Outreach

There follow some guidelines I've thrown together in thinking about doing the outreach work, and what we're trying to achieve. So, your first phone call should probably do the following:

1. Explain who we are. Ask if they've seen the launch letter or email first, then they may have some questions. Its entirely up to you what to say about this, I'll probably say something vague like:
   ‘We're a diverse group of community activists who want to bring together local community groups of all kinds for skill sharing and learning about issues’. You may want to take a look at the launch letter for hints.
2. Give them the launch details. Practicalities (i.e. Saturday, 27th March. 10.30-5.30pm; Institute for the Blind, Mappin Street) but also what it will be like:
   'There will be Hillary Wainwright, and activist with experience of social forums at the international level, talking about those, followed by a wide variety of workshops based around skill sharing and local issues, as well as opportunities for networking.' You may also want to look at the Programme here.
3. Explain why we’re contacting that particular group. Hopefully, you’ll know something about the group either from personal experience, or check them out on the web, if you can. If people want to know where we got their details most of them were provided on a database of community groups held by Sheffield library and accessible online. Use your knowledge of them to explain why we want them in particular to contribute.
   Alternatively, of course, you may know bugger all about them. In which case ask. Point out that one of the things the SSF wants to do is enable people to be more aware of the different community initiatives and campaigns that exist around various issues. With an idea of what sort of stuff they do, you could suggest the sort of stuff they might be able to input into the SSF; that is, either skills they could share (fundraising, publicity, networking, whatever) or issues that they could educate others about.
4. Ask them to help us. At this point its good to be clear on the variety of ways they can help use, at different levels of commitment; something like this:
   1. 'Core participation' - i.e. they've got something to input into one of the workshops.
   2. 'Other participation' - maybe they want to come along and put some literature up on the walls, or they've expressed an interest in coming. If they have, ask them which of the workshops they're most interested in, just so as we know.
   3. 'Publicity' - maybe they could take some posters or leaflets and either display or distribute them somewhere. This could be really helpful.
   4. 'More outreach' - Whether or not they’re interested in doing workshops, ask them if they know of other people who would be.
   5. If they don’t feel able to participate in that way, then point out that their attendance would nevertheless be more than welcome. And if they would like to bring some literature/posters or whatever, then we should be able to find space for it.
5. Follow up.

• • Don't forget to keep a detailed list of responsed and pass them to Dan or Kev.
  • Don't forget to get back to people with further information, contact details, programme details etc, if you've offered to.
  • You'll hopefully find that there are several groups that want to contribute to some workshops, though you may not have contacted all of them. Discuss with the other liason people whether to get those groups together before the launch, and if so, how. This sort of feedback will probably happen at the next meeting.

Good luck!