San Paolo (Brazil). On 28 June 2022, an online meeting took place of the Communication Coordinators of the Schools of Our Lady Aparecida Province (BAP) with headquarters in San Paolo, organized by the provincial team and coordinated by Sr. Ivone Marcuzo, Provincial Councilor referent for Communication.
During the meeting, in addition to discussing topics concerning everyday aspects of communication in schools, a first evaluation of the “Integrated Communication Proposal” was carried out.
The proposal, presented to the Coordinators during the meeting in April 2022, has as its main objective to develop the work in a collegial way between the Schools regarding the publication of materials, strengthening the network mentality, and the synergy between the Educating Communities of the BAP Province. A second goal is the optimization of resources, talents, and time.
In the first phase of the Proposal, the 16 Coordinators of the Schools were divided into four groups based on their professional skills: advertising, public relations, journalism, and design. A specific calendar was then established to be carried out in June.
The dates chosen had the objective of increasing the Salesian charismatic formation of the Coordinators of the Province: 5 June, the anniversary of Don Bosco’s priestly ordination; 24 June, 71st anniversary of the canonization of Mother Mazzarello, memory of Don Bosco’s name day, Feast of Gratitude to the Rector Major, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime.
In evaluating this first phase, the participants expressed their satisfaction with the Proposal and shared the challenges and difficulties encountered. They highlighted the integration as positive points, not only between the members of their own group, but also between the different groups, since the work of each was linked to the execution of the tasks of the other groups.
The interaction between new elements was also underlined, as the Province is still in a phase of organization, given the new configuration of the BAP Province, created in February 2021 by the merger of three Provinces: Campo Grande, Porto Alegre, and San Paolo.
The Coordinators also appreciated the common formation, the sharing of skills, knowledge and good practices, the research among Salesian sources. It was recognized that the difficulties encountered were part of the process and, although they sometimes did not feel sufficiently prepared for some tasks, they experienced mutual support between colleagues and the possibility of using new tools that facilitated communication, information exchange, improvement of communication performance, and execution of activities, managing to achieve the intended objectives.
In the “Integrated Communication Proposal”, the professionals involved created diversified materials to be published on the social networks of the BAP Province Schools: editorial productions such as news, information texts and captions, videos, posts, stories, graphics in general.
According to some participants, the experience of offering and receiving ready-made material is positive and promotes a more integrated visual recognition between schools. Programming publications in the same period has generated greater involvement and greater visibility of the Schools of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
This experience is part of the process of formation and accompaniment of the local communication teams of the schools of the Our Lady Aparecida Province, still in the consolidation phase. A second phase of the ‘Proposal’ is scheduled for the month of August, when the 150th anniversary of the Foundation of the FMA Institute will be celebrated, a period in which the Schools will receive the Matriculation Campaign of the Brazil Salesian Network in view of the year school 2022-2023.
