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Journey12 Overview
Journey12 Overview
We do the Heavy Lifting
Podcasts & Video
Referenda Passage Takes Unity in the Community
The Personified Lens
Why This Work Matters
Click to visit a few of
our district partners' work.
Why, in Our Stories, We Say “Andrea Carson” Instead of “Mrs. Carson.”
At Journey12, we believe that great storytelling is more than just words on a page—it’s a bridge between schools and the communities they serve.
That’s why in our stories, you’ll often see us refer to educators by their first and last names—Andrea Carson instead of Mrs. Carson, Mike Reynolds instead of Mr. Reynolds. It’s not a slight. Quite the opposite, actually.
We make this choice because our audience isn’t just students—it’s grownups. Parents. Grandparents. Alumni. Local business owners. Retirees who haven’t had a student in school for decades. Folks who might see “Mrs. Carson” and think, “Wait… isn’t that Andrea from the community garden?” We want those connections to click into place. We want people to see the person behind the title.
Inside the classroom, professional titles like Mr., Mrs., and Ms. matter. They help set boundaries, establish respect, and create a clear sense of structure for young learners. But outside the classroom—especially when we’re talking to the wider community—those same titles can sometimes unintentionally signal formality, hierarchy, or distance. And the truth is, many of the public school districts we serve are working hard to overcome exactly that: a sense of distance between the schools and the people who support them.
Using a teacher’s full name doesn’t take away their authority. It actually makes them more relatable, more human. It reminds readers that this isn’t just a teacher—they’re also a parent, a neighbor, a baseball coach, a volunteer firefighter, a piano player at church. They are part of the fabric of the community. And that’s the version of them we want to lift up.
Of course, we’re always happy to honor a district’s preference—some communities do prefer formal titles in all settings, and we respect that. But unless there’s a strong reason to lean formal, we’ve found that a conversational, people-first tone does more to build trust and foster connection than anything else we could write.
Because at the end of the day, the goal isn’t to showcase authority. It is to showcase our schools’ strengths through connectivity and heart.
In each sample case presented here, you'll be able to view these partners' magazine-style stories in either a digital flip book format—which works great on a laptop—or in our responsive format, which works well anywhere, but is designed specifically for mobile devices.
Of course, the key to our initiative is in the every-door, every taxpayer approach to distribution. We use an old school technology—the U.S. Post Office—to make sure your our partners' 24-page physical magazines, and the important stories within them, reach every household and commercial address up to 4X per year. And, by the way, this program is certainly adaptable to less frequent distribution than quarterly. We offer a semi-annual and even an annual option. The key, however, remains the method of content distribution — physical magazines placed directly in every district household. There is a very good reason for this approach. Simply put, there is no better way to reach every taxpayer with local school messaging than to drop it in their mailbox. Electronic and digital distribution will only reach a small percentage of your entire tax-base, those who are directly attached by a student to your district.
Remember, only 1-in-5 households has a school age child, which means two important things: 1.) 80% of your tax base is beyond your school's digital reach. 2.) Failure to adequately tell your story to your entire community means someone else will tell their version of that story. And THAT version is not always the one you'd tell. The unifying power of your positive aggregate school story is a very powerful thing. Our partners have, to a person, all told us that it has been the best thing they've ever done for community engagement. Adult subjects we've featured will frequently tell us how much the magazine has come to mean to them. Put simply, community communications done with this depth and at this level is a game-changer.
Listen to a few podcasts as well and get a feel for how these leaders are using a multi-pronged media approach to engage the totality of their communities. Several of our partners have chosen to extend their storytelling platforms by way of podcast and we have helped them do so professionally, reliably, and with the impact of conversational fluidity that puts them on par with any top podcast you'll find on the internet. Take a listen to our work for ROE #30, serving a five-county Region in Southwestern Illinois. These episodes were in celebration of the depth and breadth of the programmatic offerings of the Office's constituent Districts and may be found on their SchoolStory landing page. And they also appear on Apple Podcasts, iHeart Radio, and Spotify for even broader access to Regional taxpayers.
The Journey12 Mission
Journey12 is an education equity initiative with a 3-pronged mission: 1.) building deeper engagement between families, schools, and communities through professional storytelling, branding, and media leverage. 2.) providing unparalleled post-secondary transition support through college admissions strategies, skilled-trades insights, and expert consultative guidance. 3.) Helping inspire young learners to explore post-secondary possibilities and passions by facilitating interaction between them and a broad range of practitioners in today's highest growth career clusters.
