Effective Outreach George Chaipa Lungu

Topics What is a success story? Who is the audience for a success story? What are elements of a good success story? What about photos for success stories? What can I do with success stories?

What is a success story? Emphasizes the importance of work Tovwirane/Prog ressio and partners are doing in Malawi A best case scenario Personal It’s NOT: A project overview – that’s a brochure

Who is the audience for a success story? Knowing your audience can help to remind you of the best writing style for this story Press UK staff Malawians Visitors

What are the elements of a good success story? Make sure there is a beginning, middle, and end to your story Make it short Mention Tovwirane/Progressio Include a quote Be sure to have a personal component

What are the elements of a good success story? Include a good photo with a good caption Aim for your average person – avoid jargon Avoid too many statistics one is more than enough

Beginning, Middle, and End Organization is key!! Apply style guide

Make it short No more than two pages including pictures Don’t use small fonts Less is more Why is it important to make it short? Press only have so much room in their column UK staff only have so much time Visitors want to hear about individuals – they will hear from you or brochures about the project

Mention Tovwirane/Progressio Sample text: Steven has a new outlook on life thanks to the HIV Awar eness Program funded by the Plan International or United States Agency for International Development (Tovwirane/Progressio).

Include a quote Make it real Don’t mention Tovwirane/Progressio or your project in the quote (but be sure to mention it in the story!) Describe how the project changed the person’s life “These days I cook nutritious food for the whole family and everyone feels better. And after constructing the outhouse and place to wash our hands, we don’t have diarrhea anymore.”

Personal Component People like stories about people. Exercise: Tell the class in two sentences a story about a person who has benefited from your work/project.

Photos What kind of photos are good? Upclose Color Demonstrate what’s happening Examples: Good Not so good

Captions A good caption can make a photo much better Don’t forget to include the name of the person who took the photo and their organization A caption looks like this: Mr. Banda receives a bag of maize on behalf of his family at a World Food Programme Distribution in Chikwawa, Malawi. (Photo by: Anna Sparks, Tovwirane/Mzuzu) Let’s think of some good captions for the photos in the p revious slide.

Aim for your Average Person Who is the average reader? Remember your audience! Don’t use jargon Examples of jargon and how to fix them Infant mortality Use the rate of children who die during childbirth Post-delivery complications Use difficulties during childbirth, trouble delivering a baby HCT HIV Counseling and Testing What are examples from your stories?

Avoid too many statistics This is for a real person who may not totally understand statistics. What’s an example of a good statistic? What’s an example of a statistic that is difficult to un derstand?

What can I do with success stories? Share them with Progressio Share them with your home office Give them to visitors Put them on your website Give them to journalists Use them as examples or appendices in reports

Now let’s work on our success stories Step 1: Rewrite your success story (or at least the first paragr aph) using these tips Step 2: Find a partner and read and critique each other’s stor ies. You must make at least one positive comment and one suggestion for imp rovement Step 3: Make a plan for what else you will do to improve the s tory when you get back to the office.

Success story template Introduction Opening sentence that grabs the reader’s attention. A couple of sentences on Area/site the success story occurred in. Highlight the uniqueness of the Area/site and the resource concerns Body Introduce the person and the issue. Quote them describing the issue. Ideally, have them recognize the issue was too big to solve without Technical/financial assistance provided by the project. Describe project implementation using terms the average person will understand. Quote the lead technical Staff on the uniqueness of the project Frame the planning process as collaboration between the community and project staff. Describe the benefits of the project to the community in general.

Conclusion Circle back to, or restate your opening sentence and tie it all together. What was the outcome and what evidence supports that outcome. Quote the person and/or other affected parties on how they are better off due to the project.

Thanks Thank you for your listening Good luck!