Overview

There are over 100 Adult Education programs throughout Maine that provide a variety of educational experiences for residents, from GED to college readiness, to business skills, to enrichment courses.  However, despite its capabilities in these program areas, Adult Education was widely thought of for just GED and enrichment programs and was not considered an avenue towards higher learning or business skills development.  The Maine Adult Education Association (MAEA), a member-based organization comprised of the Adult Education programs around the State, wanted to change its image and become known as a more serious provider of education opportunities.

Our Work

In the summer of 2007, MAEA hired Encompass to develop a Communication Plan to enhance the brand of Maine Adult Education programs statewide. Encompass conducted statewide focus groups then developed a long-term strategic plan whose core included positioning adult education as “one system” of education.  This involved refining the logo family, relabeling program areas, providing direction for a web portal to access adult education programs statewide, creating a variety of promotional materials, and most importantly, educating 100+ individual adult education programs on implementing the new brand.

On-Going Support

Since then, Encompass has worked for MAEA and Maine College Transitions program (a MAEA partner) on a monthly basis advancing stories in traditional and social media and provided creative services as needed.  We have also built a web ToolKit for program directors to access a variety of logos and promotional templates, including print, radio and TV ads, newsletters and press releases.