We began a new tradition this year at the Clinton School when we asked the student Practicum teams to compete in a photo contest. With 13 teams completing Practicum projects across Arkansas, we received some outstanding photos from the students.
The winner of the inaugural contest is the team that is working with the Honeycomb Restaurant and Bakery in Arkadelphia, Ark. Below is a blog post by team member Aliyah Sarkar that describes the project and the winning photo. We will post more photos later in the week.
Team Honeycomb is providing consultation to Group Living, Inc. an organization that provides life support services to adults with developmental disabilities.
The team’s goal is to increase the revenue of The Honeycomb Restaurant and Bakery, a program of Group Living that employs individuals with developmental disabilities. The consultation has focused primarily on marketing suggestions and strategies to increase awareness of the restaurant and its social mission. This effort has been coupled with community engagement on how the restaurant can best improve its service and the aesthetic quality of the physical location.
Our research found that Honeycomb Restaurant and Bakery could benefit from a marketing campaign that highlights the restaurant’s social mission and uses social media to reach local residents and tourists alike. In collaboration with Group Living staff, we have revamped the Honeycomb Restaurant and Bakery website, created a brochure, identified pertinent tourist centers and hotels to target with advertising materials, and composed a list of recommendations concerning marketing strategies for future growth.
In addition, the key informant interviews allowed our group to facilitate the necessary dialogue to connect the restaurant to additional sources of funding, marketing support, local institutions of higher learning and business expertise.
The most rewarding aspect of this project has been engaging with the community. We had the rare opportunity to witness Dave Lowenstein develop and create a mural 24-foot tall and 65-foot long painted on the west wall of the Honeycomb Restaurant at 705 Main Street, the heart of downtown Arkadelphia.
In our photo, the team works to paint “From a Dream to a Promise” mural that represents Arkadelphia’s sense of place, its industry, people, aspirations and promise of education. More than 200 community members participated in the Mural’s creation through the month of October; it was a humbling experience for Team Honeycomb to be apart of.
PHOTO CAPTION: Aliyah Sarkar and Nicholas Provencher paint a tribute to Martha Dixon, the fashion designer from Clark County who designed Secretary Hilary Clinton’s inaugural gown. Cathrine Schwader and Jacob Perry paint the gown of the central figure of the mural; she symbolizes the many past and present mentors and teachers who have helped guide Arkadelphia’s young people. As students of the Clinton School, it has been a true reward and learning opportunity to be invited to work so closely with a community of mentors and teachers.
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