Advertising Group Fall 2023

CMST&230 Small Group Communication, Green River College

Group Members: Nolan Blake, Megan Madill, Mitla Marmolejo-Olvera, Jennifer McNiel, Michael Roberts, Jacob Sauceda, Masih Rahmani

 

(Click on the slide show to move through the slides.)

Problem Identification-Nolan

When identifying the problem for our small wins project, initially our group was going to focus on the problem of poor mental health and stress in the community. However, we ended up deciding to shift the focus of our project to the environment, more specifically, the problem of littering. We felt that this would be something that would be far easier to approach as a group.

Problem Analysis-Mitla

We have recognized the negative impact that a trash-filled environment has on the community. We believe that litter in or around our parks reduces their visual appeal, which creates an unwelcoming atmosphere for visitors and negatively affects our community. The quality of life in our community is important, and we understand how litter can affect us. Litter acts as a breeding ground for bacteria, spreading disease through direct or indirect contact with humans (EPA, 2023). Besides its influence on humans, we are also aware that litter also has an impact on animals. It’s evident that animals lack awareness and consume trash, harming their health or ending their lives. Litter also plays a crucial role in affecting wildlife ecosystems. The accumulation of litter becomes a permanent part of ecosystems, giving rise to new ones. Animals, in turn, adapt to and even prefer habitats with the presence of litter over time (Kolenda et al., 2021). We acknowledge the potential consequences for wildlife, our community, and ecosystems, underscoring the importance of prioritizing litter cleanup efforts.

Solution Criteria-

“The Small Win should be a complex task that requires more than 1 person to accomplish (a basic definition of the purpose of a group), that it can be accomplished within the timeline of 4 weeks, and that involves all members of the group in the Small Wins solution. In addition, it needs to be consistent with the college’s guidelines for the safety and security of our students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please keep this in mind as you develop ideas.”

Solution Suggestions-Jennifer

Originally our group focused on improving mental health outcomes. We brainstormed solutions for this problem such as a “Hello” program to get people talking to each other to reduce loneliness and a “Compliment” initiative that would seek to find things to compliment about people you interact with. Ultimately due to the difficulty in implementing these projects and tracking success for them our group pivoted to solve a different problem. Our new goal was to reduce the problem of litter in our local communities. In order to solve this problem we brainstormed ways in which we could reduce the impact of litter and waste in our communities. The suggestions that we came up with were:

• Develop a flier to educate the community on the positive impact of a clean environment. 
• Take action by picking up garbage in our local parks once a week.
• Install litter bins in parks that do not have them.
• Engage on social media to spread awareness of the clean up effort.
• Track participation in clean up efforts in order to gauge success.

Solution Evaluation and Selection-Jacob

When we started this project, brainstorming ideas that could be implemented to improve the community was most important. We collectively came up with multiple ideas, but chose to use words of kindness to make a difference to poor mental health and negativity. To do so, we came up with a “Hello program” that revolves around having conversations with people to improve mental health. We quickly learned that this wasn’t enough to make the kind of difference and impact that we wanted. Instead, we selected a different solution that was brainstormed in the early stages of this project. Picking up garbage and cleaning up parks to better enlighten the community seemed to be a much better solution. This made us pivot our project and go into a direction that further helped mental health and negativity. We all agreed that this change of course was for the better and action was being taken to help our community. 

Solution Implementation-Michael

The implementation of the Advertisement Team is based on cleaning parks and posting notices about the harm of litter to wildlife in the surrounding area. Our plan began with team members gathering information. Upon the meeting, on November 19^th, 2023, an informative poster was to be created, detailing information on the harmful effects of littering. Each member of the team then began looking into cleaning parks and by the next meeting, we would have been prepared to post the informative notice on poster boards located in parks and help clean parks. Following meetings on November 23^rd and November 30^th, all members returned with information and pictures of their experiences. A multimedia project was then put together with the collective information gathered from each member. The team had one last meeting on December 7^th to go through any further needed materials and plans before turning the project in. The project was completed and turned in on December 8^th, 2023.  

Conclusions-Megan

In conclusion our small wins project made a difference. The “small wins” portion of the project highlights how doing something small can make a larger impact to benefit everyone. Our park cleanups were able to bring back the welcoming environment and make the environment safer, even although it was in a “small” way. By spreading our flier around our goal was to influence others to join our small wins project. By getting even one more person to join our project, or become informed, our goal is met. Our project was successful because we made the environment cleaner. All seven members participated in a total of 14 park cleanups, showing that our participation goal was a success. If more and more people can continue to make small impacts, like our cleanups, together we can make a bigger difference in the negative environmental effects. 

References- Masih

Rothwell, J.D. (2019). In mixed company: Communicating in small groups and teams (10th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Kolenda, K., Pawlik, M., Kuśmierek, N., Smolis, A., & Kadej, M. (2021). Online media reveals a global problem of discarded containers as deadly traps for animals. Scientific reports, 11(1), 267. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-79549-8  

United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2023, July 7). Learn about aquatic trash | US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/trash-free-waters/learn-about-aquatic-trash