PUBLIC RELATIONS GUIDE



II. Accreditation: A Major Strategic Initiative

In 1995, Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. (LVA) began an intense, year-long strategic planning process with the pro bono guidance of Bain & Company, an internationally respected management consulting firm.

The process was the most thorough, in-depth self-study carried out in LVA�s history, and it involved every part of the LVA network. Included were in-person, in-depth, interviews of personnel from 23 LVA affiliates, a survey and follow-up conversations with fifty affiliates, interviews of 12 Board members, 15 staff members, seven members of the National Student Advisory Board, eight state directors, and five field service representatives. In addition, more than 200 affiliate planning surveys and annual statistical reports were analyzed. To gain an overview of the literacy �market,� interviews were done with ten corporate sponsors and more than seventy Fortune 500 companies, senior management of seven other literacy and nonprofit organizations, and eight government agencies. Four task teams, each of which included LVA staff, board members, state and affiliate representatives and students, made recommendations in the areas of Affiliate Support Services, Funding Strategies, National Structure, and Partnerships with other Providers. Those recommendations became the basis of LVA�s Strategic Plan.

The LVA Strategic Plan, adopted by the LVA National Board of Directors on July 22, 1995, begins with a definition of the LVA customer needs to be filled. To quote from the plan:

  • Students are customers, volunteers are customers, but the affiliate is the primary customer of LVA National and mid-level systems.
  • LVA will move toward the consistent application of a rigorous Accreditation program of affiliates.
  • LVA will monitor best demonstrated practices from the literacy and nonprofit fields, offer those practices to all its customers, and incorporate them into its own operations.
Thus, the LVA Accreditation Initiative grew directly from the strategic planning process, in an effort to respond to network needs and move the Strategic Plan forward. The implication for LVA is enormous: The Accreditation Initiative requires LVA to focus on training and technical assistance to the field.

Accreditation will focus LVA�s quality standards on the identification and dissemination of best demonstrated practices, and will raise the quality benchmarks for the entire adult volunteer literacy community.

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