It’s ironic: Organizations can spend years working to “go national” only to realize they still need to be “local” to affect change. Policies may be set nationally. Behaviors, however, are affected locally. So if your organization is working to bring about social change, you’ll probably need to do some well-planned community outreach. That means bringing together groups and individuals from a common community for a common purpose. Community outreach can create alliances among those who might not normally work together, offer economies of scale by pooling institutional, human and intellectual resources, and generate credibility with key decision- and policy-makers by demonstrating wide ranging support around an issue.
Let’s get going then. Think and act locally with these 10 steps:
1) Prioritize your communities: Think about the markets that are most important to your organization’s success. Consider the local connections or existing infrastructure you could leverage. It will be easier to be effective if you have a local champion or existing on-the-ground support.
2) Know Your Issue: It is imperative to understand how the issue affects a local community. While the national statistics are likely sobering, it will be the “backyard” data that will best convince individuals and groups that they need to do something. Attempt a cross-sector assessment of how the community is handling the issue, what progress is being made on what aspects of the problem and where the short falls exist.
3) Create a List: Research and build a list of stakeholders that might be interested in working with you to advance the issue. Explore a variety of sectors representing a range of interests and demographics, and include members of the various ethnic and cultural groups. Identify how those on the list are already directly or indirectly involved in your issue. You may want to separate your list into categories, like Tier-I and Tier-II, defined by varying levels of likely involvement and alignment with your issue.
4) Build a Coalition: Meet the prospective organizations and start engaging with key decision-makers. Remember to listen to their needs while selling yours. Give as much consideration to what the organizations will “get” (to make their potential participation in your coalition valuable to them) as to what they can “give” to the effort. Then designate a local task force or advisory board from those most engaged and important to the success of your issue. Continue to recruit where you see a gap in resources and opportunity.
5) Bring Everyone Together: Think through the meeting logistics as well as the content and agenda. It’s important not to waste people’s time. Get down to business quickly: defining your issue and the goal of the coalition; determining the structure of the coalition; engaging the group in their own assessment of how the community is handling (or not handling) the issue and identifying the needs and shortcomings for improvement.
6) Conceive a Game Plan: Given your group’s assessment of shortcomings and needs, determine how to address them. Think creatively about how to take advantage of your coalition’s resources, roles in the community and capabilities. Think: what actions need to occur, who will carry out specific actions, when will they take place and for how long, and what are the resources needed to carry them out. Then ask for people to assume assignments. Make sure that everyone is clear on what they are taking on and the timeline for implementing the tasks.
7) Develop Outreach Materials: Assess what materials will be needed to accomplish the plan. Is it a website, educational pamphlets, brochures, newsletters, articles, fact sheets, posters, training materials, door hangers, stickers?
8) Communicate, Communicate, Communicate: It’s hard to actually do too much communicating. Open internal communication with the coalition participants will assure that everyone feels part of a coordinated effort, and that everyone has the information necessary to make the community outreach successful. Good external communication with the community – including the media – will increase your chances for broader support. Think about using social networking sites, quarterly meetings, regularly scheduled phone calls, direct mail, email lists, and newsletters.
9) Evaluate: Chances are you are tackling a tough issue that will not get resolved easily. When setting goals, be realistic. Set short-term “markers” along the way to the longer-term goal. Be sure to recognize and celebrate small successes. Small improvements will add up to big differences over time.
10) Share Best Practices: Help others learn from your experiences. Remember, national leadership isn’t just about policy. It is also leading, by example, local community initiatives all across the nation. Your organization can have the best of both worlds: nationally engaged and locally connected.
