AU communications can weave a wide range of ideas, features, and topics with the core principles of the brand by utilizing the change/save mechanism. This editorial frame highlights how many different kinds of programs, events, offerings, and initiatives can work to change and save the lives of AU students, their families, and those in the communities in which they study, practice, work, and serve.
In this example, created for the College of Education and Human Development, applies the change/save mechanism as a clear structural frame for a discussion of one of the division’s special features.
Spotlight on The Harris Literacy Center
Our Harris center provides children, adolescents, and adults from the Augusta area with free, high-quality literacy tutoring to promote the development of life-long readers and writers—while our own education students gain extraordinary direct experience.
The Change: We strive to be a community center that expands and invigorates access to literacy resources and positive learning experiences for both children and adults—ensuring that literacy is truly for all.
The Save: When we give those who aspire to read and write better the right resources—in the right setting and at the time that is right for them—we help them preserve their zeal for learning and open new doors of opportunity that might otherwise remain closed.
TIP: USING THE CHANGE/SAVE MECHANISM
We see tremendous opportunity in redefining and reimagining acts of changing and saving lives. While saving lives, in particular, seems to point us directly to medical interventions and wellness, our interpretations don’t need to be limited to treating wounds or fighting infections. How might we broaden our definitions of what it means to change and to save those around us?
- Start with the more accessible entry point: What is the change you are making or hope to make in the world? then
- Follow through to the benefits of the change: What kind of save does your effort make possible?
Example 1:
I want to change the way primary preventative healthcare is administered in rural areas.
I want to save patients with manageable conditions the pain that comes when they aren’t properly managed, and the case becomes critical.
Example 2:
I want to change the way middle schoolers engage with language arts in Georgia schools.
I want to save them the struggle of wrestling with materials that don’t spark their interests or engage their imaginations and to preserve an enthusiasm for reading that might otherwise get lost.
Reconceptualizing The Save:
What is preserved, restored, sustained, or conserved?
You can save a life. You can save a key historic site from ruin. You can save a company’s revenue from being eaten up by unnecessary overhead costs.
Or, what is prevented, averted, avoided, or spared?
You can save an elder from the pain of neuropathy. You can save a water supply with mathematical modeling of runoff from a proposed landfill site. You can save an online shopper from the fallout from a data breach.