategic Direction ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 Leveraging Strengths ........................................................................................................................................................... 9 Overcoming Key Weaknesses ........................................................................................................................................ 10 Capitalizing On Opportunities ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Mitigating Against Key Threats ................................................................................................................................... 11 Creative strategy ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................................ 14

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Introduction
In order for an organization to continue to further its reach and meet its main objectives, it must have good strategic plans in place. This document provides high-level summaries of a set of strategic recommendations for Focus for Ethnic Women. It discusses the optimal goals, analyzes the key audiences for the public relations campaign, and examines how Focus for Ethnic Women can take advantage of its strong points and address its threats and weaknesses.

SWOT Analysis
Like most organizations, Focus for Ethnic Women (FEW) has strengths and weaknesses inside its structure, as well as opportunities and threats outside. Among the strengths that weve identified in the formative research, 3 seem to stand out: people, goodwill and internal cohesion. Thus, our strategy will aim at leveraging those strengths.
Strengths

FEW targets recent immigrants. Ideally, the organization provides services to immigrant women from ethnic origin. Considering the fact that the process of emigrating to a new country can be very stressful and demanding, recent immigrants are for the most part a vulnerable population. Most immigrants leave their relatives behind and have no references upon arrival in Canada. Others arrive as refugees, carrying within themselves the scars of a long-term psychological trauma. In addition to their precariousness, they have to start from scratch. Hence, they need directions, attention and care. Given the uniqueness of the challenge recent immigrants face in comparison with Canadian born or settled immigrants, we believe a strong emotional appeal can be built around this population. Beside, the cultural diversity of recent immigrants and the plurality of the age groups, are all assets we aim to capitalize on. Cohesion is another major strength. FEWs employees have passion for their work, go along with one another, and aim at making a difference. Their willingness to work together, their determination and motivation to make things happen, can be explained by the fact that they

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are immigrants for the most part, or of immigrant origin. In fact, their past experience makes them aware of the situation, thus compassionate, and better equipped to assist this vulnerable group. FEWs employees know the challenge. Theyve been there before and have overcome it. The common passion they have for a valuable cause, inspires them to work together in a good mood despite the barriers. Thats an asset we want to tap on. Goodwill is a strength we aim to take advantage of. In general, immigrant women from ethnic or visible minorities know FEW and praise its actions in favour of recent immigrants. We were able to assess that goodwill when we went to community centres where FEW reaches out to ethnic women with programs such as healthy life style, immigrant women and voice. We found that its a popular meeting because in addition to the teachings they take home, they gain in confidence, and share. In fact, its a moment of relaxation and joy. Those women all confess their gratitude to FEW for making that possible. In addition, some women who have been trained by FEW use their skills to better their lives, those of their family members, and they support the community in general. This is for instance the case of women who were thought how to sew. FEWs goodwill goes beyond the region of Waterloo. Consuelo Solar, a former CNN reporter wrote a thrilling article about FEWs action. The article was published in a magazine of national allegiance, namely the Canadian Newcomer Magazine. We want to make sure we take advantage of the fact that people outside FEW think a great deal of the organization.
Weaknesses

FEW faces significant barriers to achieve its goals. Among which are limited funds, infrastructure, and time constraint. FEW, clearly does not have substantial funds to serve effectively the flow of immigrant women. While the flow of immigrants is still increasing in the Waterloo region, the funds allocated to help those immigrants are decreasing instead. Its a critical problem because

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without money, the organization cannot hire more staff, or full-time staff. Neither can FEW purchase the equipment needed for the smooth functioning of its different activities. The programs manager stressed the fact that FEW needs more computers and industrial sewing machines to better serve their clients. It means the lack of that infrastructure is a hindrance to performing well. Also, women who are trained in photography will benefit from a photo studio. It will enable them to polish and eventually sell their work. Time is also a constraint because FEW is always time crunched. Funds are generally allocated for a fix and likely short period of time. This time constraint affects the executive team which is constantly under pressure. In fact, they are always on the alert to apply for new funds. Yet, they have no guaranty it will be granted. That insecurity impacts employees contract as well. For the most part, they are on a fix term contract and have to deal with the anxiety of not having their contract renewed. Working in such conditions may affect staffs performance negatively.
Opportunities

Canada claims to be a reference when it comes to the diversity and multiculturalism of its population. Not really surprising, for the country was built mainly by immigrants. The flow, since the beginning, has risen up, and the origin of immigrants has been broadened to people from the four corners of the world. Since immigration is a governmental program, the three levels of government provide funds to programs designed to help recent immigrants. Also, the public opinion in general is widely in favour of immigration. We believe this increasing flow of immigrants is an opportunity for FEW because there will always be, at least for a decade to come, immigrant women in need of the kind of services the organization provides. So long as immigration will be official, Governments and private donors will continue to support its action.

