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STEPS Newsletter – 3rd QUARTER 2024

Scan this newsletter for an overview of new news, resources, and exciting STEPS Ministries updates from the last 3 months. The headings and sub-headings will point you to key areas, and then click on links to see items of interest. 

Reach and Serve More People and Families

People are what matter – Names are changed here, but we remember Jason who passed and ask for prayers for Bill, Patty, Carson, and Susan who are struggling and the hundreds of people we served at seminars, speaking engagements, meetings, events, youth groups, and coaching sessions, and the thousands we reach digitally.

Growth via marketing – STEPS has partnered with a marketing agency, Vertical Solutions Media, to expand our reach to serve more people effectively these ways:

  • Get more resources to more people to help improve more lives.
  • Execute scalable campaigns to serve segmented audiences.
  • Repurpose our effective resources to serve parents of teens.
  • Ongoing campaign testing, measurement, and optimization.
  • Grow the ministry with fee and subscription-based offerings.

Digital outreach ministry – Launched end-to-end campaign for parents of teens.

Multiply Ministry by Collaborating with Organizations

Ministry via influencers – We are actively reaching new audiences in new ways.

  • Podcast appearances with 6 scheduled utilizing PodMatch booking services.
  • Media outreach with Public Service Announcements on Cumulous radio and contact with 20 media outlets offering Steve Ward as an expert source.
  • Event participation with a sponsored resources table to reach parents and partners at Birmingham Christian Family “Celebrate the Family Expo.”
More public speaking – Prepared a comprehensive set of speaking topics to use.
  • Participated in 8 live speaking engagements during the third quarter. 
  • Outreach offering Steve Ward as expert speaker to 16 organizations. 
  • Built speaking topics flyer – Topics for Speaking, Podcasts, and Articles
Escalated outreach plans – Increased the scope and speed of ministry outreach.   
  • Built an integrated, multi-channel plan to “get STEPS out there” more widely.
  • Held partnering meetings with several local, regional, and national groups. 

Helping businesses serve – Expanded our resources and services for companies. 

  • Speaking outreach includes easy-to-implement “Lunch and Learn” topics.
  • New Online Toolkit for companies on “Enhancing Organizational Wellness.” 
  • Plan created to position current and future Online Toolkits for businesses. 
  • Coaching engagement with a company and business development with two.
  • STEPS Organizational Wellness web page with information for companies.

More church outreach – Organized and programmatic appeal to local churches. 

Enhance Family Wellness and Personal Life Skills

Family education – STEPS is well on its way to fulfilling its 2024 strategy to deliver integrated education for parents of teens, young adults, and children, grandparents and caregivers, teenagers themselves, and wellness life skills for family members.  

Ministry content plan – Continued ongoing roll out of holistic life-changing content. 

  • STEPS content is timeless and universal and is being repurposed in many ways. It features easy-to-use Online Toolkits and products and “findable” resources on the website, social media, YouTube, podcast, and Amazon. 

NEW TOOLKIT – “Enhancing Emotional Well-Being and Improving Mental Health”

  • See this highly-useful Online Toolkit – Enhancing Emotional Well-Being
  • See the associated workbook – STEPS Emotional Well-Being Workbook
  • Areas include: changing our point of view, letting things go, relieving stress, dealing with depression, knowing when it’s okay to drink, trusting God and surrender, life-enhancing truths, and five steps that can change our lives. 

1-minute videos – As an example, see the short video below that can help someone get started down the life-changing (sometimes life-saving) road to recovery …

Parenting presentations – New presentations, several with videos, were built for “Introduction to Proactive Parenting,” “Ten Ten-minute Talks with Teens,” “Parenting in a Crisis,” “Mentoring Older Youth,” and “Biblical Parenting” workshop material.

GREAT grandparenting – New material for grandparents and mentors presented to 35 people with ratings of 9 out of 10 and positive feedback comments including:

  • “This message is great and needs to be shared!”
  • “Helpful and useful. I’m going to share it with my friends. Thanks so much!”
  • “It’s a good program. I agree with everything said, and I have 10 grandkids!”
  • “Great material I will intentionally seek to learn and apply with my grandkids.”

Equipping teenagers – Continued work on teen life and wellness skills education.

  • STEPS hired Jacob Brister, who is 18, to help create resources and education that teenagers can identify, connect, and engage with as we move forward.  
  • The team researched and selected third-party videos to use in engaging education and started the process of selecting usable movie clips as well.   

Disadvantaged youth – Created content and roll-out plans for life skills education.

  • Agreed to a roll-out plan with Renew Birmingham for STEPS to supply content for a retreat in December and a 9-week, 18-lesson curriculum in early 2025. 
  • Researched and selected third-party videos aligned to each of the 18 lessons.
  • Researched subject matter experts and used artificial intelligence to help create curriculum content as a foundation for teaching in all 18 of the lessons.
  • Most of the new forms of education delivery described in a section below are being used for this audience to help build engaging and interactive education.

NEW TOOLKIT – See resources launching soon: “Learning More About Recovery”

  • See this Online Toolkit with a Quick Assessment, videos, podcasts, articles, additional resources, key points, discussion questions, Creating a Plan, summary playlist of videos, and workbook – Learning More About Recovery
  • See the playlist of 5 short videos – Learning More About Recovery – YouTube
  • Areas include: the lifestyle of recovery, what is addiction, the behaviors of addiction and recovery, dealing with stigma of addiction, and life after alcohol. 

1-minute videos – As an example, see the short video below that can help someone get started down the life-changing (sometimes life-saving) road to recovery …

Exciting New Ways to Build and Deliver Education

New education partner – Plans to collaborate with world-class training provider.

  • STEPS has an initial agreement to partner with Compedia which is a leading-edge company in the creation of engaging and impactful learning experiences.
  • Compedia would create a STEPS environment on their learning platform that can be used to create educational offerings that are interactive and engaging.
  • This partnership would also allow STEPS education to be included on a new delivery platform that is being promoted to churches, schools, and families. 
  • Compedia created interactive education used at the Museum of the Bible in Washington DC and partners include Intel, Siemens, and National Geographic.

Engagement via videos – STEPS continues to invest in creating video resources. 

  • Filmed four teaching videos at live, in-person presentations to be used for future education and to repurpose for social media and other purposes.
  • Continued researching and honing video production to improve delivery.
  • Significant investment in a new area for STEPS which is to research, select, and use third-party videos integrated into our education for teenagers.

Artificial intelligence – Created and executing a comprehensive new AI strategy. 

  • With consulting assistance from our newest Board member, David Craig, we researched and developed an end-to-end AI strategy and plan for STEPS.
  • STEPS purchased team licenses for ChatGPT software from OpenAI.
  • After initial training, all team members are now engaged using ChatGPT. 
  • We selected our first two implementation projects and are well into the first one using ChatGPT to help develop content more efficiently and effectively. 

Utilize Digital Outreach with Blogs and Social Media

Next Right STEPS blog– 13 weekly blogs with examples including those below:

Parenting community blog – 13 weekly blogs for parents with samples including:

YouTube outreach – 26 videos posted this quarter with 1100 views such as:

Social media channels – Reach people “where they are” and link to resources. 

Efficient and Effective Ministry Operations

STEPS website– Continued to improve the website at LifeImprovementSteps.com.

Ministry efficiency – Continued to improve our processes, systems, and content.

  • Enhancements in content management, process manual, platform operations and trouble-shooting as needed, and quality control of resources and content.
  • Ongoing feedback process including written surveys at in-person events, automated surveys of Online Toolkits, and user focus groups and interviews.

Growth fundraising – Positioned STEPS for 4Q fundraising to serve more people. 

  • Submitted 6 grants, advanced to next stage on 2, and waiting on all of them.
  • Mailed a donation solicitation letter to 81 churches along with our annual report and a self-addressed stamped envelope for returning donations.
  • Created initial design for a fundraising appeal flyer to be mailed this quarter. 
  • Identifying critical projects that need funding to seek people and companies to be partners in areas such as disadvantaged youth, mentoring teenagers and young adults, strengthening families, preventing addiction and mental health issues, and expanding our ministry reach from Birmingham to Alabama.
  • You can be part of our ministry to offer help, healing, and hope to hurting people by sponsoring a growth project or simply donating to STEPS.

Thank you – STEPS could not have the impact it does without a ministry community of the STEPS team, board members, partners, volunteers, foundations, and donors. We greatly appreciate you and hope STEPS resources have been helpful to you and people you care about. Before you move on, look back at the material highlighted in this note because it is GUARANTEED someone you know can benefit from it.  

Steve Ward, Executive Director at STEPS

 

STEPS Newsletter – 2nd QUARTER 2024

Scan this newsletter for a quick view of new news, helpful resources for you and your family, and exciting ministry updates. Click on links to see more and get access to useful tips and techniques to help you and those you care about live life better.  

Enhance Family Wellness and Personal Life Skills

Portfolio of useful family resources – STEPS has followed through on our 2024 strategic plan and built out a suite of online life-enhancing resources for families.

