SRF’s projects combine the persuasive power of mass media with person-to-person community outreach, to ensure that people have access to the information, services and support networks they need.

Our model has been used to reach Native American communities in the U.S. and populations in the Middle East and Latin America.  Much of our work however has focused on the Spanish-speaking Hispanic population living in the United States, and it is through our work with this population that we have learned many lessons and sharpened our “Self Reliance” model.  Please visit our United States page under our “Where We Work” section for more detail on how our model has been applied.

The SRF Model involves four core areas:

1)  Information Dissemination. SRF disseminates educational information via radio & TV programs, print press including syndicated columns, Internet, outdoor media, and community outreach activities.

2)  Specialized Referrals. SRF manages a free, national information and referral service accessible by phone and email, where the public can receive individualized referrals to the services they need in their own community or orientation regarding an issue of particular concern to them.  This service is also complemented by community discussion forums available by Internet and in person in some intervention communities.

3)  Service Provision. The actual provision of services is not SRF’s area, however SRF works closely with public agencies, non-profit organizations, and socially-conscious businesses to refer individuals to the services they need.  To manage the volume of referrals to services requested, SRF manages a vast database of pre-screened service providers.

4)  Monitoring and Evaluation. SRF follows up with people who were referred to services in order to monitor the quality of the referral and action they took as a result.  SRF also periodically conducts quantitative or qualitative research in the communities where it works, to understand the needs within the community and the impact of programs.

This four-part model goes beyond simply providing information to help community members also receive the services they need to make the desired changes in their lives.  It provides a full feedback loop to SRF, to keep program planners up to date on the issues of most pressing concern to the community.   It also allows SRF’s outreach team to seek out new service providers to fill gaps in services, and creates a multi-level communication bridge between the community, service providers, and other stakeholders.