In support of the work of its member governors, SGA developed "Education in the South - A Passport to Opportunity" (Passport) as an innovative communications initiative to promote high school completion and motivate students to aggressively prepare for college, post-secondary programs and/or employment. Passport was specifically designed to provide technical assistance in the development of customized turn-key communications campaigns for nine Southern states, including plans, strategies, tactics and tools targeted to students at risk of dropping out of high school, as well as their influencers. In August 2005, SGA received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fund the ambitious Passport initiative.
Nine OF SGA's 18 member states were selected to participate in the project, and divided into three groups of three states each, based on their objectives and communications outreach experience, in order to facilitate the most effective level of collaboration and achieve greatest cost efficiencies.
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Group I States: Louisiana, Maryland and South Carolina had no previous experience in the development of communications campaigns targeted to at risk youth, and required assistance with laying the foundation for such a campaign, identifying key stakeholders, creating a vision and developing an effective plan.
- Group II States: Georgia, Tennessee and West Virginia already had gathered key stakeholders and formulated a collective, general vision, but needed assistance with the creation of an effective communications plan.
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Group III States: Kentucky, North Carolina and Oklahoma had the stakeholders, vision and plan in place, but required assistance in exploring and developing effective creative approaches to reach at risk youth and their influencers.
Learn more about SGA's Passport initiative by clicking on the following links: