In celebration of Brownieland’s 10-year anniversary, we are featuring the #Best of Brownie series where we look back through the years spotlighting a client and their mission. This month we are featuring a video we created in partnership with Atlanta Families’ Awards for Excellence in Education (AFAEE).
Brownieland Pictures began working with AFAEE four years ago when the organization was celebrating educators in just the Atlanta Public Schools district. Since then, the awards have grown and now we travel all around the metro area to capture these outstanding educators and administrators in action. AFAEE is an incredible organization and we can’t thank them enough for letting us be a part of what they do to celebrate these inspirational people!
In honor of World Health Day, check out this video of one of the 2016 AFAEE award winners, Nancy Janas, Physical Education teacher at Mountain View Elementary School, for her project: Fitness Circuit Stations.
The Atlanta Families’ Awards for Excellence in Education (AFAEE) understands how critical teacher and leader quality is to ensuring that every child receives an excellent education. AFAEE’s merit-based awards program has a rigorous application process designed to identify educators demonstrating increases in student achievement, enhancement of student self esteem, and collaboration with community stakeholders. Each teacher and school leader winner is awarded $7,500 that includes funding for a school project of the winner’s choice ($3,500), funding for a professional development opportunity to increase the winner’s effectiveness in the school or classroom ($1,500), and a personal stipend ($2,500). In 2015, the AFAEE expanded its impact to include five districts in Metro-Atlanta: Atlanta Public Schools, Cobb County Schools, DeKalb County Schools, Fulton County Schools and Gwinnett County Public Schools.
We caught up with AFAEE Executive Director Amber Stewart to discuss how these videos have made an impact on the organization.
Tell us a little bit about the project Brownieland produced for AFAEE.
For the past several years, Brownieland has produced amazing videos highlighting the excellent educators our organization recognizes each year. They take time to visit each school and spend time with our winners and their students to ensure that they capture the authentic atmosphere and culture of each school. I am always impressed with how precisely they portray the personalities and work of each educator.
How did you feel video could best capture the message you were trying to convey in the project?
Well, we needed to tell the stories of our winners and their innovative school projects and knew that video was the best method to convey our desires. We knew that if people could see into the classrooms and schools of our winners, that they would feel connected deeply to the work. The video pieces make us feel as if we are there with our winners and deepens our connection to what we do and why we do it.
How was the video used and what did you hope the impact would be?
We use the videos each year at our annual awards ceremony. These videos have actually become the most highly-anticipated and most memorable part of the event. Everyone always remembers the videos and they are an amazing way to spread the message about the work we do.
What advantages did you find in working with a company solely focused on nonprofits?
Brownieland had precious ties to education that made me feel they would genuinely care about the work and give an honest and fair portrayal of our winners. I felt a sincere desire to help us get our message out and a true passion for displaying the amazing things happening in education in Metro Atlanta. From the moment I met the team (as the subject of one of their first videos for us!), I knew they would do justice by the content and hold true to the intentions of the storytellers. In this day and age, that’s so important.
What are you up to now?
I am currently the ED of the Atlanta Families’ Awards, but will soon fully transition to work for Atlanta Public Schools. I have made sure that Brownieland is listed as our source for ongoing videography work because they’ve been so instrumental to our efforts.
I am so grateful for not only the partnership, but friendship I’ve developed with Robyn. I anxiously await these videos each year and look for new ways to collaborate for future projects. Robyn and her team have always worked with us on every detail of the project to be kind, accommodating, and prompt. It is an honor to work with such talented individuals!
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