Communications, Outreach and Engagement

The Communications, Outreach and Engagement project is quite broad and wide-reaching.

It has several aims;

To enhance communication within the CoLab and associated networks. To connect individuals and organizations. To try to create a sense of belonging.
To do engagement research into network weaving practices and processes, from the local level to the international level.
Focusing on network weaving, in particular offering cross-network training and knowledge sharing events.
To do outreach work from the CoLab to the wider permaculture audience. This will bring attention to the work we are doing in the CoLab and the resources we offer.
To prototype bringing in national and regional networks in order to support the CoLab and the wider permaculture movement. Aiming to bridge projects across bioregions through resources and cross-community engagement.

Funded with 21, 000 GBP through next steps

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Team

Kate Swatridge – research, outreach
Charlie Wilson – comms, copywriting, reporting officer
Hans Ryding – research, outreach
Aimee Fenech – training & supporting, outreach

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Area

Network weaving, Diversity, participation and engagement, Next Steps project

objectives 2023

Objective 1: Identify our audiences and prioritize audiences for the first part of the work as a prototype. Until August.

Objective 2: Put together a persona/s for the identified prioritized audiences. Until end of October.

Objective 3: Collate information from around the colab about services, circles and projects in order to update the website – to be used as a basis for the outreach package – ongoing work until end of year.

Objective 4: Collate information about current outreach. Until end of year.

Objective 5: Collate feedback and consent from relevant teams on updates to the website pages, including circle pages, services, resources and onboarding. Until the end of the project.

Objective 6: Writing monthly newsletters. Releasing new and edited webpages (projects, services, resources, etc.), on a half yearly basis.

OUTCOMEs 2023

Objective 1: This was completed. A taxonomy was created.

Objective 2: We identified several personas and which were the most important to target. Persona pages have been created on the website speaking to each persona with a different “voice” and offering them different links. These need to be reviewed and finalised.

Objective 3: A major overhaul of the website has been completed. This took a major part of our time and budget for the year. It was realized that the website was going to be a major tool for outreach work and that it needed a lot of work done on it. This work will continue in the second year of the project but to a lesser degree. Services pages have been added. A resources page has been added. The circle pages are up to date. The projects pages have all been updated, with new projects added.

Objective 4: I am not sure that this objective was met. It will be added to Year 2 objectives.

Objective 5: Consent was obtained and updates were given from teams. This was sometimes a difficult task with a lot of chasing up needed.

Objective 6: The monthly newsletters were all completed and sent out on time. Many new web pages have been released. Some of them will be added to the resources tab below.

objectives 2024

Objective 1: Enhance communication within the (CoLab) network and externally to connect individuals and organisations.

Writing monthly newsletters.
Releasing new and edited webpages (projects, services, resources, etc.), on a half yearly basis.
Add adhoc events and job openings as request in #colab-communications-engagement.
Quarterly roundup of NS project updates.
Representation in the General Circle monthly meetings (good for weaving).
Video to introduce CoLab.

Objective 2: Engagement research into network weaving practices and processes across from local to international – focusing on pinpointing needs.

Picture forming – What is the objective of this exercise? – Who is engaging (with CoLab) and how are they engaging (from inside / outside). How and what are we measuring? How do non-engagers (with CoLab) engage with one another and with resources (more generally) (so that we can work out how to help them engage with CoLab resources). What are the needs of different users? Output useful to this team and others.
Plan work according to outcomes of picture forming and needs and according to budget allocation.

Objective 3: Outreach work from CoLab to the wider permaculture audience.

Review persona work from year 1.
Collate information from around the colab about services, circles and projects in order to update the website – to be used as a basis for the outreach package – ongoing work.
Collate information about current outreach.
Collate feedback and consent from relevant teams on updates to the website pages, including circle pages, services, resources and onboarding.
Finish work on the website started last year (review and implement).
Write outreach pieces to be published in permaculture magazines / social media and network websites & mailing lists. (what’s our aim? Increase membership, join mailing list, or increase engagement with resources).
Mail out to target organisations by persona type. (collate email list, draft copy of email, possibly translate to eg. Spanish).
Publish and curate resources from NS and other working groups artefacts.
Set up Outreach Database (and use for prioritising, categorising, tracking etc).

