solid

Communications and engagement designed to empower and inspire students, families, staff and the community in a large urban k-12 public school district.

As Chief Communications Officer for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), solid founder Tracy Russ led a team of 25 communications and production staff members responsible for internal and external communications in the nation’s 15th largest K-12 public school district with 150,000 students, 19,000 employees, 175 schools and a $1.5B annual budget.

Strategic communications and engagement strategies focused on building equity and increasing transparency. The Empower & Inspire strategy built capacity and access for students, families, staff and community in support of the district strategic plan and created stronger platforms for educational attainment.

A complete re-imagining and re-design of the CMS district brand and identity provided better access to information and stories that empower and inspire students, families, staff and the community within an area growing more diverse every day. Take a look at the new CMS Brand + Identity Book above.

Clear protocols for district communications ensured that important information, announcements and needed notices were shared in ways that equipped leaders and staff to respond to questions, gave students, families and staff knowledge they needed and avoided surprises, and created transparency across the community through social and traditional media outlets. A new CMS brand platform, Hello CMS, augmented traditional district community information with longer form narratives and digital discussions through a new magazine and podcast.

A new annual budget campaign, Our Kids Need Us, featured easy to understand budget descriptions, a dedicated website, infographics and community engagement sessions to provide people across the community opportunities to help prioritize district focus areas and allocate budget resources with community input.

Access to information in well-designed formats and across platforms empowers and inspires everyone’s aspirations for K-12 education. Simplified infographics and a magazine format available digitally and in hard copies conveyed CMS key information in new ways.

What Matters Most - the CMS strategic plan.

The CMS Way - the vision, mission, beliefs behind the CMS strategy.

They Are Ready - clear, grade-by-grade expected outcomes for CMS students.

Student enrollment and magnet/choice school outreach campaigns helped make sure students and families knew and could take advantage of opportunities in Career & Technical Education (CTE) and CMS magnet School Choice options across the district.

as an historic 76-acre site is re-developed to become a model for place-making in America, the beginning starts with community.

At Camp North End in Charlotte, NC, solid designed, facilitated and produced community engagement sessions for client ATCO for the Camp North End project. The engagement work included outreach to key community leaders, coordination of site visits with elected officials and real estate professionals, design of outreach collateral materials, surveys, media and digital outreach. The historic site began as a Ford Model T factory, was used as a US Army missile manufacturing area and materials depot in its history. For much of its history, the entire site was closed off from the adjacent community and encircled by fencing. Today, it is a vibrant center of community for the entire area. When complete, Camp North End will include Class A office space, artisan and craft studios, bars, restaurants, event spaces and multi-family housing. The surrounding community includes active neighborhood associations, retail, housing and industrial uses within 2-mile radius who were important to the new owner and developer as voices that should be included as renewal of this site began and continues as a place for people, ideas, innovation and tomorrow to come together.

In a nation struggling to find unity across differences, our youth can lead the way with a call for change and investments in civic education and leadership.

solid is working with the student leaders of GenerationNation to create and launch a campaign calling for investments in civic education and civic literacy. Gathering ideas from interactive facilitated discussions, sharing perspectives on possible actions and creating outreach and engagement tools to enroll others in their cause, the students will lead the way for change.

GenerationNation is a non-profit organization developing a new generation of civic leaders. Through GenerationNation, students learn first-hand how their governments and communities work; understand and can discuss important civic issues and differing points of view; know how to find and use good sources of news and civic information; and, build social capital, knowledge, and experience to be civic leaders who transform their schools, neighborhoods, communities and nation for the better…now and for the future.

when schools, fire stations, libraries and other public buildings are in design, community input is vital to the process.

solid is working with Clark Nexsen to provide community engagement, outreach, communications and public relations services to the Charlotte office. Clark Nexsen is a fully integrated architecture and engineering firm with 400 employees, 11 offices, a global reputation for excellence, and clients large and small spanning across commercial, municipal, K-12/higher education and r&d/technology sectors (more at clarknexsen.com).

inspiring corporate commitment to possibilities at a global scale

Working with senior leadership, solid developed "Real Possibilities" brand narratives, messaging platforms and products in support of a global goal to "solidify Corning’s commitment to Diversity and inclusion as a business imperative for success in the global marketplace."  The effort extended through Corning, Inc.'s talent acquisition, retention and development and global talent management shared services networked structure to deliver impact globally.