New Online Toolkit for grandparents – These new easy-to-use resources will help you be a GREAT grandparent, and they will benefit your grandkids and kids as well.

On a personal note, I often write about things I have personal experience with, but I started work on this material even though I was not a grandparent. Several weeks into that project, our older son and his wife told us they are expecting a baby!    

Online Toolkits available for use – See the toolkits now available for families:

New Online Toolkit for parents of younger kids – These practical resources help parents of children equip their kids to grow up to live a happy and healthy life.  

Wellness life skills family resources – We now have 3 Online Toolkits to help your family deal with anxiety, become more intentional, and have better relationships.

Equip Teenagers with Practical Life and Prevention Skills

Curriculum for teenagers – We continued to develop and get feedback on new education on “Helping Teenagers Live On Purpose to Fulfill Their Potential.”

  • Preparation: Living on purpose, building growth habits, facts on substances
  • Awareness: Self-awareness, comfortable identity, situational awareness
  • Connection: Healthy activities, encouraging friendships, relationship with God
  • Education: Prepare for situations, emotional intelligence, manage your mind
  • Steps: Dreams and plans, taking next right steps, assurance for the future

Focus groups – STEPS held focus groups with youth at Helena Methodist Church and Liberty Church to help shape our education for teenagers. The content was very well-received, and we got great input to help shape the delivery of the material.

Work on videos for teenagers – Based on the huge popularity of videos with young people, STEPS invested in researching and developing new delivery techniques.

Build a Curriculum to Serve Disadvantaged Youth

Education for underserved youth – Disadvantaged teens have many hurdles to overcome. STEPS is developing education to equip them with practical life skills to help them improve their lives emotionally, mentally, socially, and spiritually, 

  • Preparation – Wisdom, character, values, relationship with God, motivation  
  • Awareness – Self-awareness, coping, prevention, improvement, confidence
  • Connection – EQ skills, communication, teamwork, relationships, getting help
  • Education – Learning, mind/thinking, making choices, habits, competence 
  • Steps – Intentionality, small steps, planning, commitment, effectiveness    

Focus group input – Testing of our curriculum for disadvantaged youth is being used to help shape the program, and so far the feedback has been very positive: 

  • The value was well-validated with 100% agreement on struggles teens face. 
  • The program received positive ratings with importance rated 9.2 out of 10.
  • Content was very highly rated on its importance (9.6) and usefulness (9.4).

Renew Birmingham – The partnership with Renew Birmingham in Ensley and the Center continues, and the program will shift to serve middle schoolers as well.  

Enhance Growth to Reach and Serve More People

Content Portals – Above is an image from the web page built for Liberty Church that shows how our suite of family offerings can be easily delivered to organizations.

Collaboration partner strategy – STEPS education for partners is flexible to fit the needs of organizations, easy to implement, and long-lasting in its positive impact. 

Services for collaboration partners – STEPS offers these services to our partners: custom Content Portal, access to Online Toolkits, website/printed/email/social media assets, speaking to groups, parenting classes or small groups, getting feedback from and equipping youth, and training program managers at the organization.

Content Portals for business organizations – STEPS is working with a business-oriented group and a company to pilot these resources in marketplace environments.

Organizations distribute printed or digital flyers – 2000 flyers were delivered to Grace Klein Community as a pilot to be distributed in family food boxes. 

Outreach and what you can do – STEPS is now set to deliver online, digital, or printed resources for your church, business, nonprofit, or group to serve families. 

Ramping up digital outreach – STEPS has plans to hire a digital marketing agency to help reach more people and families by honing our online access to content and our processes and campaigns to be more scalable to extend our outreach.

Team resources – STEPS will be hiring 2 new team members for digital outreach and content building and a teenager as a researcher and advisor on reaching youth. 

Segmented ministry campaigns – These new resources will help get our content and online education to organizations and people in select audience segments. 

Utilize Digital Outreach with Blogs and Social Media

Leverage existing content – Above is an image of our revamped blog categories to make access to content easier for organic growth and outreach campaigns. 
Regular blog – Weekly articles were published on our primary blog including:
Parenting blog – Examples of weekly posts on our parent-specific blog include:

Social media – STEPS published 38 social media posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest and reached 3768 people on those channels. Sample of posts include:

YouTube – 26 YouTube videos were posted with over 1300 views, e.g. here’s one example of a video on “Next Right Steps to Being a GREAT Grandparent.” 

Effective Ministry Planning and Operations

Board meetings – We held meetings with the STEPS Board of Advisors and Board of Directors and welcomed David Craig as a new member. Items discussed included: (a) increase marketing, outreach, and business development; (b) add new agency and team resources; (c) build a plan for how STEPS will utilize artificial intelligence; (d) ramp up delivery of family resources to reach more people and organizations; and (e) include middle schoolers in efforts to equip teens and disadvantaged youth.

Strategy and Operations manual – Updated our planning information and process documentation to ensure we continue to increase effectiveness and efficiency. 

Serving families example – As an anonymous example, Jason’s parents attended a parenting seminar. They used STEPS online resources and referred their twenty-something son for coaching, and he benefitted from our resources as well. Problems included use of alcohol and marijuana and issues with depression and isolation.  

What you can do – You can help STEPS help other people by referring us to your church, company, or group for speaking or to consider sharing our online resources.

STEPS Newsletter – 1st QUARTER 2024

Key Material for a Quick View of Highlights 

  1. Annual Report issued – Published the STEPS 2023 Annual Report with interesting and easy-to-read summaries that show who we serve, how we help people, real-life stories, testimonials, key facts, 2023 highlights, 2024 strategy, financial summary, and our boards.
  2. Must-see highlights – See all the videos on this page and key items in orange plus the new Online Toolkit Improving Your Relationships One Step at a Time, the Content Portal on Proactive Parenting – Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church, and the ParentU Podcast.
  3. “About STEPS” information – To help communicate what STEPS does and ongoing accomplishments, updated the About STEPS web page with resource links like the STEPS is Making a Difference video, STEPS Highlights page, and STEPS Ministries Newsletters page. 

First-quarter progress on 2024 strategy

“Family Wellness & Personal Life Skills” – Initiative and resources to the whole family
  • Executing the strategy – In this newsletter, see the 10 items highlighted in this color that align to our stated 2024 strategy.
  • Suite of presentations – Created an integrated set of presentations to speak and teach across the strategic areas and audiences.
Disadvantaged families and groups – New program for diverse, under-served areas
  • Banks Academy (northeast Birmingham) – Developed plans with Banks staff, spoke at school-wide assembly, and held student focus group. Content rated highly by students as 9.5 of 10 on importance and usefulness. Comments included: “I really think this is a good idea, and I truly am blessed to get this opportunity.” “I like how the program came in the nick of time in my life.” “I just love the program.” 
  • Program plans for Banks Academy – Developed the overall curriculum and early content leading to full program roll-out in Fall of 2024.
  • See the one-minute video below highlighting the approach and the student feedback …

  • Renew Birmingham (Ensley) – Organized program, performed research, created strategy and approach, developed curriculum and initial content, served as youth mentor in 4-day retreat, presented to group of teenagers, and built plans for roll-out in the Fall of 2024.
  • Disadvantaged youth curriculum – Content being created for underserved teenagers addresses emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and personal life skills including character, values, awareness, coping, prevention, emotional intelligence, learning, choices, and intentionality.
  • See the short video below with Renew Birmingham staff and an early teaching example …

Reaching and equipping teens directly – Help youth fulfill their potential

Wellness life skills family training – Help adult and youth family members
  • Announced new Online Toolkit – Includes exciting new features including live-recorded videos, flip-slide how-to examples, podcast versions of the lessons, and workbook along with summary videos, application questions, supporting resources, and improved navigation.
  • The Online Toolkit banner is shown below, so check out the toolkit here –  Improving Your Relationships One Step at a Time

  • Church program – Executing a program with a church Content Portal to provide a suite of family education to church members.
  • Speaking at organizations – STEPS speaks to audiences on topics related to our online education. For example, we spoke at both Sunday services plus a live-stream to church members and received excellent feedback and encouragement on the material.
  • As an example of our speaking, see a short opening segment of a talk on “Improving Relationships” below …
Escalate impact on parents of teens – Scale growth of parenting of teens education
  • Podcast for parents – Hear a summary of what our parenting of teens ministry is about here: ParentU Podcast.
  • Church program -Spoke to parenting class with new Proactive Parenting presentation, Teaching is part of an overall church program that also includes the Online Toolkit below, recording a podcast, weekly email newsletter updates to church members, and other actions.
  • Flyers and ads – Created informational flyers to go to hundreds of parents via Grace Klein Community to create awareness and link to resources. Flyers to be used with other organizations. Created digital ads for churches, groups, and STEPS to promote Online Toolkits.
  • Outreach – Reached out to 72 churches to offer services and building a repeatable outreach strategy, process, emails, and contact lists.
Multiplication via collaboration – Partner with groups with Content Portals
  • Church Content Portals – STEPS can now deliver replicable, scalable Content Portals to churches and other organizations which offer a flexible suite of Online Toolkits that are aligned to the areas in our “Family Wellness & Personal Life Skills” initiative.
  • Collaboration partners – Focusing on our initial partners to expand usage and learn and will add more partners in coming months.
  • See a Content Portal that offers education across our strategy here – Family Wellness and Personal Life Skills Church Content Portal

Segmented ministry campaigns – Build targeted education  for selected segments
Parents of kids in elementary school – Proactive parenting to raise great children
  • New material – Built a presentation and the content for an Online Toolkit for parents of younger children to be completed during 2Q24.
Parents of young people in college – Equipping older youth to handle real life
  • New material – Built presentation and content for an Online Toolkit for college-age kids and young adults to be completed during 2Q24.
Caregivers in the parenting role – Educating those thrust into the parenting role
  • Future plans – No new content created but built a plan for adapting and simplifying parenting material to serve caregivers.

