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Communicating with Communities using

Outreach: a Good Practice Guide
July 2006

Prepared by: Stephane Gray, Christine Roberts, Patricia Macauley & Ross James
COI Strategic Consultancy
Hercules Road
London SE1 7DU
T: 020 7261 8408
F: 020 7261 8832
E: [email protected]

Contents
1. Executive Summary................................................................................. 3
2. Background to Good Practice Guide ....................................................... 5
3. Defining Outreach in Context ................................................................... 7
Issues with terminology............................................................................ 9
4. The Role and Purpose of Outreach ....................................................... 11
How outreach is used............................................................................. 11
Strengths of outreach approaches ......................................................... 13
Limitations of outreach approaches ....................................................... 14
Making the case for using Outreach....................................................... 15
Barriers to access and the enablers outreach can employ..................... 17
5. Forms of Outreach Activity..................................................................... 21
Street Marketing & Stunts ...................................................................... 21
Peer Education, Street Teams or Referral Marketing............................. 22
Sponsorship ........................................................................................... 23
Active Service Delivery .......................................................................... 24
Community Networking & Events........................................................... 26
Community Development....................................................................... 27
Participation & Active Citizenship........................................................... 29
6. Audiences, Messages & Channels for Outreach ................................... 30
Identifying audiences for outreach ......................................................... 30
Tailoring messages for outreach............................................................ 30
Key channels for outreach ..................................................................... 33
Developing integrated campaigns incorporating outreach ..................... 34
7. Delivering Outreach ............................................................................... 35
Who can do outreach? ......................................................................... 35
Models for delivering outreach ............................................................... 36
What are the practicalities to consider when planning outreach?........... 40
8. Measuring and evaluating the impact of outreach ................................. 46
The challenge of measuring and evaluating outreach............................ 46
Principles for evaluating outreach .......................................................... 48
What to measure.................................................................................... 48
Approaches to evaluation....................................................................... 50
9. Applying Outreach Effectively: Some Tools........................................... 57
Tool 1: Selecting outreach techniques ................................................... 57
Tool 2: Outreach dos and donts ............................................................ 58
Tool 3: Outreach planner ....................................................................... 59
Links & Contacts........................................................................................ 63

1. Executive Summary
Increasingly, public services are using different forms of communication to
engage with and to get stronger messages over to communities. Whether
it is about accessing opportunities to work, raising awareness and take-up of
entitlements, or increasing knowledge and understanding around what to
expect from the Criminal Justice System, public services have an interest in
ensuring their messages reach all the UKs diverse communities.
Complementing other media and communications techniques, outreach can
be used as a new and different form of communication to engage
communities with what public services have to offer. It can help for example to
overcome barriers of culture and language which can sometimes make
certain ethnic minority groups harder to reach.
By reaching out to, and directly engaging with, these communities, outreach
can help overcome these barriers. In doing so it can help the Government
and its partners to achieve better results in changing peoples perceptions of
public services, challenging racism and improving the take-up of services to
tackle inequalities all goals to which the Government is highly committed.
This Guide has been prepared for communicators considering how they might
use outreach, and is based on the experiences of outreach practitioners
across and beyond government. Our primary focus has been on outreach
applied to the objectives of increasing race equality and community cohesion.
The techniques of outreach span a wide spectrum from simple field marketing
through to community development and participation. Practitioners of these
disciplines sometimes prefer to use other terms such as community
development or community engagement for the kinds of techniques outreach
involves. They emphasise the importance of respecting the priorities of local
communities and supporting their capacity to address issues for themselves.
Based on our conversations with those involved in outreach-style activities,
we have defined it here as an active process of engaging a target
community around an issue of concern, through personal relationships,
credible information, trusted networks and feedback.
Where other forms of marketing typically aim to raise awareness or influence
attitudes through frequent, shallow or broadcast means, outreach is much
more targeted and localised, using powerful personal interaction to create
dialogue, overcome barriers and change minds.

It is used for a variety of purposes, including to form contacts, change

community attitudes or behaviour, improve access to services, increase
voice or correct under-representation such as in the ethnic profile of a
workforce, influence people at risk of harm, and create opportunities for
contact between communities. It can help form a bridge between the
community and the organisation, addressing myths or wrongly-held
perceptions through conversation and first-hand experience.
Sometimes, outreach may be the only way to overcome the cultural, language
or physical barriers which prevent individuals and communities from
accessing services or information. But it also offers great scope to create
credible advocates, increase trust and empathy, demonstrate the
organisations commitment to the community and target effort with great
accuracy. Through good planning, lateral thinking and open and honest
approach, it can tap into community networks and culture and stimulate
interest around issues of concern.
Of course, outreach is by definition small-scale and can be expensive per
person reached. The value it creates through strong relationships is inherently
fragile at risk of insensitive treatment by another part of the organisation, or
the departure of a pivotal outreach worker. To work well, it also demands
relaxed, devolved supervision where local teams are empowered to adapt
their approach if necessary to meet the desired objective.
Clear and challenging objectives are vital both in selecting appropriate
techniques and devising a fair evaluation. Practical considerations are
important too, from how messages are tailored to the needs of the community,
to how the activity is delivered, and by whom. Outreach works well as part of
an integrated campaign, for example where awareness-raising media such as
TV or local radio or press generate a foundation on which to build events or
stunts. Outreach can offer depth, precision, feedback and impact amongst
those communities involved helping to reinforce messages, or overcome
remaining barriers to accessing services.
It is hard to show the return on investment in outreach, but also impossible to
deny its value, as testified by the passion and enthusiasm of outreach workers
and the stories they tell. This exposes the difficulty of measuring or evaluating
this complex set of relationships, which often have long term impacts on
hearts and minds. This Guide offers examples and tools for delivering
effective outreach, and undertaking thorough and meaningful evaluation. As
long as this in place, we believe there is a strong case to be made for using
outreach to address the needs of hard to reach audiences.