Empowering people to build economic mobility.

solid provided strategic communications, community engagement programs, press/media outreach and civic outreach services to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force, now known as Leading On Opportunity. The Task Force was created to develop recommendations that broaden access to economic opportunity for all residents of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. This work was a call to action from civic leaders to expand economic mobility possibilities for all residents of this rapidly growing and diverse community.

Communities change when people are engaged, informed and given access to opportunities for participation. We believe it is vital in community engagement work to offer multiple paths for participation and multiple platforms for access to information, facts, data, ideas and stories at the heart of shared challenges and opportunities.

Supporting the philanthropic and civic leadership missions of Foundation For The Carolinas, one of the nation’s largest community foundations.

when Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation leadership searched for new strategic direction and investment focus, a facilitated engagement process began.

solid and collaborating partner ROI Impact Consulting were engaged to design and facilitate a discovery process when the Board of Directors and staff leadership of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation set out to create a new strategic plan. As philanthropic leaders, they sought to avoid well-trodden ground on trend analysis in North Carolina and to gain new understanding and insight into the possible future needs of North Carolinians in a different way. Their wish to understand hidden and connected trends, assess possible differential impacts across communities in the state, and glean perspective on impact inflection points drove an engagement process and a two-day workshop. The process design included three components of work designed and facilitated by solid and ROI Impact Consulting: a) pre-workshop survey; b) two one-day workshops; c) analysis and reporting back.

During the first day workshop, participants were briefed on the ZSR strategic planning process, trends that had already been identified and then engaged in open discussion based on review of more hidden trends, data and significant themes. During the second day, four communities were identified to be used as filters for discussion and analysis during the day in an effort to discuss how trends may have differential impacts across the state among communities of varying size, demographics, population, rural/suburban characteristics, economy, social/cultural and economic traits.

solid and ROI Impact Consulting created a report with findings back to ZSR leadership as the basis for decision-making and the crafting of a renewed strategic plan to guide the foundation’s investments and impacts.

joining business, health, faith, higher education, community and municipal leaders together on the path to a positive future

An initiative of ecoAmerica (find out how ecoAmerica starts with people here) the MomentUs campaign assembles networks of senior leaders from a wide range of sectors outside the traditional environmental/climate advocacy world and gives them tools and resources to connect with their constituencies on climate. As a part of the MomentUs leadership team, solid created and implemented engagement strategy, collaboratively created customized sector brand experiences and designed and led the first gathering of over 150 leaders from across America in Chicago at "The Path to Positive", the 2014 MomentUs Leadership Summit.

What happened?  See how these leaders got on the Path to Positive here.

Special thanks to our friends at ecoAmerica for sharing of resources!

telling a community's story to the world

(and 35,000 delegates, media and VIP's)

When the Queen City was chosen to host the 2012 Democratic National Convention, solid created "We Make It Possible", an immersive, shared brand experience to welcome 35,000 delegates, media and VIP's, engage the local community and catalyze a legacy of positive impact in the local and state community long past the end of the Convention.  The brand was articulated through a robust campaign that included digital and social media, paid and earned media, on-site brand activation, live events and volunteer engagement opportunities.  Key to the effort was creation of a coalition of economic, governmental, arts/culture, non-profit, academic and philanthropic organizations to drive the "We Make It Possible" brand experience out through shared channels and networks, leveraging the campaign to much higher levels of exposure than otherwise would have been possible using host committee resources singularly.

Have a story to share with the world?  Let's talk! 

Paid media in USAirways magazine and other outlets over six months prior to the Convention helped to share the Charlotte in 2012 story and build economic development profile of the Charlotte region to hundreds of thousands outside the 35,000 who came to the Queen City for the 2012 DNC. Featured content linked to Charlotte in 2012 digital assets as a part of the overall brand experience.

