The High Tide Communicators

Stephanie DeNicola-Stephen White-Alex Dickinson Anna Michelle Walters-Daniel Shipley

Metro Animal Shelter First organization that we chose Miscommunication between the shelter and the

group Did not work out as planned Changed our organization

History of The Stallings Center The center was opened on November 30, 1994. As a

result, the program expanded to obtain 6 brand new classrooms serving about 80 children with an entire staff of 34 individuals as well as speech therapist, physical therapist, and an occupational therapist.

In addition to children with cerebral palsy and spina bifida, Rise serves children with Down syndrome and other developmental disabilities

It is a demonstration program designed to serve young children with physical disabilities from birth to five years old

Timeline of Events Nov. 3rd Made the decision to work with the The Rise

School of Tuscaloosa Nov. 8th Cleaned and organized the equipment shed Nov. 10th , 12th , 15th Cleaned the common areas of the

school Nov. 17th Flowers were planted in the playground area

and cleared the wasp nests from the toy shed Nov. 22nd volunteered in the classrooms helping the

children

Step 1: Identify and Define the Problem The problem: The staff needed help with everyday

activities and upkeep around the center that had been neglected due to time.

Journalist’s Six Questions

1. Who? The staff and the children 2. What? The lack of staff time to manage taking care of

the kids and regular maintenance of the common area and the playground

3. When? At the convenience of the school 4. Where? The Rise School common areas, playground,

and classrooms 5. Why? To make the experience of the students on the

playground more enjoyable and allowed employees more time with the students by organizing work areas

6. How? Planted flowers, spent time with students in classrooms, exterminated multiple wasp nests and organized the tool shed

Step 2: Analyze the Problem

Step 3: Possible Solutions

Raise donations for an exterminator to remove several wasp nests

Raise donations for a landscape company to plant a new garden

Donate flowers and supplies to the school Buy tools and flowers to garden the flower beds as a group Raise funds to hire a cleaning crew to disinfect the

common area Buy supplies to disinfect and clean the common area as a

group Volunteer in the classrooms

Step 4: Evaluate Options and Select Best Solution As a group, we decided to have the personal

experience working hands-on to fix the problems. Many of the possible solutions required too much

time and money that we were unable to give and raise in the allotted time.

Based on our group consensus, these were the solutions chosen: Buy tools and flowers to garden the flower beds as a

group Buy supplies to disinfect and clean the common area as

a group Volunteer in the classrooms

Evaluating SolutionsPros Cons

Experience of working in the school

Less costly Less time consuming Personal experience with the

children Working on our own

schedule rather than someone else’s

More costly Risk of not raising the

funding in time to hire a landscaping or cleaning company

Risk of work not being completed in time

Conflicting schedules Time consuming

Step: 5 Test and Implement the solution After receiving approval from Frannie Jones, we were

able to buy the supplies needed from Wal-Mart Scheduled a convenient date for our group and the

school to work On each scheduled day we were able to complete a

new task

Results The common rooms were cleaned, sanitized and

organized which made it safer for the children to play The wasp nest was destroyed and removed as were all

of the dead wasps, for the safety of the children The flower beds were replenished with new top soil,

fertilizer and flowers The toys in the toy shed were re-organized and

sanitized The tool shed was reorganized and replenished Helped the staff complete secondary tasks