Government Relations , Communication Management, Excellence Winner
Fairness for Girls' Hockey
Roanne Argyle & Team
Argyle Communications
Toronto, Canada
Contents:
Need/Opportunity
The city of Toronto owns 48 community arenas, eight of which are managed by volunteer-run boards of directors. While working autonomously, these boards are expected to do business in accordance with city policies, including one that governs the fair and equitable distribution of ice, giving priority access to youth recreational users, boys and girls. According to the city's ice allocation policy, access then goes to youth competitive programs, followed by adult users. Many board-operated arenas fail to follow this policy.
Consider the situation at Ted Reeve Arena (a city-owned arena operated by a volunteerrun board of management).
Despite a four-year effort to secure a fair allocation of ice for female hockey playersat four local arenas (this included local deputations and writeen submissions/applications with proof of local player residency), girls at the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association (TLGHA) remained shut out of some and with severely limited access at others- in some cases while the ice was rented to adult men's leagues.
As a result the TLGHA was forced to rent expensive private ice, costing an estimated $1 million over the past five years and inflating the cost of girls-only hockey. For example, a season of girls-only recreational hockey can cost as much as 40% more than a full season of boys' recreational hockey (based on 2008-09 house league rates at TLGHA versus East York Hockey Association).
In November 2009, in an effort to secure a political commitment to address the inequity, the TLGHA launched a high-profile public campaign to drive the city of Toronto to enforce its ice allocation policy at all publicly-owned arenas.
Research and Analysis-
Given the lack of ice time for its female players at local, board-managed arenas, members of the TLGHA undertook the following research and analysis to prepare for an aggressive public campaign.
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Intended Audience(s)
To effect change in a way that would open local arenasto female hockey players, the team knew it would have to go above the arena board and convince members of Toronto City Council that the city's failure to enforce its own ice allocation policy was directly responsible for unfair and discriminatory treatment of hundreds of young girls. The key was to tell a powerful, credible story through a high-impact public campaign.
- Mayor David Miller: The Association would need to secure his early, public support.
- All members of the Toronto City Council: In a one-vote system, the Mayor, while influential, does not have the power to effect change without the support of the City Council.
- TLGHA players and families: Strong support from the community was imperative.
- Fans of women's hockey and the general public: This would serve as a viral support base.
- Toronto news media: A powerful conduit to all audiences and agent of change.
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Goals and Objectives
Goal: Secure city enforcement of existing ice allocation policy at all public-owned arenas, ensuring priority access for all youth recreational users- boys and girls.
Objectives:
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Solution Overview
Based on careful research and analysis, the Association pursued the following strategies:
- Focus on fairness and equity. The issue of ice allocation is very complex, so the TLGHA would have to focus on a simple message: fairness. It was imperative to be steadfast in this position, support it with facts, and avoid being drawn into petty blame games. Fairness became the 'brand' for the campaign.
- Be powerful and provocative. It was important to send a powerful message to the city- one that would grab everyone's attention. This was achieved by threatening to launch a human rights complaint against the City of Toronto.
- Engage champions early. The TLGHA would seek endorsements from the political community (Mayor David Miller), families, and the news media (an exclusive in the Toronto Star) to build rapid awareness of and understanding for the issue. Support from the Mayor's office would help bring the issue before city council, community support would be important to councillors, and media coverage would put and keep the issue on the public agenda.
- Use social media to mobilize support. The fastest way to translate awareness to action would be through social media. The TLGHA created an online petition and used facebook, email, and the web to spread the word.
- Challenge the myths. In a fast-moving campaign, the team would have to challenge any lies and innuendos from the opposition to maintain control of the story.
- Use the power of girls, with tact. Carefull, the TLGHA would illustrate the issues through the voices of young girls.
Tactics:
- To frame the campaign TLGHA gave the campaign a name: Fairness for Girls' Hockey in Toronto. Communications materials and messaging clearly focused on fairness and equity.
- To gain attention for the message, the Association issued a letter to the Mayor outlining the problem, stating the request, and threatening to launch a human rights complaint should the city fail to act. At the same time, the president of the TLGHA emailed parents, outlining the problem and plan of action.
- To generate widespread awareness for the campaign, the Association offered an exclusive story to the Tornto Star- backed by extensive research. It ran as a "Star Exclusive' on page one, above the fold on November 11th 2009. That day, the Association conducted back-to-back media interviews: radio, television, and all major print, including select television interviews for some girls. By 3:00 p.m. Mayor David Miller took an aggressive public stand in support of the TLGHA.
- The TLGHA harnessed this public awareness through a facebook fan page titled "Fairness for Girls' Hockey in Toronto" and an online petition. This helped capture the support of the city as the story spread through the news media.
- On day two, the fairness story (the Mayor's response) appeared on the front page of the Star again. Over the next week, the TLGHA secured national and major market news media coverage from coast-to-coast, helping build vital support for the issue.
- Over the next week, the fan page grew quickly and the online petition ranked among the top five most popular petitions on ipetitions.com (a North American site).
Momentum:
- In response to communications from opposition groups, the team mobilized to set the record straight and issued a simple, fact-based news release for media and city councillors. The team then developed a poster to tell the story by the numbers: Fairness in Girls' Hockey? You be the Judge. It was distributed online and to parents at the arenas. The team also conducted select meetings with city councillors.
- The facebook page was updated daily with news stories (including editorials and cartoons) and insightful quotes from the petition (the petition quote of the day). Everyone who signed the petition online received direct emails from the fairness team.
- The TLGHA met with families and community members during hockey games and at practices, securing signatures for the petition, answering questions and building grassroots support.
Change:
- Under Mayor David Miller's direction, Councillor Jane Davis, Chair of Community Development and Recreation Committee, prepared a motion that would call for the city to approve allocation of ice at all city-owned arenas. This would be introduced for debate at Toronto City Council on December 1 2009.
- To demonstrate broad community support to the council, the Association presented the petition with more than 3,000 names to Mayor David Miller on day one of the meeting. It was tied with pink skate laces.
- To make a powerful statement and deliver a compelling visual for the news media, the team assembled a group of more than 40 female hockey players to attend the council as the debate began; a side of red TLGHA jerseys flooded council chambers. The team then invited television media to film the girls skating at Nathan Phillips Square.
- Following a positive council decision on December 4, 2010, the team continued to advocate its position with the city via deputations to the Community Development and Recreation Committee and updates to families. This resulted in a unanimous vote by Toronto City Council on February 23, 2010, in favor of the city managing a centralized ice application process.
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Implementation and Challenges
Budget: None. Argyle provided its services at no charge, driven by the firm's belief in the cause.
Challenges:
- Timeframe: Despite four years of preparation, the public campaign lasted three weeks. It was a massive 24-7 undertaking.
- Inaction: Due to the high volume of media coverage and storong support by Mayor Miller, many families did not act on the issue as they felt it had been successfully addressed. This negatively impacted the number of signatures on the petition. The team used email and social media to encourage the viral spread of the petition.
- Sexism: The campaign attracted many voices, not all of which were positive. This was illustrated on the facebook page, where the team had to manage some shockingly negative comments about girls. When possible, the team engaged in a positive discussion. However, in one case facebook had to remove a fan due to rude and inappropriate activity.
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Measurement/Evaluation
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