Collaboration is a solid value. We were fortunate to work with a fantastic team of people, organizations and institutions to bring concepts to life and make the Charlotte in 2012 brand experience possible in a once-in-a-lifetime effort. Credits and thanks to: K2Forma, Wray Ward, Adam Roth for fantastic collaborative brand activation, the Arts & Science Council, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, Charlotte Area Transit System, Charlotte Center City Partners, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Charlotte Regional Partnership, Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Shout outs to core team members: leader Dan Murrey, fearless Dockery Clark, multi-talented Liz Barrett, level-headed Suzi Emmerling, steady Josh Field, photo/vid genius Daniel Sircar, digital guru Dusty Trice, Legacy Village guru Jeff Mallare, volunteer diva Courtney Counts, events czarina Mary Tribble.  Carolinas Stories teams high-fives:  priceless miscellaneous; Scott Lazes and Kevin Beatty; Lashawnda Becoats and Tonya Jameson.  Most of all, to the people of Charlotte and the region - YOU made it possible.

reaching out to help feed the world with sustainable energy innovations in developing nations. 

solid was retained by USAID support services provider TetraTech to support an expanded public relations, media, and outreach strategy for the 2014 PAEGC, to build awareness about the USAID-led Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development.

The PAEGC identified and supported new and sustainable approaches to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy solutions for increasing agriculture productivity and/or value in developing countries.  As awareness grew, the number of submissions to the 2015-2015 PAEGC far exceeded the previous year's levels, setting new records for engagement.

The PAEGC invested a total of $47.1 million over seven years, (2012-2019), funded by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Government of Sweden (SIDA), the Government of Germany (BMZ), Duke Energy Corporation, and the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

Four scenarios depicting possible futures for the community were at the heart of Crossroads Charlotte. Fortress Charlotte, Class Act, The Beat Goes On, Eye to Eye. These scenarios underpinned the Crossroads Charlotte engagement strategy and invited people and organizations to “Imagine Our Tomorrow, Act Today.” The Crossroads Charlotte magazine (pictured above left) offered written forms of the four stories. Each story was based on data and facts, or driving forces, that were played out into four possible futures. Whether in written forms, through the Crossroads movie or by way of hearing the Crossroads Charlotte poets, the community was asked to “Imagine Our Tomorrow and Act Today.” Tens of thousands of individuals and hundreds of organizations participated in Crossroads Charlotte over its seven-year activation.

Crossroads Charlotte: the Movie was nominated for an Emmy and chosen as the focus of the 2008 Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable at Sundance with actor/activist Robert Redford in September 2008, where 29 leaders gathered to consider "The Arts and Civic Engagement: Strengthening the 21st Century Community."  Click the image to left for a full report from the Roundtable.

Collaboration is a solid value. Crossroads Charlotte was a multi-year, pioneering civic engagement effort that moved forward because leaders, dedicated people, adventuresome funders and community institutions came together to imagine tomorrow and act today. Credits and thanks to: Foundation For The Carolinas, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Community Building Initiative; initial scenarios by Denis Hayes and Carol Morris; Learning Network leads Octavia Seawell, Denis Hayes, Jeanine Bensi-Enchill, Sylvia Biddle Patton; shout-outs for artistic and creative outreach to Jessica Deltac, Quentin "Q" Talley, Melissa Harris, Lawrence Maher, Valaida Fullwood; movie production partner awesomeness to JoAnne Hock and GreyHawk Productions; making the trains run on time: Brant Aycock, Annetta Foard; Christi Robinson Lee, Patricia Zoder; design wizardry by Adam Roth; digital magic kudos to the team at UNION; telling the story glitter to the entire Crossroads Correspondents team; photos in crossroads matrix by Frank Balthazar.

Special thanks to leaders who supported the Crossroads Charlotte vision with imagination and trust: Michael Marsicano, Susan Patterson, Brian Collier, Dianne English, Mike Rizer and Darrel Williams and all of the CEO's and senior staff of the amazing Crossroads Charlotte Learning Network.

how does the brand experience of the world's largest conservation organization become real to senior leaders gathered together to explore new ways for collaboration, connection and impact?

solid was engaged to support the World Wildlife Fund's visionary work to "deliver innovative solutions that meet the needs of both people and nature." solid will provide strategic communications and brand experience consulting services for upcoming gatherings of senior WWF leaders from across the globe.