2. Background to Good Practice Guide

Why was this Guide produced?
People often talk about outreach in the context of getting messages to hard to
reach audiences, or increasing take-up of a service. But what does it really
involve? What does good outreach look like? How can it help as part of a
wider campaign? And what exactly does it mean anyway?
Much has been said about the results that outreach can achieve, although
until now we have had limited knowledge of its potential to help deliver race
equality and community cohesion objectives. This guide has therefore been
produced on behalf of the Race Equality Unit of the Department for
Communities and Local Government by the Inclusivity Unit at the Central
Office of Information. Our aim is to provide a better understanding of what
outreach is and provide inspiration and guidance through some examples of
how it has been used successfully. We have particularly focussed in our case
studies on examples of how outreach has been used to promote race equality
and community cohesion. However, we think much of the guidance here may
be applicable to outreach with other objectives.
Who is this Guide for?
This guide has been written primarily for communications and marketing
specialists working in central government, by whom outreach might be used
as a strand in a campaign to raise awareness of an issue, change attitudes or
influence behaviour. However, some of our case studies are from a service
delivery context, where outreach is used to connect specific communities with
public services, so we hope it is also of value to a wider audience.
How did we compile this Guide?
We have interviewed a wide range of individuals in organisations involved in
outreach-style activities though some use other terms to describe their work
from those commissioning outreach, to individual outreach workers. We
have also tried to identify and review published evaluations of outreach
schemes to help in preparing guidelines on how and when to use outreach.
Who can I contact about this Guide?
Kathleen Rawlinson
Stakeholder Communications Manager
Race Equality Unit, Department for Communities and Local Government
Email: [email protected]

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the organisations and individuals involved in
commissioning, delivering and evaluating outreach who helped us in
compiling this Guide.

3. Defining Outreach in Context

Outreach is not an easy concept to define. The practitioners we spoke to in
preparing this Guide used the following terms in describing it:
reaching groups not accessible to or in contact with other agencies
due to religious, cultural or language barriers. Its about knowing where
to sit, what to say, and what to wear
? Outreach worker
evidence based, two-way, collaborative, tailored to local needs,
sustainable and long term
? Organisation which commissions outreach
forming a connection with a specific objective, such as bridging a gap
where evidence suggests the organisation is disconnected from an
audience it wants to be connected with
? Agency which uses outreach
getting out there, making face to face contact
? Outreach worker, sports club
communication, sharing information, building awareness, raising skills
? Organisation which commissions outreach
empowerment not doing things to people, but responding to people
asking for support from government
? Organisation which commissions outreach
the first beginnings of understanding
? Organisation which commissions outreach
creating a space in which the audience is thinking going out and
having conversations
? Agency which uses outreach
sowing seeds, dispelling suspicion
? Organisation which commissions outreach
reaching those perceived to be harder to reach or harder to help
? Researcher

From the examples of outreach we have identified in the course of preparing

this guide, the key characteristics and differences from other forms of
marketing might be summarised as follows:
Outreach
Purpose

Techniques

Audiences

Other forms of marketing

often involves communicating a

specific message
designed to address underrepresentation or perceived
barriers to conventional
channels of communication in
relation to a minority group
designed to have significant
impact on an individual,
changing attitudes or behaviour
proactive, making an effort to
seek out members of the target
audience rather than waiting for
enquiries to come in
involves face to face contact to
create dialogue, sometimes
alongside other media
local planning and delivery:
through local offices and
community groups
uses community advocates to
build credibility
very small-scale, niche
hard to reach: usually
because of cultural, faith or
language barriers
hard to help: perhaps because
of a reluctance to engage with
public services, or because of
multiple barriers such as crime,
deprivation or substance
misuse

about communicating messages,

but may be more general (e.g.
brand or issue awareness)
designed to increase awareness
and change perceptions through
repeated exposure to small
elements e.g. advertisements.
Behaviour change may take
many years of constant
reinforcement
broadcast typically one-way
dissemination of a standard
message, through non-face to
face channels. Sometimes uses a
standard channel for response
(e.g. contact centre or coupon)
often centrally planned,
developed by external agencies,
and delivered consistently
nationwide
uses familiar brands or celebrities
for credibility
typically aimed at a mass market
or large and relatively accessible
segments
predominantly in English and
using mainstream
language/contexts

It is also clear that the term outreach is used in different ways by different
arms of central government:

Communications
Objectives
for outreach

Approaches
adopted

Policy

Delivery

Raising awareness,
changing attitudes and
behaviour

Consulting hard to
reach audiences,
ensuring policy meets
community needs

Improving access to
services, correcting
under-representation

Engage specialist
ethnic marketing
agencies, e.g. via COI,
or cascade materials to
regional teams

Establish stakeholder
groups, cascade
funding through
regional and local
umbrella organisations

Employ specialist
workers on the ground,
form multi-agency
partnerships with
community groups,
cascade funding
through groups

Type of
outreach

Street marketing,
community events

Active citizenship or
participation,
community
development

Community events,
networking, community
development

COI, specialist
agencies, regional
marketing teams

Traditionally larger
stakeholder
representatives,
umbrella organisations,
government region
offices

Government region
offices, local agency
offices

(described
later in this
Guide)

Contacts

While this Guide addresses all of these to some extent, we have emphasised
outreach in communications and delivery settings.

