Client: W. K. Kellogg Foundation

What We Did: We took the lead role in writing the initiative's integrated action plan and its communication plan, wrote the foundation's library of FFK publications, and contributed to a national media campaign.

Quality, Benefits, and Impacts: FFK is generally regarded as one of the foundation's most successful initiatives. The initiative's final evaluation report found that in addition to tripling the number of adoptions and guardianships in participating states, FFK informed new national foster care and adoption policy, raised public awareness of the plight of waiting children, and established powerful new collaborative relationships between child welfare agencies and the courts. As a major element of the reform's communication strategy, our library of publications contributed to these positive outcomes. FFK publications were routinely used to brief President Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, and their staffs, as well as some members of Congress, leaders within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the national media. Publications were also widely used within the initiative's 11 implementation sites.

Partners: We were the publication consultants on a management team composed of foundation staff and consultants with different areas of expertise: communications, media relations, program management, evaluation, public policy, family advocacy, and law. Eleven grantees across the country implemented FFK. FFK publication design was provided by Timothy Brostrom ("7000 Reasons to Smile") and Randy Walker, Paradigm-Models for Communications (all others).