World Wildlife Fund is "the world’s leading conservation organization, WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by 1.1 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally. WWF’s unique way of working combines global reach with a foundation in science, involves action at every level from local to global, and ensures the delivery of innovative solutions that meet the needs of both people and nature."

When special events convey deep resonance with an organization's core mission and strategies, the results are inspiring and catalytic - solid can help make this happen.

solid worked alongside World Wildlife Fund staff and volunteers to design and produce an unforgettable experience of presentations, discussions and a celebratory evening of fundraising in Washington DC’s National Portrait Gallery Atrium. The two-day experience positioned new strategic initiatives to key supporters, leaders and influencers gathered from around the world in common cause with World Wildlife Fund.

How can a social campaign help keep guns out of schools and reduce gun violence in America?

solid created the Guns Can’t concept campaign to lift K-12 students up and to help reduce gun violence and keep guns out of our nation’s schools through student-led content creation, social interaction and digital outreach.

Guns Can’t is a social solution to the gun violence challenges facing students and their families in America. The engagement campaign offers a platform for students to lead and for communities, school districts and advocates to empower people who care about the catastrophic impacts of gun violence on the lives of our young people.

Guns Can’t offers a website and mobile app for students to create, share and invite others to make their own Guns Can’t poster using their own inspirational words and images.

Guns Can’t was created as one part of an overall school safety initiative and highlights the power of human connection, communications and social influence to solve complex societal problems.

during challenging times, how can people get involved in making tough community choices?

All Get Real 2011 participants were provided a Get Real 2011 PARTICIPANT RESOURCE booklet and a Get Real 2011 PARTICIPANT WORKBOOK that made clear who does what in local government (city council, county commission, board of education) and laid out budget priorities for each to support a massive participatory budget process across the community. See the both booklets below.

When two historic gender-based college athletic associations decided it was time to merge, solid was there to help.

solid was engaged to design change process and facilitate merger discussions between the Women’s College Squash Association (WCSA) and the Men’s College Squash Association (MCSA) in 2016. The now-unified College Squash Association (CSA) is the governing body overseeing men’s and women’s intercollegiate varsity squash in the United States.

The merger process included deep review and understanding of each organization’s mission, culture, background and vision for the future, interviews with key leaders from both associations, design and facilitation of a summit meeting of leaders and presentation of findings, post-summit discussion and final recommendation work with CSA leadership. This work culminated in the 2017 merger of the WCSA and MCSA as they dissolved as independent organizations and then reformed under a single organization, the Intercollegiate Squash Association, doing business as the CSA.

can a positive story we craft together help save the world?  we think so...

The goals of The Copenhagen Story, later renamed Converge, were to build a positive narrative about the future, share it in ways that reach people and engage them in creating the next chapters about the future. Through an aspirational, social approach, we set out to shift the narrative about climate change from doom and gloom to…we did it!

Created as a lead-up to COP15 in Copenhagen, The Copenhagen Story (later re-named Converge - Where the Good Life Meets the Green Life), established a baseline narrative on a platform that allowed wiki-style participation and attempted to change the tone about our climate future. Take a look at The Copenhagen Story/Converge Overview at right.

Collaboration is a solid value.  The Copenhagen Story's (later named Converge) invitation to collaboration and shared vision reflected the evolution of the project itself.  Co-founders Lisa Renstrom and Tracy Russ worked together with dedicated teams across the US and Indigo Creative Studio to nurture Converge.

from the story of a Southern city comes a New South vision in action

In a community that is growing in population and diversity, solid helped the Community Building Initiative forward the organization's mission to "intensify the commitment and increase the capacity of individuals and organizations to build a more inclusive and equitable community" with a comprehensive communications platform, brand narrative and engagement programs such as I See Your Point and the Different Together Is Better campaign.

Collaboration is a solid value.  Dedicated leadership from CBI's Dianne English, Christi Robinson Lee and Annetta Watkins Foard, fantastic brand graphic design from Adam Roth and authentic people images from Frank Balthazar came together across multiple SOLID projects with Community Building Initiative.

