DATE CONFIRMED

This training course will be a bespoke one­ day session accompanied by a modular training guide on communication and public engagement. It is designed to help both current and future EWB-UK branch volunteers, in particular those who are or will be involved in the 2008 Engineers Without Borders UK photographic exhibitions and those who manage the publicity and PR efforts of their branches.

The following information about the training course is adapted from the proposal from Boulder Group Ltd. who will be preparing the course and running the training session. 

The aims of the training day and course material:

• To help volunteers communicate their message concisely and coherently. 
• To assist student volunteers in determining the audiences they want to attract. 
• To show the importance of human interest stories and how to attract audiences.  
• To help volunteers learn strategies for forging on­going relationships with the media.
• To build familiarity with the different demands of the media: TV, radio, print and internet ­based media. 
• To give guidance on contacting members of the media and tips on how to get the best out of being an
• interviewee. 
• The training will address the varied forms of content volunteers can create on their own in order to extend their message to different audiences, e.g. press releases, blogs and podcasts.
• Discuss ways of tackling the potential for distortion, and the scope for nuance.
• Hear the insights of others about communicating with the media and developing relationships.  

Course contents 

The course materials will be modular in nature and broken into the following themes and providing the organisational structure for the training day:

Introduction: the public engagement and impact agenda. 
Looking at the issues that face students in their academic and voluntary work and EWB­-UK as a charity body, when public engagement opportunities arise.

Your work, your message, your audiences. 
This module looks at what EWB-­UK volunteers may want to communicate and helps them define their message. It will highlight the importance of the human interest story and how to tap into current storylines. Participants will learn how to define the potential audiences where their message or story has the most relevance and appeal.

The media universe.  
Dealing with different forms of media, their demands and their convergence with the advent of Web 2.0. This module looks at the wide variety of editorial tones. How can you deal with this diversity while maintaining your integrity?

The interview 
This module looks at how to deal with the initial contact from a journalist. It addresses the volunteers’ scope for determining how to be treated and how to feel confident.  The key issues of nuance and misunderstandings are also dealt with in this module. This module will also talk about the general issues of presentation in an interview, and what producers and journalists look for when interviewing. It gives tips about getting your point across.

The public engagement agenda and how to deal with it  
This section deals with key aspects of public engagement –how to widen your audience while retaining peers’ respect and the integrity of your message. It also looks at problems associated with public engagement—what is the relationship you are developing? Is the engagement with the public limited to one issue or will it be on­ going?

Your media strategy   
The final session helps the volunteers pull together the modular course’s key lessons and think about ways they can develop their media presence as well as that of EWB­-UK. It will look at ways to boost their long­term confidence when dealing with the media and provide a plan or blueprint to which they can refer in the future.

Approach:

We have designed the course to work with two facilitators.  Activities will involve volunteers working in groups of two or three.  Practical exercises involved in the training day will include press release writing and interview techniques.  We will also encourage volunteers to look at how EWB­-UK can be seen as a resource that the media and interested stakeholders might wish to use.