At the beginning of March, DC SCORES was busy gearing up for their spring season. For twelve weeks each spring, over 3,000 students at 65 schools play soccer, write poetry, and serve their community with DC SCORES. When schools closed in response to the spread of COVID-19, DC SCORES had to act quickly. Rather than cancelling their season, DC SCORES committed to staying connected to as many of their poet-athletes as possible while they are at home. Within three weeks, DC SCORES had built an online learning portal called SCORES at Home. Updated daily with new writing and soccer lessons, along with supplemental resources that might be helpful to the students and their families, the online learning portal is bilingual, offering all resources in both English and Spanish. DC SCORES knows that this will allow them to reach more families – over 40% of DC SCORES participants are Latino.
How did DC SCORES have the capacity to develop SCORES at Home as a fully bilingual online learning portal? The organization has been strategically building their capacity to effectively communicate with bilingual and Spanish-speaking families for at least three years. In 2017, DC SCORES launched the Familias Unidas Initiative after conducting focus groups with Spanish-speaking parents of DC SCORES participants. These focus groups, which were led by DC SCORES’ Latino Engagement Coordinator, informed a strategy to increase the organization’s cultural competency and sensitivity and launch a Spanish-language communications plan. In 2018, the Crimsonbridge Foundation made a grant to DC SCORES through our Bridges Program to support Spanish-language communications capacity building efforts, including the creation of a Spanish-language microsite, a ¡Conoce más sobre DC SCORES! video, and other communications collateral.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of investing in communications, especially communications to reach members of the community who do not speak English. Tony Francavilla, DC SCORES Chief Development Officer, reflects, “ DC SCORES is so much better equipped to communicate with our Spanish-speaking families through SCORES at Home, our Parent Resource Center, and through direct communication than we were a couple years ago. Our bilingual Communications and Engagement Manager has been essential in basically every part of our work since we went virtual.”
DC Scores will host Our Words Our City – Live! – a virtual event – on Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 7pm. To participate register here.