Write For Change: Write for Change serves organizations and individuals working to bring about a more just and ecologically sustainable society.

Featured Client

Cocopah Nation
Somerton, AZ
www.cocopah.com

The Cocopah Nation in southwest Arizona is one of the Colorado River Indian Tribes that have inhabited ancestral lands along the Colorado River for millennia.

The Cocopah Cultural Center and Museum wanted to increase visitation to tribal community enterprises (Museum, Casino, Golf Course, Convenience Store, and RV Park), and increase visitation to the Museum by schools and local residents. The Museum is located in a rural area, not easily found by travelers to the region.

The Museum Director contacted WriteForChange to help them produce a brochure. A critical parameter for the brochure was acceptance by the Cocopah tribal community at large as accurately portraying Cocopah culture and perspective.

Working with the Museum Director and her staff, we conducted research from reference books, tribal documents, and meetings with Elders to first produce a loose-leaf book of accurate historical accounts of Cocopah life over the ages to the present. This serves as a valuable resource to tribal leaders for document production and for marketing the Cocopah Nation’s business and cultural enterprises and programs overall.

Together we designed a short historical description of the tribal community’s relationship with the Lower Colorado River and the Yuma region. The brochure features the Cultural Center and Museum but also describes the Cocopah Casino and Golf Resort. Inside, a foldout travel map entertains travelers on the way out to the West Reservation.

WriteForChange acted as a liaison with the graphic artist and printer.

The brochure is now in its third printing. The Museum director reports that visitation has increased two-fold since they began distributing the brochure throughout the state and tourism bureaus and at all their concession sites.

Our collaboration led to the Museum’s staff becoming more familiar with the process of publication production from conceptualization to documentation and lay-out. The Cultural Center and Museum purchased a high quality scanner and high resolution digital camera to gather images for the design elements. Our printer in Tucson took time to show the team all aspects of the printing process. This helped us eliminate problems before they materialized.

Based on our success, the Cocopah Nation contracted with WriteForChange to help them produce a popular historical book to increase cultural understanding in their region. The booklet will be sold in the Museum Gift Shop, and a fourth grade curriculum guide produced to use with the booklet in public schools. Printing is projected for March of 2006.