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In the same line of thought, when recent immigrants arrive, they tend to find a place of worship. Because they are insecure, they seek protection through religion. The members of their place of worship become their new family and the religious leaders their protector. We believe since religious leaders are knowledgeable with respect to immigrants challenges, they can be key influencers in the sense that they can persuade immigrant women to go to FEW.
Threats

Immigration is almost always a current topic in Canada. Hence, many organizations target that population by designing programs solely for them. It leads to a fierce competition in the same sector. Some competitors are bigger from the budget they possess, the scope in which they operate, the number of people they employ, and the diversity of programs they run. To build a respectable reputation in the mist of giants ( YMCA, The Working Center, KW Multicultural centre,) FEW needs to be ingenious in order to stand out. Also, the immigration policy is gradually changing in Canada. A major decision was taken recently by the federal government to prohibit one category of immigrants, namely investors, and to suspend the skilled workers category until further notice. That decision will probably not affect the flow of immigrants in the region in the short run. However, it could in the long run and FEW has to keep an eye on that. Another threat is that the world in general and Canada in particular is currently not prosperous. Companies and individuals make less profit than they used to. Thus, they spend wisely and are less incline to donate. If FEW receives less donations, or not at all, it will definitely impact the quality of the services it provides.

Optimal list of Goals

Our ultimate motive with the public relations campaign is to build more awareness for the organization. Generating more awareness will help compel more recent immigrants to try the programs and services that are provided by Focus for Ethnic Women. We feel that this is an

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important step that will enhance the organizations relationships with the actors and give them more recognition in the community. One of FEWs main goals is to facilitate the integration of immigrant and visible minority women into Canadian society. We want our selected goals for the public relations effort to align with the values of Focus for Ethnic Women. . As a team we have come together to agree on a number of goals for our campaign. Our goals for the public relations effort are stated as follows: We aim to increase funding through donations and fundraisers We aim to increase and promote better recognition of the organization within the community We aim to increase the number of immigrants (actors) making use of Focus for Ethic Womens resources We recommend these goals because these are goals that initiate action in addition to being clear, realistic and meaningful to the organization. From the formative research and the meeting we had with our client, we noted that lack of adequate funding is one of the main issues the organization currently faces. Funds are necessary for a not-for-profit organization like FEW to expand their programs, resources and infrastructure. Without additional funds, the organization will become limited in its outreach. This makes increasing funding a key goal. Also, because some of FEWs competitors are bigger well-known organizations, enhancing recognition in the community is another key goal. We also feel that these recommended goals aid us in narrowing down the organizations list of problem areas and give our public relations efforts focus. Our recommendations are strategic because we strongly consider them to be critical to the survival and growth of the organization. Our recommended goals are also strategic because they state our expectations for the public relations campaign clearly. With the recommended goals we will not lose sight of the objectives we are trying to accomplish for Focus for Ethnic Women.

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Optimal list of Audiences

The actors are defined as those who use the resources provided by an organization. The key actor for FEW would be immigrant women in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. FEW is an organization that is very focused and narrowed in on immigrant women in need of guidance. Although FEW offers assistance and the use of resources to all female immigrants, we will focus on recent immigrants. We have defined a recent immigrant as one that has moved to Canada within the past five years. FEW provides services for a very specific demographic which makes this one of the few actors. The influencers are those who have an impact on the actors. Influencers can play a part in the everyday life of the actors and have the potential to effect an actors decisions and actions. The strongest influencers would be the women who have taken advantage of FEWs resources in the past. These influencers are often settled immigrants. Settled immigrants are those who immigrated to Canada more than five years ago. Local religious leaders are a potential influencer that we believe would be beneficial to create relationships with. The women who have used FEWs resources in the past can play a huge role in those seeking similar help. Every woman that comes to FEW has a unique story to tell of their past as well as a vision of where they want to be in the future. These stories can be used to inform others and create a connection with new female immigrants. There is nothing stronger than a personal story highlighting a positive relationship with an organization. There are many positive stories that have come from the women who have taken advantage of what FEW has to offer. These women have a huge influence on other women that currently stand where they once were. The personal triumphs can greatly impact new immigrant women and motivate them to seek out the help of FEW. Through our formative research we have found personal stories of immigrant women finding their place in churches, mosques, temples and so on. Finding a place of worship is often high on their list of priorities. We also know that religious leaders have a huge impact on their

