High Activity Areas

Due in part to Kathy's advice, I began looking into areas within the community that had concentrations of people at certain parts of the day. What I began to see was that a few streets in particular became very busy in the mornings and mid-afternoons.

Advertising Feedback

Although I have collected a considerable amount of data, I am still unsure of how to proceed with this project. I know that I want to target the residents of Broadmoor and that the solution should be educational but I am not sure how to reach them. 

Therefore I decided to contact my newest panel member, Kathy Kuza to get some advertising feedback. I mentioned to her that the neighborhood is small with no billboards or places to display large posters. Kathy recommended that I look into areas that had a lot of activity, such as community centers. She said that due to the lack of awareness regarding the topic, any kind of advertising campaign would need to be very simple and grassroots. She recommended perhaps holding a community meeting with the aid of volunteers from the Homeless Cat Network or even contacting the police department or other community resources in determining how to reach everyone.

Survey Results

As previously stated, I decided to conduct two surveys to help gain a better perspective on two different aspects of the feral cat problem in Broadmoor. The first was targeted to residents of the neighborhood and was at first conducted by walking around and stopping them in the street. However, this was met with negative reactions; people were hesitant to stop and often they refused to answer questions. On one occasion, the interviewee could not believe that "my tax dollars are going to this bullshit." And although I had previously created an online version of this survey, I only knew of a few people in the neighborhood who I could ask to answer the questions. So, all of this posed a bit of a problem.

This was when I decided to ask for help. Luckily, a friend of a friend happens to have a business within the community and he agreed to help me out. He said that if I were to create a small box and print out about 50 surveys, he would make sure they all got filled out. When he saw the box, his one request (sort of as payment) was that he be able to keep the box for his tips; of course I agreed.

What the surveys showed was that most residents indeed knew very little about feral cats, let alone those residing in Broadmoor. The majority also knew nothing about TNR nor the Homeless Cat Network. Although there was a certain percentage who said that they would be interested in adopting a feral but did not know where or how, the majority still showed the serious lack of knowledge on the topic.

The 2nd survey was for volunteers of the Homeless Cat Network. This one also proved to be challenging as one of my panel experts, Melissa Riofrio, wanted to not only add 2 questions but also get the survey approved by the board of directors for HCN. I did not have a problem with this in the least but it was a slow process. Out of approximately 150 volunteers, I received 48 responses to the set of 10 questions. The most important responses to the questions included that volunteers 1) indeed felt that feral cats were misunderstood and stereotyped, 2) would like to see more kids involved, and 3) more public outreach would be a great way of reaching a broader audience.

Although both Melissa and Brigid Duffy had mentioned the significance of educating children during our interviews, I did not really think too much about it until this point. I do think that doing something with children as well as adults could be a very interesting way of approaching this problem.

Animal-Related Signs

While thinking of ways of sharing knowledge of feral cats, I have been looking at a lot of currently available street and warning signs. These signs are all animal related and were found both on the internet and while walking around my neighborhood. Perhaps this could lead to something...?

Sign at SFSU

Close-up of Sign

Along walking path in Pacifica

Project Bay Cat Sign

Found around the world...

Not a sign but a instead a message on the street... Interesting idea.

Change in Panel of Experts

Through the course of this research project, I have attempted to get in contact with someone in the advertising or marketing fields but have been unsuccessful. Every time an opportunity would present itself, either the person would never get back to me or would briefly answer a few questions; no one seemed to want to go into any detail. After trying to reach 4 different people, I was pretty frustrated... And then I went to a birthday party.

This was not just any regular party but a birthday party for my dog. The breeder was throwing a party for my dog's litter (her first time as a breeder) which I was a little hesitant to attend. After some persuasion, I agreed to go and its a good thing I did as yet another opportunity presented itself. The owner of one of my dog's siblings happened to work in advertising for Shape magazine. She said that she would be more than happy to answer any questions that I might have AND that she preferred talking in person or on the phone versus emails. Finally I have my final panel member: Kathy Kuza.

Broadmoor Village in Colma, CA

A lot of people that I have talked to about my project have asked me about the area I'm targeting because they are completely unfamiliar with it. I also experienced a lot of trouble in my research as there is very little information about Broadmoor in general, ie demographics, population, etc. I am guessing that this is because of the fact that Broadmoor is a town within a city; it is an unincorporated part of the city of Colma in San Mateo County. Even the website for Colma doesn't mention this specific area, sometimes called the "doughnut hole of Daly City," even though it has its own police department and has fought time and time again against incorporating itself with Daly City.

Anyway, for those interested here is some information about this tiny little neighborhood. Depending on the direction of my final solution, contacting these resources might prove crucial in spreading the word about feral cats.

Broadmoor Police website, with information on the history.

http://www.broadmoorpolice.org/index.html

Town of Colma website 

http://www.colma.ca.gov/

Raising Awareness-Stuff that's already out there

After having conducted my surveys for cat volunteers, a lot of them said that they would be interested in seeing kids getting involved. They feel that children for the most part like animals and are open to and curious about animal welfare. Hopefully, this in turn would lead to them running home and telling their parents about the issues and therefore bringing the subject to light for the community... Something to consider.

Here are some examples of great resource tools already out there.

http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=468

http://www.aspcapro.org/blog/2011/02/10-cat-marketing-campaigns/

http://www.aspcapro.org/creating-a-communication-plan.php

Here are some examples of merchandise targeted for feral cat lovers created by Alley Cat Allies, a great feral cat resource that most organizations (including the Homeless Cat Network) refer to.

CafePress Feral Cat Stuff--Alley Cat Allies