As a high-impact expression of Santa Clara County’s commitment to eliminating the achievement gap among at-risk children, Educare California at Silicon Valley (ECSV) needed equally high-impact communications when it launched.  Its three-year communication plan, based on extensive, in-depth interviews and focus groups, helped promote the program’s mission, goals and brand identity.

Local audiences—parents, teachers, elected officials and others concerned about early childhood education—gained a deeper understanding of ECSV as a model early learning school and the region’s leading professional development and research institute for early childhood educators. Located within San José’s Franklin-McKinley School District, the ECSV school is a laboratory for teacher training, with state-of-the-art classrooms and learning spaces and a resource center for families. Teachers work directly with children to help them develop literacy, math and social-emotional skills. The communication plan’s phasing and tactics helped ECSV fundraising and launch with high-profile success.