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congregations. We feel strongly that these religious leaders and places of worship would be the perfect people to make relationships with. These leaders and those who gather as a religion have a great influence on those coming in. A relationship with these people would help FEW make connections and bring in more actors to use their resources. On top of the advantage in regards to an increase of interest in FEWs programs and resources, the religious groups could offer financial support. Religious groups are known to have money and resources available for charities and organizations. The primary enabler is the provincial and federal government. FEW is able to offer services and resources because of the funding through grants. Service Canada, Ontario Womens Directorate, Employment Ontario, The Ontario Trillium Foundation, and Status of Women Canada all make these programs possible. Without the support, FEW would not be able to continue offering the services offered.

Strategic Direction
Leveraging Strengths

The organization of FEW has a variety of different strengths. These different strengths can be used to help to develop a more prominent name for the organization in the local community. To start off FEW has a large public base of actors, this would include many different women who have been helped by some of the different programs which FEW provides. It would be extremely powerful if FEW could share different stories of success. It would be crucial for FEW to leverage these personal stories from women who have already been served, by sharing them with potential clients and funders through various channels. These heart warming stories can help to raise awareness for FEW as well as well as provide more funding if applied in the popper method. Another strength that FEW holds is the goodwill in the local community of recent immigrants as well as settled immigrants. FEW has goodwill in the local community and this goodwill can be adhered to their advantage. This is because FEW

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can leverage this goodwill and in the community and possible increase awareness and funding by specific fundraisers as well as calls through the different vehicles. In addition one of the final strengths that FEW has that can be leveraged is the existing good cohesion within the organization of FEW. The internal cohesion can help in many different ways and also can be leveraged a great amount. For example the great internal cohesion in FEW can help to create a better communication base with the immigrant community as well helping connect with the community. The organization can use this internal cohesion to build more relationships with recent immigrants as well as settled immigrants.
Overcoming Key Weaknesses

Even though there are many strengths as well as opportunities which FEW hold, there are some pinnacle weaknesses which must be overcome. One of the main weaknesses which FEW has is the lack of funds and infrastructure, this limits some of the reach of FEW. Although there is a lack of funds, the organization can overcome this by creating awareness in the community or creating partnerships. This will help to overcome the lack of funds by creating a large base who may be willing to provide different resources such as funding or different products that are needed like sewing machines or computers. Similarly creating partnerships would help the organization because both partnered organizations could benefit from specific resources which the other holds. Another weakness that FEW faces would be their specific time restraints. This can be overcome by providing a greater amount of staffing. If the organization increases staffing then there would be a greater ability to provide more resources in a limited amount of time.
Capitalizing On Opportunities

There are many different opportunities for FEW as an organization to grow and in turn be able to provide assistance to more immigrant women. One key opportunity that FEW can capitalize upon is the growing number of recent immigrant families in the local community.

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It is crucial for FEW to begin to raise their awareness levels in the local community as well as with local immigrant communities. This is due to the fact that if FEW is able to raise their awareness then this growing number of ethic women would be able to ask for resources and assistance. It was discussed previously how the local community of Kitchener and Waterloo are full of different religious headquarters, for example mosques, churches, temples etc. These many different religious leaders can prove to be a wonderful opportunity, this is due to their close tie with the immigrant community as well as the community at large. These religious leaders can help to spread awareness and increase possible funding by sharing who FEW is and what the organization specifically does with their congregation as well as possible partnerships.
Mitigating Against Key Threats

