Making your local education program successful

A community education program can take many different forms – but all successful programs rely on the same principles of planning and strategy. The document What we need is a community education project (EPA 1997; see Publications List) outlines in detail how education is planned, implemented and evaluated. It is essential reading for all those wishing to conduct high quality education programs.

The material below aims at assisting those in local government and the community to make their local program more successful. Asking yourself some basic preliminary questions can make a world of difference to the effectiveness of your campaign. Such as:

	Who is our audience?
	Who are we trying to reach?
	What attitudes and behaviours are we trying to address, what are our messages?
	When is the best time to conduct education/communication activities?
	Why is it important to the community to improve stormwater?
	How can we use our time and resources most effectively to get our message out?

The following tips are important for you to consider when putting your program together. They answer the basic questions above – and provide more insight into making sure your education activities are effective and successful.

Objective
Audience
Timing
Resources and value adding
Effective communication

Objective

What do you want your program to achieve? It needs a clear purpose. For example, do you want to:

	Create awareness about the problem of stormwater pollution?
	Enhance people's knowledge, understanding and skills to improve stormwater quality?
	Influence people's values or attitudes towards stormwater pollution
	Encourage people to adopt specific behaviours that contribute to cleaner stormwater?
	Consider the result of your communication and education activities. What do you want the outcome to be?
	What do you want people in your community to know or do afterwards?

Audience

Be very clear about who is your audience. Deciding who is your audience will have an important impact on the avenues of communication you might use, and also how you present your message.

Since everyone in NSW is potentially affected by and contributes to stormwater pollution, it is important to focus key messages on specific target audiences. Already you are working with some refinement of this process, for example, relating to the people in a particular catchment.

However, you should also consider how to target specific audience groups. These might include local industry and businesses, schools, gardening enthusiasts, surfers and other recreation groups, local environment organisations. (It is useful to find out how your stakeholders receive their information and what networks and contacts they have which would be useful to you).

By analysing the most prevalent behaviours that pollute stormwater in your area you will be able to focus your resources to concentrate on the main problems.

Timing

Consider timing – it can potentially have a big impact on the effectiveness of your program. For example, deciding to launch a communications initiative on a day when there are other big events or announcements expected – such as the federal budget, or the Melbourne Cup or a local event - will lessen your chances of maximising coverage of your campaign.

Also consider the time constraints and deadlines of local media you hope to engage in your campaign. If a newspaper is published on a Wednesday, then holding an event on a Tuesday afternoon is very bad timing if you want to guarantee good media coverage.

Similarly, holding an event on the Wednesday itself in this scenario is also bad timing. The newspaper can't report it until the following week – by which time the editor might consider your event "old news" or no longer newsworthy.  

Resources & value adding

What materials are you planning to produce? Are these appropriate for your target group? Are they at the correct reading age? Consider all the resources and avenues you can use to make your campaign reach the maximum number of people.

Can you engage the local media and local interest groups at the same time to get your message across? Do you have a budget for advertising to promote your message above and beyond media and stakeholder work?

Are there other agencies you can look to for support? In this instance, local councils are being encouraged to draw on support from the State Government by using material from the Drain is Just for Rain campaign.

Can you enlist the support of local businesses? (For example, Thrifty Link will provide paint / refreshments and generate media releases supporting your campaign. Call Bob White, NSW Group Business Manager for details on (02) 9389 0716.)

Effective communication

Deciding what education tools you are going to use for your program is one thing. The next step is to think about what makes those tools effective. For example:

	What avenues of communication are the best to employ to reach your community?
	The average newsroom gets bombarded with media releases all day long. What will make them read yours? What will make them print yours?
	What can you do to make sure the message that comes out in the newspaper is the message you wanted people to hear?
	How can you make people remember your message?

Here are some more helpful tips on making your communications strategic and effective. 

Communication/education needs to have the WIIFM factor (What's in it for ME?) so your audience understands how they will benefit from reducing stormwater pollution.

Localise your program – give it a truly local focus. People care about what's happening in their own backyards. (For example, give details about locations where work is being undertaken, what local areas of the environment are effected, which local people involved).

You can't rely on one-off communication – it has little chance of creating any lasting effect. You need to plan to get the messages to your target audience as consistently and as often as possible.

Conduct regular activities and issue regular stories to keep the issue of stormwater pollution in the public eye.

Keep your media releases simple and keep them to one at a time. Simple, straightforward language is much more powerful than complicated messages that are hard to remember. The Drain is Just for Rain is a good example of a message that is very simple and very effective.

Don't be afraid to repeat your key messages to make sure the audience hears it and eventually understands. Drum it in.  

Make your stories timely. If it's winter, then the effects of stormwater pollution on swimmers is not the most effective angle. Make your communication relevant to what people are doing at the time.

Use current council activities and information to generate public interest in the issue of stormwater pollution. For example, data about the amount of pollution being trapped in local devices or the results of a business survey make for good stories, and new opportunities to get your message out.

Use local success stories to highlight the solutions to stormwater pollution.

Identify local events or initiatives that can be used for your advantage. Promoting good litter management at the annual show may provide the opportunity to raise the stormwater issue.

Try to find something novel that will grab people's attention (see examples of other council activities).

Think in pictures as well as words. Newspapers love stories that have interesting visual images as well as an interesting message. Offer photographs, or set up opportunities for photographs.

Understand that the media is made up of advertising content and editorial content. Advertising is paid for. Editorial comprises the information of the day or week that the editor considers the most newsworthy. Making your communications sound newsworthy is therefore important to maximise your coverage at the least cost.

Remember that education does not just mean schools – it's considering the impact of the whole community on stormwater, and what the community might do to reduce this impact.

Use messages and images that complement what is being done at a state level (the Drain is Just for Rain) and by other councils.

Try to leverage the most out of everything you do. For example, when stencilling drains, coincide that work with a school project, or get the local progress association to stencil its own area.

Use complementary communication techniques. Simply stencilling drains will not stop stormwater pollution – look at simultaneous posters and flyers and media work.

Make sure internal communication is OK and that there are no other council activities that could compromise or clash with your program.