Promoting activities - Joining-In - Upstream

Promoting activities

Why promote?

There are lots of good reasons for promoting your activity or group. You might want to

• encourage new members to join your group;
• advertise a special activity or event;
• get local support for what you are doing;
• sell or donate what you are making;
• get publicity for fund-raising;
• find other like-minded individuals or groups; or
• show your work to other people.

Types of promotion

There are lots of different ways to promote what you do.

• Parish magazines or local newspapers Send in short articles or invite someone to come and see what you are doing.
• Local radio or television. Contact the local station if you have something special that might interest more people.
• Exhibit paintings or craftwork. You might be surprised at the amount of interest you get.
• Produce postcards, Christmas cards or calendars of a special piece of art or craft work and use them as give-away publicity or sell them.
• Write books of reminiscence, poetry or any other writing to give or sell to friends and the community.
• Make a leaflet describing what your group does. Ask if you can leave it in the library, council offices, GP surgery, post office, and newsagent or community hall. Try a house-to-house drop throughout your community.
• A poster to publicise a special event. Again, try the same places that have agreed to take your leaflet.

On loan for promotion

A mentor may be able to help you borrow work by other people to enable you to put together a larger exhibition. You could exhibit:

• collective craft works and hangings;
• paintings and drawings;
• photographs, music CDs or DVDs; or
• reminiscence items, clothes and artefacts.