How are Red Treehouse and UCP letting the rest of the world know they’re
in the hope business?
Note: My focus going
forward will be on the digitally-mediated (i.e., electronic) communications and information flows
of both organizations. That pretty much covers everything Red Treehouse does, and but a portion
of what UCP does.
Red Treehouse:
There
she is on the homepage -- in the tagline at the top: Discover Answers. Make
Connections. Find Hope. -- and again in the "Welcome to Red Treehouse" text block: Hope for today and confidence as you look forward to tomorrow. As far as I
can tell, those are the only places where hope is explicitly mentioned on the whole
site.
Couple of observations:
- Hope is linked to other things like answers, information, and empowerment in both instances. The implication? Where there's hope...answers, information, and empowerment are on the trail leading up to it.
- The verbiage is spare, to say the least. There ain’t a lot of emotion imparted.
To the second point, the floweriest expression I've been able to find of how hopeful
the organization itself feels lies in a news piece (ostensibly a press release) about going live with the Web site in greater
Cleveland. Red Treehouse is
described therein as “a place to explore, discover and see beyond immediate
surroundings. It is a place where people come to find new possibilities, where
people gather to help children and young adults meet needs, to overcome
challenges and develop to their fullest potential.”
UCP:
Believable hope is listed at www.ucp.org as one of six (6) building blocks
to have come out of the visioning sessions that were tied (from '04-'07) to the organization’s “Life
Without Limits” initiative.*
Videos from said sessions were to have been posted online, but, as far as I can tell, have not been. That's unfortunate -- I believe -- for a couple o' reasons: (1) I bet the conversations about hope were inspiring at the time and could continue to inspire; (2) Those same conversations would no doubt reveal how and why the adjective "believable" was tacked on.
My best guess (re: "believable") is that the participants concluded that hope has to be realistic, i.e., that people have to have good reasons to feel hopeful. Makes sense. However, what's "good reason" to one may not be to another. For some, reasons have to be scientifically supported or logically proven to be considered good; for others, God's word is more than good reason enough. Which of these did they have in mind? Red Treehouse doesn't make the same distinction. How come?
Continuing on...
Like Red Treehouse, UCP uses the word “hope” infrequently on its site. Unlike Red Treehouse, however, UCP writes hope (albeit indirectly) into and onto all of its digital deliverables. That UCP is committed to ensuring a "Life Without Limits" is everywhere you click.
Videos from said sessions were to have been posted online, but, as far as I can tell, have not been. That's unfortunate -- I believe -- for a couple o' reasons: (1) I bet the conversations about hope were inspiring at the time and could continue to inspire; (2) Those same conversations would no doubt reveal how and why the adjective "believable" was tacked on.
My best guess (re: "believable") is that the participants concluded that hope has to be realistic, i.e., that people have to have good reasons to feel hopeful. Makes sense. However, what's "good reason" to one may not be to another. For some, reasons have to be scientifically supported or logically proven to be considered good; for others, God's word is more than good reason enough. Which of these did they have in mind? Red Treehouse doesn't make the same distinction. How come?
Continuing on...
Like Red Treehouse, UCP uses the word “hope” infrequently on its site. Unlike Red Treehouse, however, UCP writes hope (albeit indirectly) into and onto all of its digital deliverables. That UCP is committed to ensuring a "Life Without Limits" is everywhere you click.
Putting out there the possibility that my child could live a life
without limits plants seeds of great hope in me. I’m sure it does the same in other
parents, as well.
*Last year, Life Without Limits (LWL) was apparently reconstructed. I haven't been able to find details. I only assume believable hope is still a key element.
*Last year, Life Without Limits (LWL) was apparently reconstructed. I haven't been able to find details. I only assume believable hope is still a key element.
No comments:
Post a Comment