Issues with terminology

From our conversations with practitioners of outreach approaches, it is clear
that the term also has some negative or limiting connotations:

implies a passive audience: where the hard to access audiences

reached out to are provided with services or information for their own
good as determined by a statutory agency. In fact, the most effective
approaches often support communities in taking action themselves to
address priorities they identify.
suggests a single issue, professional model: where the outreach is
conducted by a professional specialist in a particular issue, such as drugs
or social work. In fact, many forms of outreach used a devolved network of
people to make contact with the audiences, including peers and
community leaders rather than specialist professionals from outside the
community.
doesnt reflect deeper aspects of networking and engagement: where
outreach is an extension of conventional one-way marketing, conducted as
a one-off visit. In fact, winning the trust and respect of audiences is a
major condition of effective outreach, and this can involve building a deeprooted network of relationships based on mutual respect, communication
and credibility. The best examples include feedback too, where service
delivery agencies modify their services to better meet the needs of
audiences they are in touch with.

Consequently, many practitioners describe their work using other terms:

Community Development: a field of work based on the premise that

outside agencies should be facilitators in building the capacity of
communities to identify and address their issues themselves.
Participation: the devolution of power and autonomy in decision-making
to communities through a range of means, from enhanced consultation
with statutory agencies, through to setting priorities for and directing
service delivery themselves or through direct representatives.
Engagement/Involvement: a variety of approaches to stimulating
awareness and motivation amongst communities through building
relationships and creating opportunities for dialogue and learning.
Networking: making personal contacts in communities through
community groups and stakeholders of different kinds, to help
communicate messages and provide information or feedback to service
delivery agencies.

Still, outreach is a term which has currency for most communicators, and can
potentially be useful shorthand for a range of effective approaches to
communication.
Zone of outreach:

Field
marketing

Community
events &
sponsorship

One-off,
face to face
contact

Presence,
contact with
community

Community
networking

Community
Development

Developing
trusting
relationships
with groups/
individuals

Bottom up
empowerment
and capacity
building

Active
Citizenship &
Participation
Community
decisionmaking and
ownership

In preparing this Good Practice Guide, we have devised a working definition

of outreach with a scope somewhere between one-way face-to-face
marketing of the conventional kind, and the kind of community empowerment
designed to stimulate communities to tackle specific issues for themselves:
Our definition of outreach:
Outreach is an active process of engaging a target community around an
issue of concern, through personal relationships, credible information, trusted
networks and feedback.

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4. The Role and Purpose of Outreach

How outreach is used
Outreach offers a way of overcoming barriers (see Barriers and Enablers in
this section) to a range of communications, policy and delivery challenges.
While it is hard to categorise, the projects we have come across in preparing
this Guide had the following types of aims:
Forming contacts and understanding community issues
Projects which are designed to use face to face contact as a way of
building relationships with groups and individuals in a community, so
those relationships can be used to get personal feedback on current
issues for the community. For example, the Metropolitan Police are
creating a team of non-uniformed outreach workers based in Londons
ethnic minority communities to help improve the two-way flow of
information between Police and particular groups alongside existing,
uniformed Safer Neighbourhood Teams in each ward.
Changing community attitudes and behaviour
Projects which seek to raise awareness of harmful or risky behaviours
and attitudes which affect particular groups or to raise awareness of
opportunities available. For example, the Department of Health ran a
campaign aimed at South Asian smokers or tobacco paan chewers
which involved a multi-lingual team touring melas and community
events around the country distributing cards featuring top tips.
Improving access to services
Projects which aim to overcome barriers to accessing services, through
using proactive, face-to-face techniques to take services out into the
community. For example, Southwark Works! aims to engage people
not currently involved with Jobcentre Plus to access employment
advice and support, through placing advisers within other services they
may access such as GP surgeries, hospitals or social services teams.
Increasing voice and representation
Projects which are designed to increase not just access to services or
information, but participation in decision-making and the democratic
process. For example, The Electoral Commission used outreach to
engage young ethnic minority voters in a pilot area of the West
Midlands to encourage them to use their voice and register to vote.

