May 2011
What in the world….? What’s with this tipsheet for disseminators?
Let us explain.
Context
Steal This Book is a classic counterculture book written by Abbie Hoffman in 1970. Since then, the “Steal this…” concept has been used in a variety of cultural venues to signify anti-establishment sentiment.
- Steal This Movie! was the title of a movie about Hoffman’s life.
- Political hip-hop duo The Coup released a Steal This Album in 1998.
- Steal This Record is a 2001 album by the Detroit punk rock band The Suicide Machines.
- In 2002, Armenian-American hard rock band System of a Down released Steal This Album!
On the success of the book, Hoffman was quoted as saying, “It’s embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller’s List.”
Why is NICHCY Even Bringing This Up?
Here at the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, we’re not exactly counter-culture, and we’re anything but anti-establishment, but we’re hoping you’ll steal our strategies.
As a network of funded projects, we all serve slightly different audiences, but our mission is the same: to get good information out to people who support students with disabilities. If NICHCY has an effective strategy for reaching parents, we encourage parent centers to try that same strategy to reach the families they serve. If we have a good way to connect with general and special educators, we don’t mind at all if personnel development projects adopt a few of our methods to reach their educators.
When it comes to dissemination, what’s ours is yours. Literally.
Suggestions for Effective Thievery
Looking for targets ripe for hijacking and repurposing?
Copy our Social Media Policy and adapt it for your center.
Take framing language from our Facebook and Twitter posts to use for your own posts.
Get ideas for reaching your intended audiences from our Dissemination Plan
Adapt features of our website for your own site (What’s New section, Spanish section, Newsletter signup, etc.)
Link to relevant resources directly from your site (State Organization searches for states in your area, IDEA Training Curriculum, etc.)
Care to Share?
If you have a strategy that’s working for your project, please let us know so that we can share the idea! It’s our job to share good ways of disseminating information.
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