Examples of Work for Clients
Challenge: At the close of a five-year project, a team of Ugandan physicians and HIV/AIDS specialists needed to document experiences and communicate a comprehensive strategy while embarking on new projects.
Action: Steel Bridge supported the Kampala-based team and their Boston-based funding partner in organizing a major conference. Apart from several weeks implementation on the ground in Kampala, conference planning and documentation was done from Portland.
Result: Close collaboration took advantage of time zone differences, was cost effective, and resulted in a productive event. Participants ranging from HIV+ village activists to the Minister of Health documented best practices and identified required actions.
Challenge: A Seattle-based health communications group was unsure of the long-term impact of their work and needed client input for strategic planning.
Action: Steel Bridge designed and carried out a cost-effective external evaluation. Confidential telephone interviews with clients in national, state and county agencies nation-wide yielded a wealth of qualitative data on which we based our report with recommendations for a new mix of products and services.
Result: Having identified and built on its strengths, the organization is helping clients design programs that are more effective in catalyzing productive behavior change in end users.
Challenge: In the 1990s the benefits of local development projects in Pakistan usually stopped flowing when the money did.
Action: Working with an Islamabad-based start-up, Steel Bridge’s Carol McCreary founded a pioneering program in participatory community development and initiated collaboration with United Nations agencies, bilateral development programs, government organizations and NGOs.
Result: The local firm today works with major international development agencies in several countries of South Asia to deliver this program, which strengthens the capacity of communities to manage sustainable development.
Challenge: Many young Pakistani children die of diarrhea because cultural custom makes it difficult for young Pakistan mothers to travel to health centers or interact with male health workers.
Action: UNICEF engaged Carol’s consulting team to develop a nationwide, cascading training program for the Pakistan Boy Scout Association.
Result: More than 300,000 middle-school-aged Boy Scouts were trained to work directly with purdah-observing mothers to prevent and treat diarrheal disease in their villages.