Digital Outreach with social media and blogs

Social Media

Blogs

Weekly blogs going to our overall email audience: 

Examples of parenting weekly blog that also goes to families:

Other Areas and Operations

  • Finances and bookkeeping – STEPS Finance Manager executed weekly processes to ensure the integrity and reliability of our financial data. This included reconciliations of accounts and issues to ensure accuracy and completeness. Closed out for the fiscal year 2023.
  • Grants to foundations – Ramped up research and submissions to foundations, conducted lessons learned interviews, updated our 2024 grant plan, mailed out 70 annual reports, subscribed to the Foundation Directory, and increased search for family foundations.
  • Coaching and consulting – STEPS conducted individual coaching with individuals and consulted and collaborated with organizations.
  • Professional development – The Executive Director conducts ongoing learning through research, reading, recovery meetings, spiritual groups and meetings, a business leader mentoring group, other meetings, and conversations with those we serve and stakeholders.

How you can help

During 2Q24, STEPS will search for and hopefully acquire more resources for our team to reach and serve the most people possible, especially with for reaching disadvantaged teenagers and social media. You can help by donating to STEPS to help fund these areas, connecting us to potential donors or foundations, and connecting us to individuals or organizations with the right skills.

We hope you found this newsletter informative, and feel free to reach out to us with questions, ideas, or ways you can help. If you didn’t check it out already above, make sure you open up and glance through the STEPS 2023 Annual Report. Thanks for your support!

STEPS Newsletter – 4th QUARTER 2023

As you look at this STEPS update and new news, ask yourself 3 questions:

  • What is 1 resource or program that can help me or my family?
  • What is 1 resource or program that can help someone I know?
  • What is 1 resource or program that can help the most people?

But before scanning the rest of this newsletter, first watch the 2-minute video below for a variety of actual examples of how STEPS serves people in the community …

Here is the story of a family served by STEPS that represents many other stories:

See the 1-minute video below with 5 quick testimonials of parents we served …

Here are 1-minute videos with 20 more testimonials from real-life parents:

Highlights of the Ministry from 2023

Our heart is to give help, healing, and hope to one hurting person at a time. But we also want to serve as many people as possible. In 2023, STEPS served:

  • Tens – Individuals and organization leaders we worked with one-on-one.
  • Tens – 10+ courses, eBooks, and education sites developed and delivered.
    • 5 Online Toolkits (each has 10 videos, 5 articles, 20 support articles).
    • 3 Content Portal sites and PACES for Parents learning center updates.
  • Hundreds – 78 articles, 100+ videos, and 10+ products/presentations built.
    • Content and education built to serve people for many years to come.
  • Thousands – People taught via seminars, webinars, website, and products.
    • 10+ seminars, speaking engagements, and events with excellent results.
    • Seminars rated 9.7 of 10 by attendees with excellent written feedback.
  • Tens of thousands – Views or opens of articles, posts, videos, and pages.
    • 551 social media posts and 180+ videos and articles published in 2023.
  • Tens of thousands – Others reached via media and radio/podcast interviews.
  • Hundreds of thousands – 552,820 social media and digital ad touches.

How You Can Help Serve Other People

What is 1 thing you can do to bring help, healing, and hope to hurting people?

  1. Use and share helpful STEPS resources – Help your family and people you know by forwarding blog emails or Liking and Sharing social media posts.
  2. Pray for the ministry and those we serve – Pray each week for the ministry.
  3. Volunteer to help in 1 of these ways – Impact the lives of others with flexible expectations for a few hours work from home when convenient to you:
    • Give feedback on our content; just Reply to learn how.
    • Connect STEPS to a church, organization, or individual.
    • Spend 2-to-4 hours a week to help reach out to churches.
    • Use your gifts to serve such as: outreach, marketing, content, social media, digital marketing, video/audio production, or fundraising.

What We’re Doing and Where We’re Going

In 4Q23, we created new summaries to communicate how STEPS performs ministry:

We documented our strategy and plans to reach and serve more people in 2024:

New News and Exciting Plans for 2024

Here are 10 interesting areas we will focus on and expand in 2024:

  1. “Family Wellness & Personal Life Skills” – Initiative for the whole family.
  2. Directly reaching and equipping teens – Helping youth live on purpose.
  3. Parents of kids in elementary school – How to raise awesome children.
  4. Parents of young people in college – Mentoring older youth for real life.
  5. Family life skills wellness training – Help parents and family members.
  6. Parenting tips for caregivers – Grandparents, adopting parents, others. 
  7. Disadvantaged groups and families – Serve diverse, lower-income areas.
  8. Escalate impact on parents of teens – Expand proven parenting education.
  9. Multiplication via collaboration – Partner with groups with Content Portals.
  10. Ministry programs for key groups – Target education for select segments.

Below is a 2-minute video that summarizes new news and key changes about where STEPS is going in 2024 for a quick “executive overview” of our strategy and plans …

Scan the easy-to-read highlights from fourth quarter below in the areas of content, education, digital outreach, and collaboration and click on items to learn more …

On Demand Content – Practical and Easy-to-Use

Here are blog articles published on our main blog during the last quarter:

We had the first quarter of the Parenting Community blog. Here are examples:

Easy-Access Education – One Place to Go for Help

In 2023, STEPS developed Online Toolkits (flexible courses) and Content Portals (easy-to-navigate education sites).as new ways to deliver easy-to-use content. 

  • In fourth quarter, we developed the 2-year content plan for Online Toolkits.
  • We can now offer programs to serve a number of audiences in many areas.

We launched an exciting new Online Toolkit to help people live more effectively.

One of our most exciting projects is new work to reach teenagers directly which will complement our resources and education that serve the parents of teenagers.  

  • In fourth quarter, we created the content and published a 5-part blog series.
  • We ran a focus group with high schoolers to get feedback on the content.
  • “Helping Teenagers Live on Purpose to Fulfill Their Potential” is education for teens to enhance well-being, prevent problems, and achieve their potential.
  • Example: Teens Move in the Right Direction by Developing Their Awareness

Scalable Digital Outreach – Reaching People Efficiently

With 4Q23 social media, we published 102 posts reaching 62,788 people.

  • In 2023, we published a total of 551 posts reaching 400,291 people.

Here are examples of social media reels examples (turn your speaker on):

For our new YouTube channel, 4Q23 was our first full quarter. 

  • We published 20 videos in our start-up period with over 1100 views.
  • We developed new creative video formats and production processes.

Here are examples of types of informational videos we published:

Multipliable Collaboration – Partnering with Others

In 4Q23 and continuing, STEPS is focusing heavily on collaboration and our first few partner churches to run programs utilizing Content Portals and Online Toolkits. 

  • Our first church led to three others which are in planning and two additional churches under discussion as foundation partners to support in early 2024. 
  • In several, we are planning family education for parents of teens, kids, and young adults plus parents themselves and reaching teenagers directly. 

In 4Q23, we started work to reach disadvantaged groups in lower-income areas. 

  • We are in discussion with 2 local organizations for possible pilot projects.

With media outreach STEPS reaches tens of thousands of people such as with this October interview on WZZR FM and WAPI AM: “Steve Ward on Talk 995.”

As you can see, STEPS had made progress in lots of areas. How do we do it?

We do it the same way we help people improve their lives: one step at a time.

This approach of taking simple steps is a well-proven and life-changing way for people to change their lives. Watch the 1-minute video below to learn more …  

STEPS Ministries is Well-Positioned for 2024

We have strong finances in early 2024 with cash to cover 5 months of operating costs plus 4 committed grants and monthly donors and many wonderful supporters. We will plan to an upside growth budget in order to reach and serve more people.

Our successful year-end fundraising campaign delivered value-add content while increasing awareness of needs STEPS addresses in families and the community.

We won 3 grants in 4Q23 with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the Daniel Foundation, and one who remained anonymous. We have 2 pending grants submitted in 4Q23.

We created a new Finance Manager role on the STEPS team to complement our bookkeeper and the certified CPA firm that handles our accounting and taxes.

Both STEPS Boards met in November to review accomplishments, status, and the strategy and plans for 2024. See our 23 Board members here: STEPS Boards.