Objective 4: Prototyping to bring in national and regional/other networks to support the wider permaculture movements & the CoLab

Outreach prototype with Nordic permaculture (capped budget as per slack convo about this at 22 hours).
Outreach meetings with external community network eg. EUPN.

Objective 5: Network weaving and building on the work started with capacity plus in particular cross network training and knowledge sharing events.

Training to CoLab members who wish to represent CoLab / promote services.
Representation in the General Circle monthly meetings (good for weaving).

Outcomes 2024

Objective 1: Enhance communication within the (CoLab) network and externally to connect individuals and organisations.

Writing monthly newsletters. – The monthly newsletters have been published every month, on time. It has new sections promoting diversity, and both an engagement and events section.

Releasing new and edited webpages (projects, services, resources, etc.), on a half yearly basis. – There are new “About permaculture pages” that have been added to the website. There are web pages now for Learn services, Funding services, and Digital services. The project pages were updated in September and will be updated again in December. A page of downloadable resources has been added to the website. A CoLab blog page has been added. Other web pages receive reviews and updates when needed.

Add adhoc events and job openings as request in #colab-communications-engagement. – These are included on the website, and now also on the newsletter.

Quarterly roundup of NS project updates. – These have been completed and published in a timely manner. The Q4 roundup will be produced in December.

Video to introduce CoLab. – This has been completed. There were contributions from several CoLab members. Charlie did a lot of recording and Hans did the editing.

Objective 2. Research ‘engagement with network weaving practices and processes’ from local to international, focusing on pinpointing needs. – A quick picture-forming exercise revealed that for this objective, we want to find good ways to reach permaculture people and projects on the ground so that we share the wealth of resources, events and services offered by the International Permaculture CoLab. We designed and published a survey to find out how permaculturists communicate. Analysis of responses is in progress, with a report coming soon.

Objective 3: Outreach work from CoLab to the wider permaculture audience.

Objective 3a. Review persona work from year 1 – This has been completed. The persona pages are active on the CoLab website and will be used for outreach work when sending emails etc.

Objective 3b. Collate information from around the colab about services, circles and projects in order to update the website, to be used as a basis for the outreach package. – This work is done on an ongoing basis.

Objective 3c. Collate information about current outreach. – A document reporting the current situation was collated and subsequently a marketing strategy document was produced and published.

Objective 3d. Collate feedback and consent from relevant teams on updates to the website pages, including circle pages, services, resources and onboarding. – This work has been done and is ongoing.

Objective 3e. Finish work on the website started last year (review and implement) – This has been completed.

Objective 3f. Write outreach pieces to be published in e.g. Permaculture Magazine / social media and network websites & mailing lists. – This has been started. We are in communication with Permaculture magazine and plan to produce articles next year. We are also surveying CoLab members about which platforms they use.

Objective 3g. Mail out to target organisations by persona type. (collate email lists, draft copy of emails, possibly translate to eg. Spanish). – This has been done. We sent an email to permaculture associations in Europe and Australia. So far there was no response.

Objective 3h. Publish and curate resources from NS and other working groups artefacts – This work is being done and is ongoing.

Objective 3i. Set up outreach database and tracker (NextCloud sheets) – Initial version has been created, further updates are planned.

Objective 4: Prototyping to bring in national and regional/other networks to support the wider permaculture movements & the CoLab

Objective 4a: Outreach prototype with Nordic permaculture – contact was made and the results were collected as a case study, however the outreach was not successful in getting any new customers or members. Primarily because we overestimated how developed the organisations were. Outreach with EUPN was very successful and now we have a relationship going between Digital Circle and EUPN.

Objective 4b: Outreach meetings with external community network – participated in skillshare sessions on behalf of Pemaculture CoLab in a session about digital permaculture organised by EUPN – we are getting better at cross collaboration since then.

Objective 5: Network weaving and building on the work started with capacity plus in particular cross network training and knowledge sharing events.

Objective 5a: We have been designing training for CoLab members who wish to represent CoLab in their other networks. To be delivered in Year 3 (CoLab Champions).

Objective 5b: Representation in the General Circle – This has been ongoing with positive feedback from other circles to the work done within this project.

Objective 6: Weekly co-working time and reporting – we have maintained a regular co-working time this year.