The California Speech Language Hearing Association (CSHA) is thrilled to announce its implementation of comprehensive brand and communications strategies designed to build on CSHA’s 53-year record of serving its members and the people who need them, and to tell the stories of their life-changing work.

Motivated to help Californians understand CSHA’s vital role and determined to position the association for its amazing next chapter, the volunteer board of directors and professional staff began leading the development of a refreshed brand strategy in September 2018.

Last fall, CSHA assembled a diverse group to clarify the association’s brand identity within the state and the speech-language pathology and audiology professions. Thirty panelists were identified to bring diverse views to the process. They included CSHA directors, longtime association members, new members, nonmembers and consumers of services from medical, educational and private practice settings.

In January, board members approved updated vision and mission statements developed as part of that work.

Vision statement: The vision of CSHA is a world where all people are empowered with the fundamental human right to engage and connect.

Mission statement: As California’s expert leaders in communication, cognition, hearing and swallowing, the mission of CSHA is to serve its profession, members, clients and community through evidence-based leadership in professional practice, strategic advocacy, thought leadership and inter-professional collaboration.

Those statements – along with a new tagline, “Human Lives. Human Connection.” – encapsulate CSHA’s brand: who it is, what it does and how it’s changing lives.

“We’ve built on CSHA’s successful history to tell the story of where the organization is today,” explains CEO Brian Lewis. “We did months of work with a diverse group of members and the larger community to reflect on CSHA’s rich past and its goals for the future. Those efforts led to the creation of a refreshed brand strategy that reflects what the next chapter in the organization’s rich history looks like.”

After board approval of the vision and mission statements, the association began working with a design firm to develop updated brand properties, including a new logo, and with a website developer.

Now, just over a year after starting its rebranding effort, CSHA has launched a redesigned and reinvigorated website (csha.org) that incorporates all of that work, including the refreshed logo, tagline, and vision and mission statements.

“The goal is to give members greater functionality, greater ability to connect and engage with each other and the organization, and the ability to better tell our members’ stories and the stories of those whom they serve,” Lewis says.

The website redesign includes such improvements as:

• Simpler navigation allowing site visitors from different audiences — such as members, nonmembers, families of people who need support, policymakers and lawmakers — to identify very quickly where to find the resources they need.
• Streamlined functionality for performing basic transactions such as joining CSHA or renewing membership.
• A more sophisticated member platform for members to connect and engage with one another and the organization.
• Contemporary, user-friendly and robust convention registration functionality.
• A more robust career center with increased options for those seeking or posting career opportunities, including the ability to target and sort.
• Greater advocacy functionality so members can connect to ongoing advocacy and policy issues if they choose.
• Greater user control over the categories of information members want to receive.

Many improvements are available now, while others will be added in later phases.

In addition to re-creating its website, CSHA’s updated comprehensive approach to communications involves reimagining its quarterly magazine and social media strategies. Those projects are currently underway.

“We can leverage social strategies to not only empower our members, but also to do a better job of telling the CSHA story,” Lewis says. “Part of what we want to do is to tell the stories of the lives that our members change, and then as a result grow our capacity to help folks better understand what speech-language pathologists, speech-language pathologist assistants, audiologists and audiologists assistants do.”

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Contact: Kevin Swartzendruber
Marketing and Membership Director
California Speech Language Hearing Association (CSHA)
kevins@csha.org, 916/921-1568, ext 1006