As a closing message for 2023, I am blessed and honored to serve in this ministry to bring help, healing, and hope to hurting people. There are countless people all around us in pain and ministry is often hard. Our ministry also faces spiritual attack at times, but that is good news because it means we are doing something good.

As we start another year, STEPS is where we are supposed to be, and we will keep striving to go where we are called to go. We deeply appreciate you joining us on that journey. Thank you for your encouragement, support, prayers, and assistance.

Steve Ward, Executive Director at STEPS Ministries

STEPS Newsletter – 3rd Quarter 2023

Highlights

  • STEPS continued executing an extensive and integrated program to serve the parents, kids, and families in Walker County as well as the overall community.

  • Built education, outreach, and collaboration for future Walker County ministry.

  • Built new online toolkit education on “Living Intentionally to Change Your Life.”

  • Delivered long-term parenting program and custom web site for a partner church and will re-use this approach as a model for organization programs.

  • Launched a new YouTube channel and built dozens of short videos.

  • Launched a new Parenting Community blog to extend our services.

  • Published 135 social media posts that reached 79,568 people.

  • Published 16 blog articles in 3Q23 bringing our annual total to 42.

  • Walker County radio PSAs, e.g. fentanyl danger and connecting to our kids

  • Many speaking engagements plus events, outreach, media, and coaching.
 
Education

Online toolkit – Built “Living Intentionally to Change Your Life” education with:

  • One-minute videos: Quick, impactful insights on how to change your life.

  • Practical articles: Short articles with 3 steps to help you get started today.

  • Additional resources: Links to useful articles you choose to learn more.

  • Application questions: Quick exercises to help you put ideas into action.

  • Summary video: Live presentation video that ties the key points together.

  • Summary guide: Helpful steps from articles in a handy one-page document.

  • Personal worksheet: Application questions on one page to help build a plan.

  • Other improvements: Added feedback surveys and rotating banner images.

In-person teaching – Spoke in partnership with the Walker County Sheriff’s Office and built “Change Your Life by Living Intentionally” content for that online toolkit.

Suite of online toolkits – STEPS has now built 5 online courses this year:

Parenting program – Implemented a parenting program for St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church to serve as a pilot we can multiply for future church programs with:

Parenting programs – STEPS has several programs being created or planned to expand this method of multiplying impact by efficiently sharing education via groups.

Content

Content plan – We built a strategic plan for programs and online toolkits outlining 25 areas where we can offer education by repurposing content we already created for Proactive Parenting, Improving Our Life, Addressing Issues, and Spiritual Growth.

Content marketing – We execute coordinated ministry using in-person teaching, webinars, email, social media, videos, digital ads, organic SEO, digital and printed materials, traditional media, events, and sharing content via influencers and groups.

Next Right STEPS blog – These blog articles in 3Q23 address a range of content:

Parenting Community blog – This new blog provides weekly tips and resources to support parents in promoting the well-being of their kids and addressing challenges:

Digital Outreach

YouTube – Launched a YouTube channel to serve people how they use content:

  • Many videos are one-minute YouTube shorts with other videos on important, practical, and helpful topics to help people live life better.

  • The YouTube channel adds helpful content every week. You can check out that channel at YouTube.com/@LifeImprovementSTEPS.

  • By creating engaging and keyword-optimized videos and analysis of channel performance, our views doubled in the last month and watch time increased.

Social media – In 3Q23 alone we published 135 posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest and reached 79,568 people.

Boosting posts – “Boosting” posts is a paid form of promoting social posts targeted to a specific audience. Our first boosted post reached 1267 more people with 1886 more impressions than before. We now boost posts regularly in Walker County.

Influencer outreach – To serve more people via social media, we reach out to local organizations to share digital content. Videos and content from speaking events in Walker County and Birmingham are shared by influencers to reach a wider audience.

Collaboration

Parenting program – Building a program for Catholic Diocese of North Alabama:

      • Keynote event speaker with presentations to parents and one to teenagers.

      • Custom web page to access parenting and teenager education resources.

Collaboration – STEPS partners with many organizations to reach their audiences:

      • Churches – Participated in Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church Missions Week speaking to an Adult Discipleship class and an in-home discipleship group.

      • Schools and churches – Partnered and presented at a First Priority event on “Providing a Better Future for Our Kids,” manned a resource table for church leaders, and got testimonials such as Debi Deboer and Jody Trautwein.

      • Civic clubs – Talked on “Creating a Prevention Movement” to Jasper Kiwanis.

      • Public Service Announcements – Walker County radio stations ran 10 Public Service Announcements with links to resources on topics like fentanyl risks and connecting to our kids to increase awareness and interest in prevention.

      • Radio coverage – Interviewed on Talk 995 (WZZR FM and WAPI AM). Hear that 9-minute interview here: “Steve Ward on the “Dixon and Vining.”

      • Flyers – Built new flyers for use in Walker County and for Biblical Parenting.

      • Volunteer Advisory Team – Started a Walker County volunteer outreach team.

      • Events – Attended Recovery Rock 2023, Overdose Awareness Walk, Walker Area Community Foundation luncheon, and others to share resources.

      • Grants – Applied for grants with Alabama Power, Walker Area Community Foundation, Daniel Foundation, Hugh Kaul, Susan Mott Webb Trust, Robert R. Meyer, and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

Networking – Met with dozens of people plus collaboration with Healing Network, Walker County Nonprofit Council, Alabama Association of Christian Recovery Ministries, Rural Ministry, Safe & Healthy Homewood, and Cornerstone Cohorts.

STEPS Newsletter – 2nd Quarter 2023

Below are some useful resources that can be helpful to you and people you know. This is also a newsletter with recent accomplishments aligned to the STEPS strategy. It shows what got done in 2Q23 and highlights our ministry approach and plans.  

Here are a few examples from 2Q23 with some links you can use to see more …

  • Published “STEPS 2022 Annual Report” and sent to appropriate stakeholders.
  • Built new online toolkits for “Dealing with Anxiety” and “Parenting in a Crisis.”
  • Published 6-part series in the Walker County Daily Mountain Eagle newspaper.
  • Executed plans and built videos to launch our YouTube channel this summer.
  • Published 120 posts and 53 videos to reach 109,025 people on social media.
  • Platinum rating (highest) from GuideStar (biggest nonprofit reporting agency).
  • Filmed a new 90-second ministry overview video that you can see below …

EDUCATION

A key focus in 2Q23 was providing education that aligns with people’s needs and is easily accessible and usable by the most people possible.

We built 2 short courses (called online toolkits) for “Dealing with Anxiety” and “Parenting in a Crisis.” Take a look at in the sections below.

STEPS launched this new online toolkit: “Dealing with Anxiety and Living Life Better.”

We focused on anxiety because of how many people it affects. The material is well-researched with easy-to-use tools to deal with stress.

  • We created material on how to deal with in teenagers and how to apply Biblical principles to handle anxiety effectively.
  • These principles are usable in other ways to help people deal with depression, make good choices, and prevent addiction and issues.
  • You can help other people by sharing feedback on that toolkit. Click the button at the bottom of the page and submit your input.

We built this online toolkit for families: “Parenting in a Crisis to Protect Your Kids.”

“Parenting in a Crisis” is for families and groups dealing with struggling teenagers.

  • It includes “Going Deeper” questions for parents to “self-coach” because most parents with kids who are struggling do not get help.
  • This material can be used by counselors, recovery groups, coaches, or pastors and STEPS is willing to train-the-trainers on how to use it.
  • We also developed a comprehensive handbook to help as many people as possible, and it is titled: “Parenting in a Crisis”

Here are other aspects of our education strategy we made progress on during 2Q23:

  • Training videos – We are ramping up education videos and webinars to serve more people efficiently. In 2Q23, we built 2 training videos.
  • Video education – We improved our processes for training videos.
  • Self-learning – Online toolkits facilitate self-learning with a variety of content formats, exercise questions, and additional useful resources.

CONTENT

Our strategy is to deliver integrated content for key problems people want to solve.

  • Content families – We select areas that align to key needs many people face.
    • Completed: Parenting Teenagers, Parenting in a Crisis, Biblical Parenting, and Dealing with Anxiety
    • Future: How to prevent addictions; helping others who are hurting; taking practical daily steps to a better life; dealing with circumstances; courageous hope for hurting people; improving family relationships; etc.
  • Content scope – We have focused largely on Proactive Parenting, especially in Walker County. Now, we believe we can reach more parents as well as many other people by also focusing on Life Improvement and Addiction Prevention.
  • Blog articles – Published 13 blog like: “How Being Connected Helps Your Kids in a Crisis” and “How to Worry Less and Find More Peace.”

We are focusing on easy-to-use products, articles, and videos.

Our content strategy includes greatly increasing the number of videos we produce.

We offer easy-to-access content, so we are improving navigation on our platforms.

  • Content access – Improved Walker County parenting page and built a Proactive Parenting page for easy access: Proactive Parenting
  • Platforms – Improved usage and navigation on Kajabi and WordPress sites.
  • Content optimization – Put Search Engine Optimization (SEO) processes in place for web and video and reworked blogs to improve SEO. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media lets us serve people “where they hang out” and reach many people.

