Blog #2

Ellie and I arrived at Friendship Circle early on the first day of the project and I finally had the chance to meet my mentor Yosef in person. We sat down with some of the staff members and listened in on their meeting. They gave us an introduction and described their respective roles within the organization. Among the staff members I had the pleasure of meeting, their jobs included program director, co-director, event manager, director of youth engagement, and aids and specialists. They discussed a challenge they were facing within the organization at the meeting. One kid has been causing issues that have gone out of control; the staff was brainstorming strategies on how this child can continue to participate in the Friendship Circle without disrespecting those around him. They talked about creating specialized programs for children with more severe disabilities and ensuring that these children always have aids on hand. 

After the meeting, Ellie and I met with Yosef in his office. We discussed the best times and days to come in throughout the course of the next three weeks in order to accommodate everyone's schedules. We also discussed the tasks that we will be undertaking during the project. Yosef informed us that we will be promoting the 2023 Friendship Circle Gala, creating potential press releases, making flyers and handing them out, attending programs and taking pictures, posting on social media, finding special friendships to post on social media, and promoting FC summer camp. 

Ellie and I then drove over to meet the main marketing coordinator, Dana, for the Friendship Circle social media platforms. Since the organization hasn't used the FC Instagram since January, Dana gave us a few recommendations on how to create the best postings for advertising. A suggestion was to highlight a new volunteer and buddy pairing program; we could take a photo and caption it to describe what the volunteers completed and how they showed friendship-building. Dana told us that FC will receive brochures sometime next week and that it would be a great idea to put them up outside restaurants, shops, and libraries within the Jewish community. She additionally advised us to continue posting on the Instagram story to promote the gala. 

The second day consisted of working on activities for the 2023 Friendship Circle Gala. The gala is an event to celebrate all of the teen volunteers' achievements. To promote the event, Ellie and I initially worked on making a video to share on Instagram. To create a fun video with music in the background, we had to collect videos of teen volunteers expressing their excitement for the gala. 

Ellie worked on editing the video while I focused on another task. At the gala, the FC will distribute gift bags, each of which will have a customized speaker. On one side of the speakers will be the FC logo, while on the other will be "FC volunteer 2022-2023." I utilized a Cricut machine, an electronic cutting device that can cut all kinds of designs from materials including paper, vinyl, and card stock, to make the logos for the speakers. I began by using the website to enter the logo we desired to use and the specific number of copies we needed. In all honesty, it took me a little while to figure everything out because I haven't used a Cricut machine in some time. The marker kept smearing all over the place when I first tried to print out the logos. In addition, the machine would malfunction and some of the logos wouldn't even print out. After these issues, I thought it would be a lot easier to cut the logos with the machine's internal blade. About 25 of the logos we made with sticky paper were printed. Hopefully, the machine will work much better the next time!