Literacy Basics - Community Literacy of Ontario

Outreach Strategies

Public Relations

Literacy agencies fulfill an important and demanding role in their communities with limited funding. Finding enough time and resources for outreach and promotion is difficult. However, increasing program awareness and effective public relations are extremely important and are closely linked to successful learner recruitment.

Public relations is all about your agency projecting a positive image in your community to a wide variety of stakeholders. Here is an overview of four different types of PR that help ensure that your agency is projecting a positive image in your community.

Front Door Public Relations

Front door PR includes those seemingly meaningless day-to-day interactions that take place during the course of doing business. It is often through these casual, incidental and unplanned day-to-day encounters that the value, worth and significance of an organization is perceived. Just like with dating, first impressions count! Here are a few tips to ensure good first impressions:

• Have a cheerful, helpful person answering the phone and greeting those who come into the office.
• Have an easy-to-use phone answering system; for example, make it clear how to leave a message and make sure the caller doesn’t have to push a complicated series of numbers to speak to someone.
• Make the office’s reception area welcoming and professional.
• Have a private meeting spot for assessment and intake.
• Make sure communication tools (brochures, website, posters, etc.) are clear and user-friendly.

Maintenance Public Relations

It is also important to remember the ongoing public relations work that needs to be done. PR, advertising and recruiting are not one-shot deals; they are part of an ongoing cycle. There are always newcomers to communities, new staff at other agencies and people who are looking for literacy services now who were not interested before. This type of PR is about the information we put forward to those who are already involved in our agency: learners, volunteers, staff, sponsors, donors, community partners, local service agencies and funders. Maintenance PR is vital in maintaining a positive reputation in your community. It includes things such as:

• Communicating promptly, respectfully and professionally to all stakeholders
• Responding to emails and telephone calls as soon as possible
• Honouring any commitments made by your agency
• Actively sharing agency information (newsletters, etc.) with all stakeholders

Outreach Public Relations

Outreach PR means going beyond your current stakeholders to reach new people and develop new relationships. It includes things like submitting press releases, distributing promotional information, taking part in community events and making presentations. It is also about trying to think more creatively: where might you promote your agency that you have not considered before?

A wonderful example of outreach PR is “Literary Tuesdays”. Literacy Plus in Renfrew County offers an annual fundraising event called “Literary Tuesdays”. This event is an annual authors’ festival, where for each Tuesday in July various authors come to a local restaurant and do readings in support of literacy. Community members come by and enjoy the readings, have coffee and dessert and a lovely evening out. “Literary Tuesdays”, while primarily intended as a fundraiser, has also proven to be an effective PR activity for Literacy Plus. Typically, between 50 and 150 people come out for each of the four Tuesday evenings in July. Literacy Plus gets local media coverage and the event definitely raises their profile. You can read more about “Literary Tuesdays” at: www.nald.ca/clo/newslet/nov03/3.htm.

Joining Forces: Collaborative Public Relations

Collaborative PR involves partnerships with other organizations to further mutual promotional goals. A group of organizations working together to organize a community fair, awareness campaign or a joint volunteer recruitment initiative are examples of this kind of PR.

Think creatively! Literacy Plus in Renfrew County was told by the advertising department of a local radio station that some businesses are willing to share their advertising time with non-profits. For example, leading up to Family Literacy Day in Renfrew County, the Honda dealership added a 15 second tag about literacy to its regular advertisement.

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