  • Reach – We reached 109,025 people with social media during 2Q23.  
  • Posting – Published 120 posts like “Managing Stress” and “Steps In a Crisis.”
  • Boosting – Boosting posts was successful in 1Q23. We have a technical Facebook issue limiting boosting, and we are looking for a solution.  

We are increasing the use of videos across all of our social media channels. This quarter, we published 53 Reels, each on 2 social channels with examples like: “Getting Help for Anxiety” and “Addicted to Control.”

YouTube is a huge social channel and the second biggest search engine in the world.

  • YouTube – We prepared to launch our YouTube channel this summer.
  • TikTok – Our strategy is to produce many videos less than a minute in length. We will launch a TikTok channel to leverage those videos.  

A new social media strategy is to reach more people via influencers and groups.

  • Influencers – We reached 30 influencers and accounts in Walker County.
  • Groups – We are starting to identify other groups to share content with.

DIGITAL OUTREACH

We paused digital ad campaigns and are aligning our content, assessing our strategy, and will hire a digital marketing agency later.

  • We are building new processes for SEO, analytics, and campaign feedback.
  • We are investigating consultants and will continue talking to agencies.
  • Once we fix Facebook, we will boost posts and consider executing some simple digital ad campaigns on our own.

While we pause digital ads, we will use that as an opportunity to develop ways to build a deeper and more ongoing parenting community.

  • Email outreach – We are upgrading our email system to automate emails to customize content based on interests and areas of need.
  • Parenting community – We built a parenting email list and will build a community with whom we will communicate and share content.
  • Customer relationship management – We have a CRM system we use to enhance outreach, especially with churches in Walker County.
  • Personal outreach – In Walker County, we will use digital outreach methods including email, social media, websites, and videos.

COLLABORATION

We will continue outreach to build a “Prevention Movement” in Walker County.

A critical part of our strategy is to conduct programs with partner organizations.

  • Custom education – We design content families so groups can choose from a menu of offerings so we can deliver custom education. 
  • Partners – We approached several organizations to partner on a program.
  • Programs – Tuning our systems so training can be delivered as a program to nurture users through their progress along their education.
  • Multiplication – Our content, training, and programs can be replicated into other organizations, and we can train-the-trainers as needed.

2023 STRATEGY

This newsletter addresses our 2023 strategy from the 2022 Annual Report document which you can see here:  “STEPS 2022 Annual Report”

Issues limiting our ability to serve more people are funding, resources and skills, and not having a digital marketing agency for now.

We had 3 high-priority grants we applied for in 2Q23, and we were awarded a generous grant by the Hill Crest Foundation. The other 2 foundations encouraged us to apply again, and we will be applying to a number of additional foundations during 3Q23.

Here are 5 ways you can serve other people and support the STEPS mission:

  • Help others – Look at the online toolkits and share them with other people.
  • Be informed – Scan this newsletter and the Annual Report for awareness.
  • Connect us – Connect Steve to groups we can serve, who might want to support the STEPS mission, or for speaking engagements.
  • Volunteer – You can provide feedback on content in an hour per month or a short-term project. It will be useful, interesting, and helpful.
  • Donate – Summer is a nonprofit cash-flow challenge. Donations are welcome.

Thanks for your support and encouragement for STEPS and those we serve. 

Steve Ward
Executive Director, STEPS Ministries

STEPS Newsletter – 1st Quarter 2023

Check out the resources below that provide help, healing, and hope and see highlights from the first quarter of 2023 when STEPS …

  • Built new parenting products in easy-to-use formats with integrated short videos, articles, courses, and downloadable digital products:

 

See a video of that talk here: “How to Live Life Better in Any Circumstances.”

We offer in-person or virtual parenting seminars in a one-hour session, workshop, or facilitated small group setting. Here is a video of the material covered in a one-hour “Biblical Parenting” church seminar: “Biblical Parenting with Grace and Truth.”

STEPS was honored to be able to hold parenting seminars and workshops at places including Long Memorial Church and First Presbyterian Church in Walker County, and we greatly enjoyed meeting and working with those wonderful people.

The Walker County newspaper published an article on STEPS Ministries that you can see here: Daily Mountain Eagle. We will run a series of six articles in the paper in 2Q23 on how parents and caregivers can support and equip their kids when they are facing a crisis. 

STEPS conducts outreach in a number of ways including meeting with groups such as The Healing Network, Walker Area Community Foundation, and Walker County Nonprofit Council. This allows us to collaborate with other groups to learn and reach more people.

Steve created a new community-oriented presentation to muster civic support for our STEPS Proactive Parenting work and presented it to the Walker County Rotary Club. As we move into 2Q23, we will increase this community outreach to reach and serve even more people. 

Blogs articles remain key to our content. We published 13 articles in 1Q23 such as:

Social media continues to grow very well and is strategic to reaching more people:

  • During 1Q23, we published 141 social media posts. 
  • The number of people we reach has grown from 20,000 per month to exciting new levels of as much as 50,000 per month, and in 1Q23 we reached about 149,000 people overall. Moving forward, we will focus heavily on using social media to reach and serve the most people
  • Many posts have how-to help: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqYQ9hBOoO1/
  • Other posts provide encouragement, healing, or hope to hurting people. 

Social media reels (short videos) are a strategic area of focus and growth:

 

We continued our digital marketing activity into 1Q23:

  • Delivered 152,529 digital ad impressions as “seeds of hope” to hurting people.
  • These led to 1819 clicks to get content. Ads acted on by 1388 users had 2234 website page views and 4905 Facebook page engagements.  
  • Campaigns were run to boost Facebook posts, deliver Google and Facebook ads, grow our Facebook following, and offer helpful products. 
  • Digital ads spread the word across Walker County about our content and services and provided learning for our ongoing marketing.
  • During 2Q23, we will pause execution of campaigns to evaluate results, ROI, learning, and direction of our digital marketing strategy.

STEPS added a wonderful team member and welcomes Courtney Allen as Video Editor & Content Manager. See the STEPS team here.

We are forming a Parenting Advisory Team in Walker County and looking for volunteers to give feedback on parenting content and training.

We continue to invest in pursuing grants from foundations to help grow the ministry:

  • Awarded in 1Q23: Youth Leadership Walker County
  • Submitted in 1Q23: We are increasing our focus on seeking support for our nonprofit work from like-minded foundations including Scaife Family Foundation, J.W. Couch Foundation, Hill Crest Foundation, One Hundred Shares Birmingham, EBSCO Industries, Farrell Family Foundation, Independent Presbyterian Church, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, and Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church. 

 

Foundations and individuals appreciate the unique differentiators for STEPS:

  1. Unique focus on prevention to avoid harmful issues before lives come apart.
  2. Focus on behavioral root cause issues to help people transform their lives.
  3. Proven evidence-informed principles that have worked for millions of people.
  4. Education validated by user feedback with an excellent rating of 9.7 out of 10.
  5. Holistic input: Bible, recovery, wellness, science, and personal development.
  6. Inclusion of helpful and inspiring lessons learned from personal experiences.
  7. STEPS does the work to research and distill content into practical next steps.
  8. Online education is convenient, confidential, and accessible from anywhere.
  9. Universal and timeless content that can help people for decades to come.
  10. Scalable digital content and delivery and collaboration with organizations.

 

STEPS exists to bring help, healing, and hope to hurting people:

  • Almost one-half of all families will deal with substance abuse.
  • About 75% of high schoolers will use addictive substances, 40% abuse them, and fentanyl is the leading cause of death starting at age 18.
  • One-half of adolescents will experience a mental health issue.
  • 19% of young people contemplate suicide and 11% attempt it.

 

Our personal interaction with those we serve demonstrates the lives being changed. STEPS is honored to do all we can to help people improve their lives, grow closer to God, and prevent addiction and related issues from tearing lives and families apart.

STEPS  NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2022

In 2022, we greatly improved our PACES for Parents content and online learning center, executed a community-wide Proactive Parenting program in Walker County, and built a new Biblical Parenting curriculum.

·         We delivered over 570,000 digital ad impressions as “seeds of hope” into Walker County.

·         We published over 50 useful articles, many that also included related videos and podcasts.

·         Our social media reach grew to about 20,000 per month, and that reach is still growing.

·         Seminars received a rating of 9.7 out of 10 with excellent feedback. Personal interaction with participants showed lives being changed.

Ministry is hard work, and real life is often “messy.” But at STEPS, we are deeply grateful for the honor and privilege of bringing help, healing, and hope to more and more hurting people. We greatly appreciate the encouragement and support that helps us help other people. 

The People We Serve

The reason STEPS exists is to serve hurting people. The image above represents a real-life family that we anonymously named Don, Cristy, Emma, and Jason. In December, their story was told in several ways:

 

Church Outreach

  • In the second half of 2022, we built a new Biblical Parenting curriculum that can be delivered through churches and to parents directly, and the feedback on the material was extremely positive.
  • As shown below, the blogs in December had an overt Christian message to help celebrate Christmas.
  • We distributed a useful, entertaining, and discipleship-focused eBook called Taking Steps Toward God
  • We are investing in outreach and partnering with churches in Birmingham and Walker County.

