Media
An important component of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week is publicity. The outcome of your event will depend largely on your ability to publicize prior to the event. A good use of the media will get people in your community to start thinking about hunger and homelessness and inspire them to take part in the events during the week. In order to get the word out and involve the community as much as possible, you need to alert your local media early on in your organizing process. It is important to notify both campus and community media sources. Let them know about the events of Awareness Week. Urge them to publish/run/air educational information as well as stories from homeless people and social service agencies. Also, have your Awareness Week events published. Radio stations are another effective way to get your message across. Flyers hung up around your campus and your community are another good way to get the word out as well.
One week before National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, step up the publicity to make sure that Awareness Week is on everyone’s mind. During the week, continue to work full force with the media to gather as many participants as possible for the events. Please see the sample news release we have included as a guide.
It is helpful to be creative in advertising your activities. Some suggestions are bookmarks, door hangers, posters, or even t-shirts. The graphics department at a local school may be willing to help you create flyers and posters for the events and fact sheets with information about hunger and homelessness.
Distribute your information (fact sheets and overview of the week’s events) to community organizations. E-mail can be a great reminder as Awareness Week draws closer. Urge each community organization to participate—interest them in joining a canned food drive, promoting Awareness Week within their organization, and sending at least a few representatives to each event.
Another idea for publicity, which is inexpensive and effective, is to enlist students or community residents to announce Awareness Week and the events to their classes or at work. Professors and employers are usually very supportive of this idea and should not mind giving a couple of minutes of class time to promote National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. If you are on a college campus, using chalk on well-traveled sidewalks is another great way to publicize to a large number of people.
Make sure you let the National Coalition for the Homeless know about Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in your community! NCH might be able to provide you with some publicity support as well. Contact: Michael O’Neill, Director, Faces of Homelessness Speakers’ Bureau.
Phone: (202) 462-4822 x222 Email: moneill@nationalhomeless.org
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