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Correcting under-representation in a workforce

Projects which use outreach with a recruitment objective to increase
the proportion of applicants coming from an under-represented group.
For example, the armed forces sponsor local sports events to engage
with young ethnic minority groups and give them positive experiences
of the armed forces and armed forces personnel.
Influencing people at risk (of drugs, crime etc)
Projects which use outreach to influence disadvantaged and potentially
vulnerable people who are at risk of harm or becoming involved in
crime sometimes seen as the classic model of the outreach worker.
For example, several Positive Futures schemes use sport and face-toface contact with young people in deprived areas to engage them in
constructive activities.
Increasing contact between communities
Projects which use face-to-face contact and activities to bring together
people from different communities, to help improve mutual
understanding and respect. For example, amongst other schemes,
Charlton Athletic Football Club run training sessions on match days
which deliberately mix local White and Somali young people to give
them the experience of playing together.
Case Study: Kirklees Community Cohesion Strategy
Kirklees Council has a specific strategy in place to address community
cohesion issues - including a dedicated outreach programme supporting
communities and local services. This includes 'cohesion proofing' service
delivery through providing training and awareness-raising to those designing
and delivering services and organising a number of cross-community
events and activities programmes. These help to combat myths and
suspicion through encouraging communities to share common experiences,
such as through food or festival celebrations.
"People are more willing to cross boundaries than you think," says Rachel
Wild of Kirklees Council, "they just need a route to do it without being
embarrassed about making mistakes about other cultures." Events have
included a 'Women Together' programme of discussions and workshops to
bring women from different communities together and provide a place for
them to talk about issues they wouldn't normally discuss and share real life
stories.
Website: http://www.kirklees.gov.uk

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Strengths of outreach approaches

To generalise across the range of outreach approaches described in this
Guide, the key strengths of these techniques are:

Reach: often outreach is the only way to reach non-English speakers who
cant easily access material in other formats or other less accessible
groups (e.g. some disabled people, Gypsies and Travellers). It also
provides a means of overcoming multiple barriers such as lack of access
to channels or media combined with problems of substance misuse or
domestic violence.

Scope to build a network of advocates in the community, through

investment in strong relationships. The advocates can then be vocal,
credible supporters of the campaign, arranging introductions and offering
access to people and resources (e.g. venues for meetings).

Increased familiarity with and trust in the organisation amongst

members of the community, through individual human contact with
representatives putting a human face on large organisations and helping
to bust myths, making support more acceptable (e.g. help to find work).

Increased empathy both of the community with the organisation, and of

the organisation with the community. Contact and relationships help to
develop an appreciation of the issues and concerns of both sides.
Importantly, outreach usually has an element of feedback built in, to allow
the organisation to learn from the audience and how the outreach could be
made more effective.

Visible, tangible commitment to addressing specific needs of the

community. For example, tailored materials and visits to festivals or
community groups demonstrates commitment to the community and an
interest in them and their issues. Forming on-going relationships with
community organisations and developing community capacity through
training show that the organisation is giving something back in relation for
help and effort from the community.

Opportunity to discuss the message in more detail, providing members

of the target audience with information relevant to them as individuals and
answering their questions face to face. It can also help provide qualified
leads for example at recruitment events, where a quick conversation can

13

check aptitude and qualifications for a post, before entering the formal
process.

Strong impact, sometimes with the power to change minds through

explanation and discussion (for example, overcoming cultural barriers to
complex issues such as organ donation). The authenticity and credibility
of the information is often stronger than in other forms of marketing,
because outreach typically draws on real stories and personal testimony

Allows for highly targeted communication with little waste, ensuring

outreach teams spend their time with members of the target community
For example, in large cities where a wide range of languages are each
spoken by small numbers of people
Through conversation and questioning, teams can help to gauge
interest and suitability and improve efficiency e.g. for recruitment

Scope to take measured risks in the course of activity since it often flies
below the radar, saying what needs to be said but is difficult to say with an
official voice. Sometimes outreach is given freedom to take a more holistic
view of the client, and is under less pressure to show immediate hard
outcomes with more effective long-term outcomes for people with multiple
or complex barriers to be overcome.

Limitations of outreach approaches

Outreach:

Often relies on charismatic, multi-skilled individuals and long-term

personal relationships. If these people prove hard to recruit, or if they
move on, there can be gap which is difficult to plug. Since much depends
on relationships and goodwill, outreach can be damaged by external
events or insensitive treatment of someone in the community by another
part of the organisation.

Can take a long time to develop trust to the level needed in order to be
able to access the community. For example, some groups may be
suspicious of authority or require months of patient work before opening
their networks to an outsider.

Can be difficult to set up and maintain without specialist help,

particularly in how to implement large scale outreach campaigns. COI has

14

a roster of ethnic marketing agencies and lots of experience in coordinating effective outreach to address communications objectives see
the Links section for more details.

Tends to be relatively small scale, and can be relatively expensive when

measured by person reached. However, feedback suggests those
individual contacts are more powerful than reach by other media.

Can be hard to measure (see later section on Evaluation), as the impacts

are generally localised, long term and qualitative.

May need messages and propositions to be adjusted to suit outreach.

Though outreach interactions can be sophisticated, the message to be
conveyed through outreach often needs to be reduced to its essence to
give focus for street teams or outreach workers. See the section on
Audiences, Messages and Channels for further advice on effective
communications to ethnic minority audiences.

Though not necessarily an obstacle, outreach is not as amenable to tight

control as other forms of marketing. Outreach work is most effective when
left open to interpretation by teams on the ground. In some cases, this
means the message or brand may not be conveyed in a consistent way,
so it demands flexibility in how the campaign objectives are met.