Ministry Summary

  • The video above is about two minutes, and here are a 7-minute and more complete update on the ministry.
  • Finances for STEPS Ministries are strong. We finished the year with good cash reserves which are highly advised for nonprofit ministries.
  • In December, we executed a successful year-end fundraising campaign with 10 emails highlighting ministry stories, differentiators, content, value being delivered, status, and future plans.
  • Our success with grants continues to grow. Late in the year, we were awarded grants from the Walker Area Community Foundation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and an anonymous foundation.

 

Weekly Blogs

In December, we published our normal weekly blog and included a strong focus on Christmas:

 

Digital Marketing

In 2022, we delivered 570,000 digital ad impressions as “seeds of hope” with hurting people. These led to 6200 clicks to get more content.

  • In December, we delivered 41,968 impressions that led to 508 clicks to more content.
  • Campaigns were run to boost Facebook posts, deliver Google and Facebook ads, and grow our Facebook following. We tested our first product-specific campaign and first campaign outside of Walker County.  
  • During 1Q23, we will step back to evaluate the overall results, ROI, and direction of our digital marketing strategy, and our learning so far has been extremely helpful.

 

Social Media

 

Next Right Steps

  • In the first half of 2022, we set aside much of our work on the Life Improvement ministry called “Next Right Steps” to put the significant majority of our focus on Proactive Parenting. As we move into 2023, we will be putting a moderate focus on the Next Right Steps ministry.
  • Steve presented Next Right Steps at a local company to help validate and adjust the material.
  • Late in December, we prepared two articles for early 2023 with Life Improvement messages:

STEPS NEWSLETTER – NOVEMBER 2022

People enjoy stories, especially if they learn something too. Please check out this real-life story you may identify with, and you definitely know people who are facing something similar to this situation: “True Story: Crisis, Prevention, and Proactive Parenting.“

We held meetings in November with the STEPS Boards. Here is a video of material reviewed: “STEPS Ministries Update – November 2022.“

  • Those meetings went very well. The leaders on the Boards were excited about the status, progress, and direction of our ministry efforts.
  • We reviewed our 2022 initiative for STEPS Proactive Parenting in Walker County to help parents prevent addiction and harmful issues.
      • We now Include a “Biblical Parenting” seminar we offer to churches.
  • We are using this work to build content and processes to bring a Proactive Parenting community program to Birmingham in 2023.
  • This fits our strategy to build a scalable ministry we can expand to serve more and more people in Alabama and anywhere in the future.

 

In this update below are a few highlights of November activity, and you can see the five elements of the STEPS Proactive Parenting program around content, digital marketing, social media, training, and collaboration:

This month, I presented “Biblical Parenting” at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Jasper and below are examples of the feedback we received:

  • “I like the entire presentation with each lesson accompanied by a Bible verse.”
  • “I loved the research and heart, and everyone could use this information.”
  • “It’s simple and relatable. No matter what your situation is, it can help.”
  • “I liked how you discussed your mistakes while still portraying hope and that there is always a way with God’s help, no matter how horrible things are going.”
  • “I loved the personal sharing and passion for helping others.”

STEPS mailed the parenting information kits you see in the picture above to 10 churches in Walker County.

  • The boxes had an impact. We had a spike in page views of the Walker County landing page for organizations and feedback from church leaders was positive.
  • We confirmed plans with another Jasper church for a parenting program.

 

I participated in The Healing Network of nonprofits who work to improve lives in Walker County to discuss opportunities for collaboration.

Here is a snapshot of November digital marketing:

  • Delivered 37,136 digital ad impressions across Google and Facebook with 4744 impressions on Google and the remainder on Facebook.
  • That led to 734 clicks to use content, and we had 37 more people Like our Facebook page so they will continue to see our posted content. 

 

This is a summary of this month’s social media activity:

     

Below are November blog articles. You know people in these situations because almost half of all families are affected by substance abuse.

 

STEPS is focused on Proactive Parenting in Walker County and building a scalable ministry to help families in Birmingham and anywhere, but we do other things to help people improve their lives, grow closer to God, and prevent addiction …

  • Our blogs and social media address parenting plus other ministry areas.
  • Built material and a company presentation on how to live life better, and we will reuse this material in many ways moving forward.
  • Worked with a coach using a STEPS book for groups he leads who deal with sexual addiction, showing the flexibility of these principles.
  • We worked on several foundation grants that are in process.

      

We launched the year-end fundraising campaign because donations are the life blood of nonprofits like STEPS Ministries.

Thank you very much for your support, encouragement, and prayers as they mean a great deal to me, the STEPS team, and our ministry. Your donations make a difference for parents, kids, and other hurting people to find help, healing and hope. See the STEPS Donate page.

God bless,
Steve Ward
Executive Director, STEPS Ministries

STEPS NEWSLETTER – OCTOBER 2022

“Save your kids” is a call-to-action for parents, organizations, and communities. That phrase is on the STEPS Proactive Parenting website for Walker County organizations, and you can see that page here: StepsProactiveParenting.com/WalkerCoOrg

Why does that page have the headline “Save your kids?” Because …

  • Teenagers grow up in a toxic culture where anything goes and God is ignored.
  • Teens face record levels of anxiety and depression and 1 in 11 attempt suicide.
  • We have legal marijuana, readily available alcohol, a preponderance of pill-taking, a “perfect storm” of opiod abuse, and fentanyl laced into anything kids may take making fentanyl the leading cause of death starting at age 18.
  • Parenting is hard, and it gets harder in the teenage years. Parents struggle with busyness, naivete, confusion, or shame that too often keep them from getting help for their kids who are facing the risks, temptations, and dangers above.

STEPS is working in Walker County to help parents prevent teenage addiction. We offer free resources through that website, with seminars and webinars, and delivered in products, and you can see a few examples of our materials in the picture below.

The resources pictured above are being mailed to 10 churches in Walker County this week, and you can see a couple of those assets here:

Why are we doing all of these things? For people like the Smith family …

John and Nancy have a daughter, Abby, who is 17 and a son, Jason, who is 13. They are a church-going family, and John and Nancy are good parents who love their kids dearly. But they’re busy and have a lot going on. Their kids had few problems and lots of promise, so the couple had no worries about them.

But during her fifteenth year, Abby began to change from a thoughtful, caring and responsible girl into one who increasingly acted out. First it was anger, withdrawal, and rebellion and that later led to alcohol, drugs, and sex.

This tornado affected the entire family, and it caught John and Nancy by surprise because of its speed and ferocity. They decided they needed help preventing the issues from getting worse with Abby and also to become more proactive to prepare and protect Jason before he encountered problems.

STEPS collects feedback after seminars, and the Proactive Parenting material has been strongly validated as highly beneficial to parents. Now, we’re developing the methods to take these principles to as many parents as possible to prevent addiction.

This month, the Walker Area Community Foundation renewed and increased the STEPS grant for 2023 to support the work we are doing in that community. Having an involved local sponsor in Walker County will greatly help our ministry there next year. STEPS is pursuing several other grants and will be using our year-end fundraising campaign to augment those funds for our Proactive Parenting program.

To help us continue to reach and help the most people, the STEPS team continues to enhance our skills and processes:

  • Click here to see the STEPS Boards and Staff.
  • We are using Asana as an online tool for team project management.
  • Beth Seibert joined the STEPS team as Marketing & Operations Manager.
  • We said goodbye to Sofia Paglioni. Lily Stowell and Gunnar Sadowey will handle social media and increase their hours with STEPS.

 

Using digital marketing to reach thousands

Digital marketing helps us to reach parents efficiently and scale our ministry. We are 4 months into execution of our digital campaigns.

  • In October, STEPS delivered 30,998 digital ad impressions through Facebook ads, boosted Facebook posts (targeted at parents in Walker County), and Google ads (to reach parents searching for relevant information).
  • Overall, we have delivered 487,907 digital ad impressions with over 5000 people clicking through to get more parenting information.
  • There has been good learning, and we have made a number of adjustments and improvements that will benefit the ministry in the future.
  • STEPS is testing ways to promote specific products to help parents with specific needs. This can include the 11 products in PACES.
  • We launched a new campaign for parents to increase Connection with their teenagers. Click to see the Connections landing page.
  • Here are examples of two other new easy-to-use tools we will be testing:
  • Walker County Help PDF
  • Walker County Crisis PDF

We have plans for seminars at 3 Walker County churches. We also have talks set with a Walker County community organization and a company with plans to reach out to schools and other nonprofits. 

  • STEPS makes it easy for churches to serve parents by sharing a link to PACES for Parents to help their kids thrive in the teenage years.   
  • We share content directly with parents. You can see the landing page for individuals and scroll down to see new content summarizing a product on “10 Mistakes Parents Make” here: StepsProactiveParenting.com/WalkerCoParents.

