Strengthening Resilience - Strategy Session: Communicating With Families

1. Strengthening Resilience – Strategy Session“Communicating With Families” A Shared Responsibility 28 September 2015

2. Session Objectives • Update on Communications & Marketing Working Group activities & current MFS approach for communications & marketing • Highlight tangible examples of communications tactics from various MFRCs • Collectively discuss shared responsibility for communicating with families • Discuss challenges and successes

3. CF Ombudsman & Chief Review Services Recommendations: • It is recommended that the CF, including CF leadership, take positive action to communicate more coherently, consistently and forthrightly to, and with, military families. • To increase the profile and awareness across CF locations of available MFS resources, develop a national marketing/promotion plan. This plan should be representative of all MFS programs and services and inclusive of all military families.

4. MFS Communications & Marketing WG Objective: Develop an integrated strategic communications and marketing plan for the Military Family Services Program for 2014-2017; Share best practices, resources and approaches in communications and marketing; Develop a national approach and campaign to improve awareness of resources; Develop a shared lexicon and key messages; Develop shared tools and resources that can be used by all partners; and Champion the work of the Communications and Marketing Working Group with their counterparts and peers at Military Family Resource Centre.

5. MFS Communications & Marketing WG Strategic Approach: • Through communications & marketing, support programming that contributes to the well-being of CAF families in facing the unique challenges of military life, enabling a mission-ready force that protects Canadians and Canadian interests across the country and around the world. • C&M WG Plan- developed to guide communications & marketing national, regional, and local efforts with the objective for: • More coherent communications • Increased awareness • Engaged families

6. Dependence on member for communicating with families Social, cultural and linguistic diversity of the military family community Geographic dispersion of military families Fluid, dynamic nature of service life Lack of coordination and responsibility for communications function between MFS and MFRCs MFS Strategic Communications Plan, Tactical Plan & Narrative (available at https://www.cfmws.com/en/AboutUs/MFS/Working%20Groups/Pages/Communications-and-Marketing-Working-Group.aspx All Comms Network (teleconferences with all MFRC Comms staff, every 6 weeks) Sub-committees created, review of comms materials, sharing of resources & best practices Challenges ? Successes ?

7. Successes: MFRC-Inspired Communications 1.Valcartier Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=15&v=NDvfwoBcsPY 2. Trenton – http://living.bayofquinte.ca/2015/06/18/8-things-trenton-military-family-resource-centre/ 3. Shilo Video - https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kxpz970z2xm13gl/AAAzysQU7z0B0BTgt0sK4FxAa?dl=0&preview=MFRC-03.mp4

8. Sharing the Responsibility Keys to Success: • Concerted Effort – We have to want to improve the communications function and make an effort to do so • Assertive, explicit action – Proactive approach. What is worth doing, is worth communicating • Leadership-driven – Acknowledgment by leadership that the function is critical • Outcome-focused – Families are aware; they are engaged; their needs are met; they are resilient • Agile – Responsive to families’ needs, using many channels & approaches • Patience – years of dissatisfaction has shaped perception. Small successes will drive reputation and change behaviours

9. Three Key Priorities

10. Three Key Priorities

11. Three Key Priorities

12. Three Key Priorities

13. What Families Are Telling Us? It's impossible to know what to expect or what the best way to receive service info is base to base, and in the whirlwind of change a family is experiencing during a posting having a standardized welcome package for them (and I lean toward an actual, tangible and inviting package of community and MFRC materials) would be a lovely constant to have. " a continuity of services at all MFRCs ... with the same look and feel (you know what to expect and can identify an MFRC no matter where you go).“ " consistency of vital services from one MFRC to the next. The military is essentially the same from post to post regardless of the regional differences .... Families also need this consistency."

14. What families are seeing?

15. Branding Defined • There is a difference between marketing and branding. • Marketing is actively promoting a product or service or event - Push tactic. • Branding is the expression of the value of an organization, product, or service. It is communication of characteristics, values, and attributes – Pull tactic • Promoting a product or service by identifying it with a particular look so that it facilitates your growth and sustainability as an entity. Branding is about making a product or service familiar.

16. Branding – Strategic Intent • It’s about “FAMILIES”.What’s best for families and how this could improve their experience as a “military” family. But….there are ultimate benefits for MFRCs: -Standard templates to use (Welcome Guides, pamphlets, website, etc.) -Lower costs to produce local materials. Ability to produce centrally and leverage economies of scale -Reduced local staff hours creating original materials

17. Branding – Let’s Roll Up Our Sleeves • Defining “Character” – 3 key traits/characteristics that define “Services for Military Families” • What is the “Current Family Experience”? • What is the “Future Family Experience”?

18. Our Final Thought… “Our job is to connect to people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than we found them, more able to get where they’d like to go.” Seth Godin