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Literacy New York Shares "Working with the News Media" Educate & Elevate Toolkit
Tue, Jul 11th 2017 06:20 pm
Educate & Elevate is a campaign that provides communication tools to elevate your organization and build relevancy in the mission of adult education.
If you missed the Working With News Media webinar, here are the top 5 highlights, along with how you can use the Educate & Elevate Campaign Toolkit to raise awareness with the media in your local area about your great adult education programs.
1. Just as you build relationships with your local elected officials and state legislators, you need to do so with the news media.
2. To be proactive with the news media, create a local database with correct contacts for the news desks and/or reporters that cover education, workforce, jobs, economy, and/or business. Click here to research and locate local media in your area.
3. This op-ed (here) is a good example of using data and facts to build a business case on why federal funding for workforce programs should not be cut. Written by Eloy Ortiz Oakley, chancellor of the California Community Colleges, and Allan Zaremberg, president and chief executive officer of the California Chamber of Commerce, see if you can identify what makes this a well written op-ed.
4. At a minimum, each adult education organization can tailor the press release in the Toolkit to announce its participation in the National Campaign. Click here to see examples.
5. Did you know that you can use the Campaign Fact Sheet to develop your press release? Click here to learn more.
Strategy of the Month: Seeds of Literacy
Kudos to Seeds of Literacy Development Officer, Jo Steigerwald, who shared her organization's successes in getting the news media to take notice of their work in adult education. Here are some key strategies to replicate from Seeds:
- Use volunteer committees to update media lists as contacts may change frequently.
- Think of unique ways to connect with the media and build relationships (e.g. hand written thank you notes for coverage, in person visits).
- Pay attention to what the local media covers and align your adult education programs to these topics (e.g. education, workforce, economy).
- Monitor your coverage and use Google Alerts to keep you informed of local news topics that you might leverage for a press release, op-ed, or column.
Check out Seed's Press Room (here) where they cater to the news media with infographics, fact sheets, and newsletters to inform the media of data and human interest stories.
About Educate & Elevate:
The system of 55,000+ adult education leaders stand united in a national campaign to educate policy makers about the importance of investing in adult education and moving opportunities forward for all Americans to achieve economic mobility.