Making the case for using Outreach

The challenge of making a business case for outreach
In preparing this Guide, we sought input from outreach practitioners and
commissioners on how we might make the business case for outreach, or
demonstrate its return on investment. We found virtually no examples of this
having been done formally, for some of the following reasons:

Outreach is considered to be self-evidently valuable: a common view

from outreach practitioners is that the value of outreach is obvious to those
on the ground, who see individuals attitudes or behaviour changed by the
interaction. A return on investment calculation, it is argued, is less valuable
than this type of evidence.
It is hard to measure: many outreach projects collect feedback or
conduct qualitative evaluation, but few collect the type of data needed to
calculate a return on investment, or compare the impact of outreach with

15

marketing through other channels often because they feel this is

unnecessary.
Outreach is sometimes introduced without a clear purpose or aims:
in a few cases, outreach approaches are adopted without a clear rationale,
perhaps for internal political purposes or because the activity is seen as
exploratory or too small scale to set objectives for. Trying to calculate a
return is virtually impossible in these cases.

Our conclusion is that a strong case for outreach can be made in addressing
some communications, policy or delivery objectives, in the context of the
strengths and limitations of the approaches described earlier. In preparing the
case and demonstrating the value of outreach, it is vital to:

Set clear objectives, which outreach can fairly be expected to deliver on,
and which can be evaluated. These should not represent evaluation cop
out (Source 10: Sutton, Perry et al, 2005) in the sense of claiming to
merely raise awareness, where the real purpose is behaviour change
Consider the role for outreach in an integrated campaign, including
why it is being used instead or as well as other channels, how it can
support and be supported by other media
Follow good practice in how the outreach is planned and delivered
Ensure the outreach and the wider organisation is informed by
feedback, to improve its effectiveness through refining the proposition or
targeting of it
Ensure that a valid approach to evaluation is in place (see section on
Evaluation) which incorporates a range of measures, ideally including both
response data and attitudinal research amongst participants and
practitioners

The evaluation of The Electoral Commission ethnic minority voter registration

campaign concludes by making a strong case for outreach, but in doing so,
demonstrates the challenge of attempting to measure the complex ways in
which it works:
Street team activity is more likely to be effective in challenging
attitudes than other creative materials because it can overcome the
difficulties they face through interaction. Street team members can
confront the public with the issue and refuse to take simple, deflective
answers. They can also represent a public face for the issue that is
identifiable, credible and, to some at least, surprising. Street teams can
also use unofficial arguments for registration which are often more
compelling, concerning the practical benefits (such as the effects of
16

registration on credit checks). On this evidence, it is clear that street

teams are essential in getting the message across, coming up with
counterarguments to the most common defences and presenting a
credible, normal face to the campaign. In the long term they are likely
to prove effective in reporting back on the obstacles and latest stock
answers they encounter to inform and develop further stages of the
campaign.
Source 9: Evaluation of Electoral Commission ethnic minority campaign 2006

A review by the Department for Work and Pensions comes to a similar

conclusion:
Evidence from the literature review and from project managers and
stakeholders, suggests that outreach is effective at attracting nontraditional customers into welfare-to-work services. Many projects
assert that they are achieving job outcomes for these harder-to-help
customers over and above their targets. Moreover, these customers
are making gains in soft outcomes all the time, for example, improving
their confidence and motivation.
Source 17: Maximising the role of outreach in client engagement, 2005

Similarly, a review of the Positive Futures scheme, which uses sport to

engage young people at risk of drugs or crime, found that outreach
approaches are an effective first step in the engagement process of the
hardest to reach young people:
Projects which successfully engage those young people do so in a
pragmatic fashion making use of informal relationships with loose
networks of partners and active relationship building in street and
community based settings. The establishment of referral procedures
can then follow from the establishment of these work patterns.
Source 11: Getting to know you, First interim national Positive Futures case
study report, 2005

Barriers to access and the enablers outreach can employ

Outreach is often seen as a way to overcome barriers to information, services
or participation by ethnic minority groups. These take various forms:

17

Barriers

Enablers

Access to
channels

Community
networks

Language
Issues of
concern

Culture, faith
& family

Culture, faith
& family

Exclusion
from a service

Contact with
any service

Multiple
problems

Barriers to access:

Access to channels: research suggests that some members of ethnic

minority groups do not consume mainstream media such as regular
commercial television, radio or press and hence are not reached by
advertising in these media.
Language: one reason for not accessing mainstream media can be
that the individual does not speak English, particularly in the case of
recent immigrants. In some cases (e.g. some older Pakistani and
Bangladeshi people, or Somali immigrants), they may not be readers of
their own language, so may not be able to access media in written
translation.
Culture, faith and family: though it is important not to stereotype,
some characteristics such as paid employment are less prevalent
in some communities, and this may present a barrier to reaching these
groups outside the home using conventional marketing or service
delivery channels.
Exclusion from a service: it may be hard to reach individuals with a
particular message if they are excluded from or do not use a service
(e.g. people who are economically inactive but not regularly visiting
Jobcentre Plus to claim Jobseekers Allowance).
Multiple problems: some individuals may experience combinations of
barriers which prevent them from accessing or participation, for
example problems with mental health, drugs and involvement with the
criminal justice system.