 

Delivering useful content through the blog

We published these blogs this month with summary videos and podcasts so people can take steps to improve their lives in those areas.

In this email you can see several key features of our blog emails:

  • Click on “See STEPS Newsletters button” below to see other recent updates.
  • Click on the PACES ad to see those resources (this takes you to the public learning center, not the free-access Walker County page.)
  • The social media share buttons on our blogs (such as those below) encourage people to share posts through several channels.

 

Serving more people with social media

Social media helps us serve people we could not reach otherwise. They see useful information and additional resources to learn more. 

We hope this newsletter for activities in October was helpful. Thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers for our ministry. You are part of the movement to prevent teenage addiction in Walker County now and expanding into Birmingham and beyond in 2023.

Steve Ward

Executive Director at STEPS Ministries

STEPS NEWSLETTER – SEPTEMBER 2022

There are three critical facts—with breakthrough conclusions—that can help us transform families and communities for the better: 

  1. Two of the top three public health problems are substance abuse and mental health conditions. But many of those issues are preventable!
  2. About one half of families deal with addiction, and 9 of 10 people start by age 18. A great way to prevent addiction is by reaching our kids.
  3. 80% of teenagers say the main influence on their decisions to use substances is their parents! Being intentional as a parent helps our kids.

In summary: Proactive Parenting prevents problems!

During September, dozens of parents attending three Proactive Parenting seminars rated them 9.8 out of 10 for their value and relevance to parents. The feedback received was extremely positive, and comments included:

“This ministry has been a real blessing to us! We wish we had been exposed to these teachings earlier in our journey.”

“The information is eye-opening. It’s easy to get caught up in everyday life, and this seminar provides a foundation to be proactive instead.”

“The information and insights in this material are 100% spot on. I would highly recommend this seminar to other parents.”

“Our investment in proactive parenting is critical to successfully guiding our children through the dangerous pitfalls they face.”

“This seminar should be mandatory for all parents!”

Those seminars used new material we created for churches on “Biblical Parenting.” We can now offer that training in a one-hour overview, as a series of seminars or webinars, during a three-hour workshop, or in a six-session church-led parenting group.

See a few minutes of one of those in-person seminars which gives an overview of Proactive Parenting here: “Intro to a Parenting Seminar”

Here are blog articles we published in the last month, and most of them have short summary videos and podcast versions:

In September, we published almost 50 posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. We also published 4 Reels (less-than-one-minute videos) which reached additional thousands of people. Below is a sample of what these Reels are like:

This material was published with Walker County in mind, and we also use it with parents elsewhere and will continue to expand Proactive Parenting using our experience there to help us serve parents and families effectively.

In fourth quarter, every member of our team and our digital marketing partner have roles helping the fine people in Walker County, Alabama. This includes a team member joining STEPS today who will be helping with Walker County as well.

Based on analytics from our digital communications campaign, we shifted tactics to focus on Google ads (provide information to those searching for help) and Facebook boosted posts (target Walker County parents of teenagers). In the 18 days since September 12, we:

  • Created 15,822 specifically targeted impressions
  • Had 1235 page views from Walker County visitors

The adjustments we made in how we are reaching parents led to a:

  • 141% increase in Walker County page views from August to September
  • 70% higher engagement time for Walker County users than other users

Overall, we delivered over 370,000 ad impressions to parents in Walker County to “plant seeds of hope and awareness” in families.

In September, we built two easy-to-consume how-to flyers for parents on “10 Quick Ways to Help Your Teenagers” and “10 Things to Do in a Crisis with Your Kids.” We created a 27-page workbook titled “Save Your Kids” with 75 practical things parents can do to deal with issues they are having with their teenagers. We will begin using those in Walker County and utilize that learning to help us design products for parents.

On September 13, we held an informational session for church leaders in Jasper and had 7 churches and 1 nonprofit represented. The church leaders were enthusiastic about Proactive Parenting and the concept of starting a “Prevention Movement” in Walker County. They rated the session 10 out of 10, offered useful ideas for how we can serve Walker County and its families, and offered feedback including:

“Get the word out to as many churches as you can.”

“Please contact me about a presentation for our church.”

“My next step is to meet with Steve and review the parenting material.”

“Create a packet for youth pastors to mail out to parents.”

“Awesome and great information.”

Based on this success, we will hold another church session in Jasper on October 13. We will follow that up with an information kit to be sent to selected churches and additional outreach to help serve parents through churches and other organizations.

Our plans in Walker County for fourth quarter will position us to expand our Proactive Parenting program in the future. Those plans include:

  • Continuing and improving everything mentioned above!
  • Using new forms of more targeted digital ads to help parents fix specific problems with specific products.
  • Pursuing offering a workbook and teach-the-teacher training to Walker County organizations who work with parents and families.
  • Building a microsite and adjusting the landing page for Walker County visitors to help more parents utilize our content.
  • Formalizing processes for obtaining feedback from parents on their needs to align the program more specifically.
  • Continuing to build new content and products for churches and parents based on their high-priority needs.
  • Focusing on significantly growing our Walker County social media outreach to reach more parents directly.
  • Implementing a plan to leverage short videos more effectively on social media to reach and serve more people.
  • Holding one or more STEPS-sponsored webinars to reach  parents directly and holding a webinar for churches.
  • Reaching out to schools, civic groups, nonprofits, and organizations to investigate opportunities to collaborate.
  • Other plans we are still formulating and learning from our experience to help as many families as we can.

We hope to be engaged in Walker County for a long time, and we are waiting to hear about grant applications we have submitted that would help make that possible. We have made a great deal of progress so far during 2022, but this is only the start of what we can do to build a “Prevention Movement” in Walker County and apply that learning to help other parents across Alabama and beyond.

Proactive Parenting prevents problems!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

STEPS NEWSLETTER – AUGUST 2022

In the last 10 weeks, STEPS Ministries has distributed over one third of a million digital ads to every household with kids in Walker County, Alabama. Why did we do that?

Because of Ben, Debbie, Dylan, Gary, Molly, Chad, Larry, Crystal, Asa, Chris, Sam, Tanya, Larry, Ashley, Alex, Lance, Shane, Tia, Tommy, Hayden, Brenda, and Jacob. Those are just some of the overdose victims in Walker County, and the list goes on.

This week, each of them was immortalized on the “Overdose Awareness Day Memorial Wall” in the picture above. Each represented by a flickering candle, and each remembered in the hearts and prayers of those gathered for the Walk I attended in Jasper.

It’s enough to break your heart. Because, to some degree, it’s happening in every town. And substance abuse, mental health issues, or other related problems are affecting almost every family.

But in some ways, Walker County is in better shape than many other communities. There are many great people and organizations there actively engaged in the fight against substance abuse. They understand the depth of the problem, and they are doing something about it. My fear for many counties, towns, families, and individuals is: “They don’t know what they don’t know.”

The substance abuse problem with teenagers in the U.S. has become an epidemic.

75% of highschoolers try or use addictive substances, and 40% abuse them.

9 of 10 people with addictions start before age 18, and only 10% of those struggling get help. 

The leading cause of death for people below age 18 is vehicle accidents, and most involve impaired driving. 

Almost one half of families in our country today deal with substance abuse. 

COVID accelerated the problem, and overdose deaths in 2020 were the highest number ever recorded.

What STEPS has done in the last two months

In the first half of 2022, we completed preparations to implement our STEPS Proactive Parenting program in Walker County to help parents prevent teenage substance abuse. We began execution in late June, so we have run the program for about 2 months, and it will continue for the rest of this year. Our plans are to build on that momentum in 2023 and beyond.

We delivered targeted digital ads to the households of families with kids in Walker County to plant “seeds of hope and awareness” and offer additional parenting resources.

  • We delivered 357,225 impressions of our digital ads. Each impression provides a positive message to parents and offers the opportunity to access useful parenting training.
  • We started Google ads beginning on August 15 to reach parents searching for answers to problems we can help them with.
  • We improved how Walker County parents access PACES for Parents. You can see that landing page by clicking here.

We also began reaching out to organizations in Walker County to encourage collaboration.

  • We participated in the Overdose Awareness Walk, worked with members of The Healing Network and the Walker Area Community Foundation, and met with or talked to other organizations and people doing related work in the area.
  • We have contacted 45 churches through email and follow-up phone calls.
  • Based on feedback, we developed seminar/webinar content designed specifically for churches.
  • We are inviting leaders from churches in Walker County to a “Lunch and Learn” session on September 13, and you can see a short video invitation by clicking here.

We will continue these and other activities through the rest of 2022 and have hopes and plans to keep running the STEPS Proactive Parenting program in Walker County into 2023 and beyond.

Something Everyone Needs to Know

While in Walker County recently, I talked to a police officer who described the 57 grams of fentanyl they seized that day. Someone else told me of the several fentanyl overdose deaths in their small town in the previous week. I heard stories about a son, daughter, spouse, or friend who had died from overdose, and more stories about what generational addiction does to a community.  

