OUTREACH STRATEGIES
It may take time to build trust and relationships, and you may not attract a lot of attendees to your first few workshops. The key is to not give up. Continue to have a presence. This allows for the community to see that your program is legitimate. The following sections explain outreach strategies that have been successful for our food sovereignty work.
Email Outreach
In a rural community, email is one of the most effective ways to share information. The advantage of a small community allows an individual to build relationships at other agencies or places of employment, such as the casino, Tribal agencies, and local employers, for sharing information that they can in turn share through email with their fellow employees. In the Menominee community, email is the fastest way to communicate widely, other than social media, as there is no radio station and the local newspaper comes out only every two weeks. Email does have limitations. Our original email distribution list included mostly employees of local Native organizations and government agencies — a common limitation of email lists in Tribal communities. This meant that community members outside of those entities weren’t getting our messages. We have started asking attendees at our workshops and other events to give us their email addresses so that we can include them in future mailings. For others using email for outreach, a plan should include both organizations and community.
How can you access mass email lists from community organizations?
How can you begin collecting community member email addresses?
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