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Enablers:
In response to these, outreach can draw on a set of enablers:

Community networks: where individuals are members of active

formal (e.g. associations, faith groups) or informal (e.g. barber shops)
community groups, these provide valuable channels for outreach
workers to access concentrated clusters of people from the target
audience. They are often interlinked through umbrella groups, which
provide a useful route for making further contacts, or providing funding
to groups on a more equitable, stable and accountable basis.
Issues of concern: outreach can be particularly effective when it can
be positioned as clearly relating to an issue of concern, such as fire
prevention, community safety or health issues among others. This can
help outreach workers develop a compelling message and get access
to strong communications channels within the community. For
example, Northamptonshire Fire Service was able to broadcast
messages about fire safety to worshippers at a local mosque via the
azan (call to prayer) network of speakers in muslim households.
Culture, faith and family: though at times these can be barriers to
communications through conventional means, strong family and faith
networks in many ethnic minority groups also offer opportunities to
spread messages by word of mouth, or access communities at festival
times through places of worship.
Contact with any service: exclusion from a particular service may be
a barrier, but outreach is well placed to take a holistic view of an
individuals needs and join up different agencies. For example, The
Pension Service Local Service scheme involves home visits by
outreach workers who are equipped to deal with a range of personal
and financial issues, not just pension benefits.

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Case Study: Southwark Works!

The Local Strategic Partnership in Southwark developed Southwark Works! to
help bring employment advice and support to people not currently engaged
with mainstream services such as Jobcentre Plus.
The scheme employs specialist employment advisers in community outreach
settings such as hospitals, GP surgeries, social services or mental health
trusts to provide an easy point of referral for practitioners and clients. Advisers
help their clients to address a range of barriers to work - over a period of
months in some cases. Once ready to enter employment, they work with
counterpart employer liaison advisers in employment agencies to help
connect clients with suitable job opportunities. The team then provide ongoing
support, training and if necessary, mentoring, to help clients settle into, and
remain in work.
Given the particular needs of refugee communities, there are two specialist
Refugee advisers who take on referrals from local community groups. The
team also includes an adviser working with the Drug & Alcohol Action Team
(Drug Intervention Programme); three advisers based at the South London
and Maudsley NHS Trust; six advisers based in GP surgeries and 3 advisers
based with day services for adults with learning and physical disabilities.
Website: http://www.southwark.gov.uk

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5. Forms of Outreach Activity

Street Marketing & Stunts
What is it?
Street marketing involves a team of staff making generally quite brief face to
face contact with customers or citizens, for example at an event such as a
roadshow or by offering free product samples from a stall in a shopping mall.
One form of street marketing can be high profile stunts designed to raise
awareness and generate publicity through unusual or arresting displays,
costumes or activities in a public place.
Good for:
Can have a deeper impact than advertising or direct marketing, perhaps to
help launch a brand, generate media interest or raise awareness of a simple
message. It can also start to broaden the reach of a campaign cost effectively,
if people exposed to the stunt or marketing go on to tell their friends or family.
Not so good when:
The audience are hard to reach and/or identify in a mainstream public space,
or when the message to be conveyed is challenging or requires elaboration
for example, a campaign around the issue of forced marriage (which adopted
an approach using conference discussions instead).

Case Study: DEFRA, Personal Food Imports

DEFRA used street marketing techniques to
raise awareness of legislation around
personal imports of food among a broad
range of 1st and 2nd generation ethnic
minority communities, including non-English
speakers.
The campaign involved an interactive,
branded mobile exhibition unit staffed by a
multi-lingual promotional team, which toured 40 locations with high
concentrations of the target audiences. The staff - who were selected to
match the language and ethnic profile of each area talked to the target
audience about the legislation, used a searchable database to highlight
restrictions on certain food products and offered bilingual information leaflets
to help get the message across.

21

It was set up in various high street locations and a smaller exhibition unit was
used at a number of cultural and lifestyle events.
The outreach was part of a wider campaign involving press and radio
advertising in ethnic minority media as well as PR activity, it contributed to a
20 percentage point increase in awareness of legislation amongst the target
audiences and extensive PR coverage.
Website: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/illegali/

Peer Education, Street Teams or Referral Marketing

What is it?
This involves recruiting members of a target audience, briefing them to a
greater or lesser extent, and getting them to engage others in the community.
The technique is used extensively in music marketing amongst young people,
but social marketing can employ similar approaches to improve awareness,
change attitudes or behaviour of a group. The rationale is that peers have
greater credibility, understanding of the audience and access to them. Peer
education uses a similar approach but takes briefing further, so the
educators are trained and equipped with information to impart to their friends
or colleagues. The peer educators/communicators are often supported by a
professional and are closely monitored. By taking part in generally quite lively
and fun experiences, they learn new skills, build self-esteem, receive official
support or a reference to help them in future, and feel they are making a
difference to their communities or are setting a trend. Incentives for team
members are generally quite small if offered at all perhaps vouchers, special
events or credit-based schemes.
Good for:
Messages which need to be conveyed in a sensitive and credible way,
particularly to youth audiences for example, around drugs or sexual health.
Also effective at targeting activity where the audience are especially hard to
reach, as peers are likely to know how, where and when to make contact.
Not so good when:
Skilled professionals are needed to have direct contact with the target
audience, or complex messages need to be communicated precisely.
Introducing peer educators/communicators adds a link in the chain, and - to
an extent - weakens control over how the message is delivered.

