2009 LFCAA Annual Report

Organization Name:
Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency
City & State:
Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
The piece was created to commemorate 2009 and the agency’s accomplishments throughout the year. In 2009 our funding was directly impacted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which garnered much media and newspaper coverage; the building that houses our offices was also placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the US Department of the Interior. Those factors combined made a significant impact on the content, design and layout of the report. The Annual Report was designed to capture the attention of our audience, including board members, partners, community residents, funders, volunteers and others. The report will be featured at our 44th Annual Dinner and our historic building dedication ceremony, as well as being made available on our website and to others throughout the year. The report was created by one of our agency Planners using Adobe CS4 InDesign for layout, Photoshop for images, Illustrator for funding chart and logo and Acrobat for PDF creation.
What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
Our agency mission is to help low- to moderate-income individuals and families throughout Fairfield County to achieve self-sufficiency. Due to the current economic status, the number of residents finding themselves in emergency situations and/or foreclosure situations due to unemployment, underemployment or various other reasons has significantly increased. The Annual Report showcases the programs available to help those residents, agency outcomes for the year and highlights our success stories, Board of Directors, staff, volunteers and partners. For this report, we strived to design it for multiple uses for longevity of the piece in order to raise awareness of our mission within and around the community.
How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
The 2009 Annual Report is visually interesting and grabs the attention of our readers. Throughout the report, we used tools within the programs to bring the reader’s eye to specific pieces so that even if the report is not read in full, the reader will understand important information and have a better understanding of our agency. The report will be available throughout 2010 and beyond. This project, along with others created in-house with the Adobe CS4 Design Premium programs, would have been cost-prohibitive without the advantage of the Adobe and TechSoup donation program. We have appreciated the opportunity we’ve had to utilize these programs to make an impact on our community with beautiful and effective designs.
Creative Submission - Files