Even though there is plenty of room for growth in the local community there are also some key threats that must be taken into consideration prior to making any advancements. One key threat is that FEW can be blended in with all of the other different organizations who provide the same thing. One main way FEW can avoid being placed in a group with all of the other organizations who help to provide resources for recent and settled immigrant families, is to emphasis one of the main things that sets FEW apart which is its focus. FEW holds their main focus on immigrant women who are in need of resources and helping them to find skills for jobs. This sets them apart because while other organization are broad and general FEW has a specific focal point. This focus will help FEW because it shows that they are more able to cater to women and their ability to function in the workforce oppose to other organizations. Another main threat which FEW must diminish is the possibility that some people in the immediate community will not want to provide funds to FEW. This threat is a very plausible one which must be overcome to do this it is suggested that the campaign be spread to large numbers of different demographics as well as settled immigrant families. This will help to

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avoid the possibility that some people in the community will not want to help the organization by reaching as many people as possible and approaching many people who may be interested in donating their resources.

Creative strategy
The first key message we developed as a group was that FEW gives ethnic and immigrant women the opportunity and skills needed to be a successful part of the Canadian culture and community. We believe that FEW contribute not only to women but the families that these women nurture and care for. By enabling women to have more opportunities and having the skills needed to contribute to the success and determination of these women. By creating a key message that reaches towards these women we feel we can strengthen their confidence and create many opportunities. We believe that the recent immigrant women relative to the relationship continuum is in a fairly fragile state and need to develop to foster strong ties and change their position within the relationship continuum. The next key message was created for settled immigrant women. We feel that settled immigrants should act as advocates and outreach to recent immigrants. With this key message we can help recent immigrant women feel at ease in this new environment. We understand that success is difficult and clients will be more likely to return if they know of past success stories and have women who can help guide them during this process. With settled immigrant women acting as advocates the relationship continuum remains strong and will help create a better bond between recent immigrant women and the FEW organization. Another key message that was developed relates to a possible partnership with local religious leaders and communities. We believe these leaders should act as guides not only spiritually but in ways that continue to help strengthen these womens skills and networks. In many cases these religious leaders act as advisors and could help integrate ethnic women into

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communities where people are constantly supporting and helping each other. By helping these women understand the many communities and cultures within Canada they can more easily adapt to culture shock that may be felt after leaving their country of origin. We are aware that a partnership with these local religious groups has yet to be developed and the relationship between the organizations has not yet occurred. We do however believe the partnership would be a great asset for both organizations as well as FEWs clients and could create a strong relationship. The last key message is for the enablers that help the organization with funds, grants and other resources. By helping and funding FEW these organizations help strengthen and develop the necessary skills that ethnic women need to be successful. The many organizations that provide funds help give ethnic women the opportunity to develop their skills as an individual while assisting them in developing local contacts. While these organizations may not always see the actual effects of their contributions it is important to outreach to these organizations and help them understand the actual effects their donations have. While the relationship between these organizations has existed for a long time the relationship can be empowering or negative. With funds being less available during recessions or due to too many other organizations seeking more and more funds it can be difficult to maintain a strong partnership. The overall theme for our campaign that best suited our key messages is to empowering women to build a better community. We feel that many of our key messages related to helping ethnic and immigrant women in gaining the necessary skills to be successful in many aspects of their lives. We also believe that by empowering women they can directly and indirectly strengthen their local communities. By developing the skills of these women we can help strengthen their families by having strong women who can assist their families

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become better integrated within the community. We believe this is strategic in the sense it directly relates to the mission statement of the organization and shows what the effects are of helping integrate and give kills these women the tools to succeed.

Conclusion
This action plan helps define and explain the many discoveries we encountered after completing and analyzing our formative research. We discovered there were weaknesses that needed to be addressed and have begun to imagine optimal goals and strategies that will help further the goals of FEW but to raise support for the organization. We believe this is strategic in that we can use the kindness of the FEW employees, present and former clients to reach new immigrants within Canada and help the organization become more sustainable in the process. Our strategic direction outlines how we discussed using and allocating our resources to begin to realize and understand our key tactics and the direction for our campaign. Our key messages have helped shape the theme for our campaign and have helped us understand where our focus should be. We believe we are ready as a team to present our campaign and discuss the conclusions that arose after our formative research had been analyzed and our action plan had been envisioned and decided.