STEPS is focusing a lot on Walker County right now, but the epidemic of widespread substance abuse is happening across the country. And what in recent years had been an opiod epidemic has become an even more lethal pandemic centered around one deadly drug: fentanyl. If you don’t know about fentanyl, you and every parent or teenager you know need to.

Fentanyl is killing thousands of people and first-time users of “innocent” drugs.

Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for people in the U.S. between ages 18 and 45. It kills more people than cancer, COVID, gun violence, or motor vehicle accidents. 

It is a synthetic opiod drug in the same family as heroin and the pain pills you get from your doctor or dentist. The same pills your teenager is prescribed that give them the opportunity to learn first-hand how opiods make them feel the way they want to feel.

 Fentanyl is deadly in very small quantities, and the amount that fits on the tip of a pencil can kill you. The fatal dose is about 2 milligrams, which means the 57 grams seized this week in Walker County was enough to kill over 28,000 people.

It is commonly laced into many drugs, including marijuana or illegal pills people take to feel better, for anxiety, or even to do better on tests. One temptation, one bit of peer pressure, or one inadvertent dose can be deadly.

Before fentanyl, many parents naïve or prideful enough to believe substance abuse couldn’t happen in their family were being shocked when their son or daughter got arrested, had an accident, or became addicted. These days, too many parents are getting a phone call from the police telling them their child has died of accidental overdose.

What STEPS has done in the last two months

STEPS expanded our social media focus overall and began targeting Walker Area parents:

  • STEPS social posts were reaching on average about 24,000 people per month.
  • We created over 60 social media posts that are informative and inspirational.
  • We launched Pinterest as a channel in addition to Facebook and Instagram.
  • We began boosting Facebook posts targeted at Walker County parents and delivered more than 18,000 impressions.
  • We expanded our reach with Reels (short videos) on Facebook and Instagram. See an example of a Reel by clicking here.
  • We are following 14 churches on their Instagram pages and will continue ramping up the Instagram pages and Facebook groups we collaborate with in Walker County.

We published a series of blog articles about “Hard Questions Parents Ask:”

We will use this series of articles in many ways such as in easy-to-use flyers we distribute, social media posts we can boost to reach thousands, and in an eBook and workbook on “Dealing with a Crisis with Your Teenager.”

What Life is Like for Many Teenagers

The problems STEPS is seeking to serve by helping parents are bigger than substance abuse, because the root causes involved in preventing addiction include mental health and related issues that harm people’s well-being.

The issues teenagers struggle with are much broader than only substance abuse.

One half of adolescents has had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.

Two thirds of college-age students experience “overwhelming anxiety,” and anxiety disorders are 70% higher for teens than adults. 

Almost every teenager has issues or unmet needs they struggle with at times.

1 in 11 young people attempt suicide, and 19% consider it.

Though our primary focus right now is on Proactive Parenting, especially in Walker County, we continue to help many other people prevent addiction, improve their lives, and grow closer to God in other ways as well.  

What STEPS has done in the last two months

  • We are working with several organizations about how to implement Proactive Parenting in collaboration with them including a town’s Board of Education, church, and company.
  • We created new material on dealing with anxiety and gave a keynote presentation on “How to Live Life Better in an Anxious World.” We will reuse that presentation (contact me to speak at your organization) and repurpose that content on anxiety in a number of ways as we move forward. You can see a video of that presentation by clicking here.
  • We published 3 other blog articles during July and August:
  • Steve coached 7 individuals one-on-one on situations they and their family were facing.
  • We created more content in the form of video Reels, new parenting material, and content for grandparents.
  • We implemented processes to improve platform security and installed software for team project management and collaboration.
  • We continued to grow our skills and resources by meeting with other potential partners and taking part in training in several areas.
  • Steve continued to hold other one-on-one meetings related to serving other organizations, collaboration opportunities, updating the STEPS Boards, and seeking donations as part of our fundraising efforts.
  • We updated the content we use for grant applications, submitted five new grants, and met with several other foundations.

As always, there’s a lot going on at STEPS. That’s because there are a lot of hurting people out there, and we want to do all we can to help them find help, healing and hope.

Thank you for your encouragement, prayers, and financial support of our ministry.

Steve Ward

Executive Director, STEPS Ministries

STEPS Newsletter – June 2022

Below are some of the summary highlights from the work STEPS Ministries has done to serve hurting people in the first half of 2022:

STEPS vision and mission – STEPS provides practical resources for hurting people to find help, healing, and hope. We deliver useful digital resources and online toolkits, inspirational virtual and in-person training, and life-changing programs and books to help people improve their lives one step at a time and prevent addiction and compulsive habits from harming or destroying their well-being and families.   

STEPS Board growth – We now have 23 incredible Board members. We added 3 people to the Board of Advisors which has 13 members who are all senior business leaders. We added 1 person to the Board of Directors which has 10 members, all with excellent skills and experience. There are 2 active sub-teams of Board members assisting the Executive Director in key areas. Click to see both STEPS Boards. 

Walker County families – STEPS will plant hundreds of thousands of seeds of hope in Walker County, Alabama during 2022. We launched plans to reach parents in 14,000 households with children and deliver over 100,000 positive ad messages per month. This should enhance outcomes in thousands of families who see our parenting material and transform lives in hundreds of families who utilize PACES for Parents online training center resources. We will reach out to organizations throughout the county as part of this comprehensive ministry effort.     

PACES for Parents – We enhanced our convenient and confidential online training center for parents with additional content and products and a streamlined user experience to help parents become equipped with Preparation for the teenage years, Awareness of the issues families face, Connection to their children, Education on how to prevent addiction, and Steps to equip their kids for real life.

Proactive Parenting – We added to our easy-to-implement set of webinars and seminars and launched digital outreach to parents using display, Google, and Facebook campaigns to educate them on addiction prevention and offer access to PACES for Parents resources. We launched a collaboration outreach effort for churches, schools, nonprofits, and health organizations to sponsor a program for their parents. 

Training and speaking – STEPS delivered seminars and webinars with churches, companies, and other organizations. We coached people one-on-one, and we participated in events such as the Celebrate the Family EXPO where we handed out resources to parents of teenagers. We enhanced our seminar and webinar topics and will escalate our outreach the rest of this year to reach and serve more people through organizations and groups. We will continue to enhance our websites on WordPress and Kajabi to deliver effective online training.   

Digital outreach ministry – We reach and serve thousands of people each week with life-changing blog articles and social media posts on Facebook and Instagram and serve people with additional resources we deliver via email. We will boost social media posts to help tens of thousands more people, continue posting Reels (short videos) which serve thousands, and offer content to social media groups to reach tens of thousands of others. We will launch at least one and perhaps more new social media channels this year to help even more people.  

Addiction prevention content – We expanded our prevention focus beyond substance abuse to mental health issues, and we provide content to help parents, spouses, relatives, and friends of people who are struggling. We have plans in motion to relaunch next year the book Steps: A Daily Journey to a Better Life and publish a new book on Breaking CHAINS: Preventing Problems That Hold Us Prisoner. We are developing new and improved content for addiction prevention training programs we will offer though other organizations in 2023.   

Life improvement through books and speaking – We used a pilot launch of the book Next Right Steps: How to Live Life Better to obtain feedback and are revising the book to re-launch more widely this year. We have written 75% of the new book Discovering Breakthroughs: Using Our Values to Change Our Lives and are in the process of editing and building distribution and marketing plans with Iron Stream Media. Books will be offered in print and digital versions (some in audio) and we will offer related workbooks and digital products as well.    

Collaboration and partnering growth – We are collaborating with a county, city, church, and company to develop scalable models for ministry partnering that we will expand to other organizations. We partnered with a number of other organizations on ministry programs to help the people they serve. Moving forward, we will expand our collaboration with influencers (e.g. bloggers, podcasters, websites that serve parents, etc.) and offer easy-to-implement parenting training and groups through other organizations to serve more people efficiently. 

Nonprofit ministry growth – Our ministry efforts and operating budget for 2022 are growing by 50% from 2021. This compounds the growth of 50% we achieved from 2020 to 2021. This ministry growth aligns with our Board-approved strategy for serving more people. 

Financial growth – We receive committed, multi-year support from 3 foundations and 2 churches and were awarded 4 additional grants we hope will be renewed next year. We receive significant committed monthly donations from 11 individuals and have been supported by 65 donors. We maintained healthy cash reserves while managing our growth as contributions from donors and foundations have increased. 

STEPS team growth – The STEPS team grew significantly during the first half of 2022 by adding Caroline Scroggins for Development and Outreach, Deepak Premnath for Platforms and Digital Marketing, and Lily Stowell for Digital Media and Outreach. We have also partnered with 2 agencies as members of our team, and they are Flex for Digital Outreach and Delivery and Iron Stream Media for Book Publishing. 

Future ministry growth – Our content is designed to be reusable with different groups in a variety of ways for decades to come. Our delivery and marketing processes are being developed so we can scale our growth very efficiently. In the future, the investments we are making in 2022 and 2023 will allow us to continue to expand our ministry many times over with fewer incremental resources.        

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