Journeys to health

September venture for Autonomy

To celebrate the gifts talents of our members, we ran a Living Our Lives day. This was a new venture for us as a group. Could we run a day on our own and deal with all the bookings, finances, delegate packs and paperwork without the support of other organisations? We wanted to try a session of our own – a celebration of Asperger’s syndrome run by Eric, Danny and Mark all who have different skills. Eric is a musician, Danny is a photographer and Mark is a poet. It was a great day but unfortunately we ran at a small loss as not enough people turned up – but it was a real learning experience for us all.

We promoted Living Our Lives via the Internet, via our website and contacted the Shropshire Star, Radio Shropshire and the Shrewsbury Chronicle. We had some interest from community groups, and other parents, but no interest and no mentioning of the session in any of the media. How can we change this another time?

3 Comments so far

  1. by Julia

    On October 13, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    It sounds like you’re contacting all the right people – so don’t give up! There’s no easy solution to getting coverage – you can have a fantastic story and no-one covers it. Keep at it and you will have success. Some of my quick tips are:

    • Think about using existing ‘hooks’. Just like The Lighthouse Group used ADHD awareness week, find out if there is an awareness week or an awareness day coming up? Take a look on http://www.countmeincalendar.info/ to see if you can link your news to any of the events?

    • Keep a look out for opportunities to promote your views. Is there a local story that you can piggy back on?

    • Try a letter to the editor in the local paper.

    • Think about your audience – what will they want to hear about?

    • Contact the journalists – find out who might cover your stories and give them a ring. Look out for stories that are similar to yours and follow up with those journalists.

    • Don’t forget to do some post-event promotion – if you took pictures, send them to the local paper soon after the event.

    • Can you ask someone well known/important in the local community to endorse your event/group? To make it easier for them, offer to draft a quote that you could ask them to approve?

    Good luck and let us know how you get on.

  2. by Betty

    On October 14, 2008 at 11:03 am

    Would just like to reiterate everything that Julia has said. It is difficult to get media attention and it is nothing you are doing wrong. We have tried many times in the past but without success. We were lucky this time because we were able to use ADHD awareness week as a ‘hook’.

    One other tip I can add is – have a look at your County/Borough Council’s website. We have been able to register to put posts on the events calendar of ours which attracts large numbers of visitors and you may be able to do the same. Haven’t tried it yet but hope to do so in the near future.

    Keep going and good luck

  3. by joanna

    On November 15, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    Hallo, sorry we didn’t get a chance to talk at the Trust’s award day. The talk you gave interested me. I had to rush back to my own training day. Maybe we can compare notes some time in the future? Lighthouse Group..still no further with attracting volunteers apart from a flyer for this purpose nearly printed.Thanks to Betty. Joanna Francis


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