CADCA Institute Workshops Help Coalitions Navigate Social Networks

Social interaction and strong communication plans allow coalitions to effectively develop relationships with their communities and important stakeholders. In order to keep pace with the flow of modern communication and information-sharing channels, the use of social media has become a valuable way for coalitions to engage community members and foster discussion. CADCA's National Coalition Institute will help coalitions integrate social media strategies into their work through a variety of workshops at CADCA's National Leadership Forum, held Feb. 7-10 at National Harbor, Md.

CADCA Institute staff and social media consultants will offer two workshops on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and one on Thursday, Feb. 10. Sue Stine, Senior Manager of Dissemination and Coalition Relations for the Institute, will also moderate a workshop hosted by representatives from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Office of Communications about how it can better use social media to partner with coalitions on behavioral health issues.

The first workshop, “Planning Your Coalition’s Social Media Presence,” will be held from 3:30-4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 8. In this session, coalition members will learn how to augment and strengthen their current media plans with social media. LaDonna Coy, Media Consultant and Prevention Specialist, Tom Workman, Ph.D. of Baylor College of Medicine and Jason Verhoosky, Youth Program Coordinator for the DanversCARES Coalition, will show participants how to assess their need for social media to reach out to different generations of community members.

The second session of that day, “Navigating Social Media Tools: Let a Wiki Show You the Way,” will take place from 4:45-5:45 P.M. Presenters will introduce a new CADCA Institute web-based primer “Social Media for Coalitions,” an innovative resource to help coalitions improve their technology and social media activities. This multimedia resource covers social media from assessment to planning to evaluation through a diverse combination of text, source links and vodcasts.

“The new wiki resource will be a visual and interactive tool that is constantly evolving,” says Stine. “Readers can comment on the pages and provide us with feedback on how they are using the resources to share their coalitions’ stories through social media.”

On Thursday, Feb. 10, the social media offerings will continue with a workshop presented by Deanna Stephens and Andrew Wilson from SAMHSA’s Office of Communications. The content of “Federal/Coalition Partnerships: SAMHSA, Social Media and YOU!” will be based off suggestions and input SAMHSA collected prior to the Forum, allowing the presenters to create an interactive new way of workshop planning to better suit the needs of conference participants.

Now that Facebook has overcome Google as the most visited website in the U.S. and changed the landscape of modern social interaction, a workshop based on this Internet giant became inevitable. In “Facebook: Social Communication for the Community Coalition,” presenters will look at a variety of coalitions’ Facebook pages, present real-time examples and provide strategies for utilizing the vast social network to its full potential.

“Social media is an important way for coalition leaders to connect with younger audience, as well as a way for youth to teach adults about new media,” Stine says. “Through these resources, coalitions can engage youth and help them become important players in their communities.”

To view and provide feedback on Social Media for Coalitions, click here.

For more information on social media workshops at the National Leadership Forum, contact Sue Stine at 800-54-CADCA, Ext. 260 or sstine@cadca.org.