Judith Malveaux COMM 605 April 9, 2012 Robert Putnams work on social capital emphasizes the importance of civic

engagement and social ties to improving or maintaining the overall health of a society. Putnam views social capital as connections among individuals, social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them. Putnams work on social capital can assist with increasing readership of the weekly employee newsletter, DirectLine, by offering ideas about building the sense of community and social bonds that would make employees more engaged and more responsive to communication to and from district leadership. The newsletter can be used as a conduit to reach out and engage the segmented groups within the larger school district by encouraging the development of social networks across the district. According to Putnam, it can assist with building trust even in social networks that lack collaboration by getting people involved with each other on a smaller scale. Using Putnam can increase cohesion of staff at one location or bonding networks while also increasing the opportunities to bridge networks at schools across the county. While this fits easily into the overall goal of increased employee engagement, Putnams work can lend itself to assisting with the goal of increasing newsletter readership, too. The newsletter could not only highlight but also promote examples of successful partnerships within the district. The goal of doing this would be increasing social ties and creating social capital while also working to increase readership of the employee newsletter. Social capital could be created through a program that both bridged and bonded social networks. An example of this would be the SchoolMates program. In this program,

participating schools have the opportunity to work together, mutually benefiting from each others strengths. SchoolMates partners help each other through tutoring, mentoring, PTA/PTSA leadership development, community and business relations fundraisers, book drives, pen pals, character education opportunities, multicultural activities, class readers, lunch buddies and office/teacher assistance. This program building social capital can be explained using Putnams argument from Making Democracy Work. With Schoolmates, the staff of one school bonds together with the intended goal of promoting their school and their message as they plan activities and collaborate on ways the partnership can be used to benefit their school. Working together in this way leads to employees having positive opinions of their colleagues and having a good reputation. As they continue to work together, trust is built and they come to value the relationship. Similarly, the staff from both schools will have to work together on programs, events or trainings. By working closely with the group from another school, the educators from a school begin to respect their colleagues. Even if their schools and experiences vary greatly, they are able to view each other as colleagues with the same overall goal educating students. As the staff from both schools begin to respect one another and view each other favorably, they come to trust one another and bridge social networks. An example of this would be when two SchoolMates partners, Nathaniel Alexander Elementary and Torrence Creek Elementary, had staff, parents and community supporters work together to plan a fundraising basketball game between the staff of the two schools. Both schools deepened their sense of pride by developing signs, cheers and dances to promote their school while deepening their relationship and truly forming that bridging social capital with the other school through a fun athletic event. Undertakings such as these

allow employees the opportunity to raise funds for good causes while exhibiting their pride in both their own school and their partnership with the other school. Doing so would show others the benefits of bridging social capital and encourage others to receive similar recognition by developing their own partnerships and bonds with those outside of their school site.