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Case Study: Home Office, FRANK

Under the banner of the FRANK
campaign, the Home Office used street
marketing in 30 of the most deprived
areas of the country to increase the drug
information campaign's credibility with
vulnerable young people.
Through agency partners, The Forster
Company and Kikass, the campaign
recruited and trained teams of credible
young people from youth services in the local area to organise 'conversations'
in their neighbourhoods. Team members received 50 in vouchers and a
reference in recognition of their work. In many areas, these 'street teams'
used FRANK-branded sofas in unusual settings such as shopping centres or
on council estates as a way of grabbing the attention of passers-by and
engaging them with the campaign.
"The teams felt part of something bigger," says Amanda Duffy of the Forster
Company, "It was amazing to see it in action: the young people's confidence
grew through the street marketing training, so a 15 year old girl had no
problem going up to a group of 16 year old boys and talking to them about
FRANK".
Website: http://www.talktofrank.com

Sponsorship
What is it?
Sponsoring a community event or service is a conventional way of raising
awareness of a brand. But it can also work hand in hand with outreach, by
using sponsorship as a way to initiate a relationship supported by face-to-face
contact, for example by having a stall or marketing team at a sponsored
event, to help convey the message with greater impact, answer questions and
even capture responses (sign ups, application forms) on the spot.
Good for:
Generally larger, established community events seeking sponsors, and willing
to give sponsors access the event for example, melas, sports tournaments
or large festivals. Ideally, there should be a strong connection between the
event and the sponsors message for example, sport and an active career in

23

the Armed Forces. Effective for more straightforward messages, such as

around recruitment, training or safety which can be communicated quickly
within a short face-to-face interaction.
Not so good when:
Communities are more dispersed or dont tend to be concentrated at events
or in groups, or where events are so heavily commercialised that the message
risks getting overwhelmed by other brands. More complex messages which
depend on building long term relationships may not be suitable, though
sponsorship may help increase awareness.
Case Study: RAF recruitment
The Royal Air Force has been set targets for the proportion of recruits from
ethnic minorities that it is required to achieve. The RAF uses a range of
outreach techniques including street marketing (stalls at carnivals and melas)
tours of its bases, and sponsorship of a number of different sports. For over
five years, it has been a leading sponsor of the English Basketball
Association. This has increased its brand awareness and improved
perceptions of life within the RAF through demonstrating support for local and
national basketball teams and providing opportunities for RAF staff to meet
potential recruits at tournaments. Research indicates that basketball players
recognise the connection between the sporting values of teamwork and
fitness and an RAF career, and that the sponsorship has increased interest
and enquiries about RAF careers.
Website: http://www.rafcareers.com

Active Service Delivery

What is it?
Perhaps the classic model of outreach, we have used the term active service
delivery as a way of describing outreach work which makes use of specialist
professionals making proactive visits to individuals (and sometimes groups) in
order to help them to access services, overcoming barriers of language,
mobility or culture. It can involve home visits and ongoing support, or form
part of community networking where the outreach worker talks to groups of
people. Holistic approaches are becoming more popular, in which the
outreach visitor is able to address a number of issues, making referrals to a
variety of other agencies if necessary to ensure an individuals needs are
considered in the round.

24

Good for:
Services to which there are practical barriers such as the need to visit an
office, understand written information or make a formal application. Given the
cost per person, it probably works best when the services are essential or as
a way of joining up to overcome the same barriers to accessing several
services in one visit. Potentially an effective way of achieving targets for takeup of entitlements amongst under-represented groups.
It can also help overcome psychological or social barriers to accessing help,
for example in relation to domestic violence:
Evaluation of outreach projects found:

support is most often needed outside of standard office hours;

immediate support (usually within 24 hours) was cited by service users

as important in increasing safety and accelerating change;

outreach and advocacy combined with proactive responses can reduce

repeat victimisation through more effective use of the legal system; and

all outreach and advocacy interventions should be accompanied with

safety planning.

Source 22: Tackling Domestic Violence: effective interventions and approaches,

2005 citing Kelly, L. and Humphreys, C. (2000) Reducing domestic violence ...
What works? Outreach and advocacy approaches

Not so good when:

Large numbers of people are involved this approach can be expensive to
offer. Requires well-tuned service delivery channels which can be joined up
and cases referred between agencies.

Case Study: The Pension Service, Local Service

The Pension Service runs a Local Service scheme which offers face to face
information and advice for people across a range of benefits managed by the
Department for Work and Pensions. The scheme includes home visits,
appointment based surgeries, and talks in accessible locations aimed at
raising pensioners awareness of their entitlements and increasing take-up of
benefits. Local Service teams take a holistic view of the individuals situation,
and are trained and equipped to help resolve a number of benefit-related
issues, helping to co-ordinate the work of other agencies if required.