When cities across America join forces with technology leaders, private sector partners and university brains, a smart cities revolution comes to life

solid provided strategic communications, public relations and media support for Envision America (envisionamerica.org), a three-day workshop that brought together municipal leaders, smart technology experts and private sector allies to collaborate and kick start smart city initiatives in ten selected U.S. communities.

building a coalition and campaign for community needs

Time was short when the opportunity came for Charlotte-Mecklenburg voters to support local teacher pay, arts and cultural access, public libraries and community colleges. solid responded quickly to serve a unique coalition of institutions and leaders, creating the Together4Meck campaign brand and engagement strategies.

Together4Meck catalyzed a coalition of dozens of organizations and tens of thousands in the community in support of the referendum benefitting education, arts, libraries and jobs. Leveraging community resources, SOLID worked with partners to activate a comprehensive campaign that brought together a compelling brand narrative and identity, direct and digital outreach, public relations, earned media, social media and good old-fashioned on-the-ground engagement. Together4Meck connected thousands of people and helped create a platform for on-going advocacy in the community that will help drive action on education, arts, libraries and jobs forward long past Election Day.

Collaboration is a solid value.  Together4Meck brought together a coalition of people, organizations and institutions, including:  Arts & Science Council, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, MeckEd and Charlotte Mecklenburg Public School Friends.  Thanks to the tens of thousands of voters who supported this effort to boost our community's core institutions, teachers, arts, libraries and jobs.

America's fastest growing region is working together to build a workforce for tomorrow...

What's the story of tomorrow's workforce and how do you build the right collaborative approach among public and private sector partners to make that story real? solid worked with the Centralina Council of Governments, the Lumina Foundation and regional partners across a nine-county region with strategy development, focus group facilitation, partnership and organizational consulting, branding and strategic communications services for Working for Tomorrow.

if ideas worth spreading are everywhere, possibilities are, too.

Bringing the TED franchise to Charlotte and executing a flawless experience for presenters, attendees and partners was an exercise in artful collaboration and a demonstration of community pride in Charlotte, NC. solid collaborator Candice Langston brought the TEDxCharlotte franchise to the community and the annual event continues to drive impact through the power of ideas worth sharing. 

what happens when citizens and leaders across two states, fourteen counties and dozens of towns and cities "put people in charge of [the] region's future?" The impacts still resonate...

solid designed and facilitated the historic Voices & Choices 1998 Regional Environmental Summit, bringing over 550 elected officials, citizen leaders, subject matter experts and leading organizations from across 14 counties in North and South Carolina together for the first time to address quality of life issues on open space protection, land and water quality, transportation planning and recycling/waste management. 

Collaboration is a solid value.  A regional effort was nearly unknown in 1995 when the Peirce Report was published and visionary leaders like Betty Chafin Rash led the response, bringing hundreds of local, regional and state leaders together.  Citizen and business leaders Lisa Renstrom and Bob Freedman collaborated to sound a clarion call for quality of life issues, and skilled practitioner Denis Hayes partnered with Tracy Russ to craft the 1998 Summit as Interactive Decisions, a progenitor of solid.

new strategic directions emerge from inclusive engagement and an historic Summit

solid partners Tracy Russ and Denis Hayes designed and facilitated the 2005 Sierra Summit, the first large-scale gathering of its members and leaders in the organization's 123-year history.

But it wasn't just a gathering. "It was like democracy broke out," said a long-time Sierra Club member.

can a collection of neighbors and neighborhoods become a network of informed people participating in decision making?

solid designed and activated the KNOWIT2WORKIT brand experience and civic engagement program to equip citizens searching for participation opportunities with knowledge and tools to engage in local governance and decision-making.  KIWI incorporated elements of participatory budget making, civics training modules and advocacy training packaged into one platform for education, awareness, advocacy and action.  

How can 30,000 Carolina Panthers fans  #keeppounding all the way to the Super Bowl?

solid partnered with long-time collaborators Priceless Miscellaneous (http://pricelessmisc.com/) to create PURRMOJI, a custom digital emoji keyboard for fans Carolina Panthers fans! Get your Purrmoji at purrmoji.com! We can create custom emoji for your organization, institution, campaign or cause, too!