25

Recent DWP research, looking at service delivery needs and experiences of

disabled older people found:
Local Service staff scored especially well on personal service. They
work face-to-face and spend longer with people, sometimes in their
homes. They were often able to establish relationships that made an
important impression on customers, who often referred to them
familiarly by their first names. Sometimes they had given direct line
telephone numbers for follow-up contacts which fosters a valuable
sense of continuity that a call centre cannot easily match.
Source 23: Understanding the service needs of vulnerable pensioners:
Disability, ill-health and access to The Pension Service', 2005, DWP
Research Report 263
Website: http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk

Community Networking & Events

What is it?
One of the most common approaches, community networking involves
making contact and building relationships with groups and individuals within
the target audience with the aim of using their credibility and access to
audiences in order to convey a message. This can involve building up rapport
with leaders of welfare associations or faith groups, or other trusted
individuals with knowledge of and influence within the community (e.g.
shopkeepers, journalists, teachers and health professionals). These
relationships demand flexibility and can take time to develop, as trust and
credibility needs to be established in each case: hence an introduction or
endorsement by a member of the group can be very useful. In some cases,
individuals can be recruited as high profile advocates who can share their
passion for the issue and communicate credibly with their community.
Events offer a golden opportunity to reach a large number of the target group
in one place, to give a presentation about the issue, field questions and
distribute materials.
Good for:
Communities with established formal and informal group structures, willing to
engage with public services for the benefit of their members. Can be applied
in virtually all situations, as a means of targeting effort efficiently and securing
buy-in from community leaders and representatives.
Not so good when:
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The rare occasions when communities do not have established community

groups (e.g. some newly arrived refugee communities), or when there is
limited scope to be flexible in how the campaign is delivered.
Case Study: Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service ethnic minority
outreach
Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service has chosen to address the specific
fire safety awareness needs of its ethnic minority communities through
creating a dedicated outreach worker post, currently Ravi Sharma.
There is evidence that ethnic minority households are less likely to have
smoke alarms or fire prevention equipment, and some festivals or customs
which involve naked flames or hot oil put these communities at particularly
high risk. Firefighters within the service are overwhelmingly white and male,
so there was a role for someone with the language skills and cultural
awareness to build bridges with a range of local ethnic minority groups.
Ravis work involves identifying and
arranging visits to local community
groups, giving presentations in
one of seven languages or dialects
at community meetings, and
making home visits to fit smoke
alarms. Word of mouth is a key
tool, particularly among close-knit
communities, where one
individuals experience can lead to
referrals and interest from friends and family.
As a result, 14% of home fire safety checks are now in ethnic minority
households many of them non-English speaking compared with a county
ethnic minority population of under 5%.
Website: http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/Safety/Fire/fire_home.htm

Community Development
What is it?
Community Development approaches emphasise the importance of involving
and empowering members of the target audience in taking action themselves,
in response to issues they have identified themselves. For example, this can
mean facilitating local neighbourhood groups to meet and agree priorities for
action, and helping them build capacity to address the problem for themselves

27

or access the agencies they need to effect change but not imposing
solutions or priorities from outside.
Good for:
Communities which are motivated to take action about a complex set of
issues but lack the support, skills or co-ordination to seize the initiative.
Commonly used in regeneration work where local communities need
ownership of the solutions adopted in order to buy into them, but have a
strong incentive to do so. Useful in situations where local or even individual
needs may be difficult for central or remote agencies to respond to
appropriately.
Not so good when:
There is a simple message to be conveyed or consistency with a central
campaign or brand is needed. Empowering communities takes time and
commitment to devolve power and responsibility, so is typically used more for
policy and delivery objectives than for communications campaigns.
Case Study: Department of Health, Community Development Workers
As part of its strategy for delivering greater equality in mental health services
Delivering Race Equality, the Department of Health launched a scheme to
create 500 Community Development Workers within Primary Care Trusts by
the end of 2006. These outreach workers are tasked with building bridges
between statutory agencies and voluntary sector service providers, within
which there is a great deal of good practice in supporting ethnic minority
mental health. Though only a few of the 500 are in post so far, the intention is
that they will act as change agents, facilitators and links and fulfil the roles of:

Change agent: identifying concerns and gaps in services, increasing

communication between community and statutory services

Service developer: Advising on training, developing joint working

Access facilitator: Directing people to community resources,

addressing language and other barriers to services

Capacity builder: Helping to establish community leadership and

develop organisations, and develop socially inclusive communities

It is expected that some CDWs will come from existing PCT teams, whereas
others may be drawn from voluntary organisations.

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Participation & Active Citizenship

What is it?
The participation organisation Involve, defines it as: everything that enables
people to influence decisions and get involved in the actions that affect their
lives. It involves a variety of techniques from simple consultation through to
citizens juries or community conferences designed to put responsibility for
certain types of decision-making directly into the hands of (informed or
interested) citizens. While this objective marks a difference from most
outreach schemes, the techniques themselves can share a common form,
based on authentic dialogue in community settings but regarding decisionmaking, rather than information provision or service delivery.
Good for:
Decision-making where community ownership is required over the decisionmaking process, not just the solution.
Not so good when:
The task involves simple communication or relates to practicalities of service
delivery. Participation often requires commitment on the part of the
commissioning organisation to be bound by the agendas and decisions of the
community, so may not be suitable where this is not a viable option.
Case Study: Brent Teaching Primary Care Trust
In the primary health sector, community engagement applies not just to how
services are accessed, but also in the decision-making process around how
they are planned, delivered and evaluated.
In Brent tPCT, Patient and Public Involvement programmes seek to involve
community representatives through on-going forums and groups which
discuss aspects of service delivery aimed at different communities. These
include 'hard to reach' communities such as drugs and alcoholic service
users, people with physical and learning disabilities, faith communities,
refugees and black and minority ethnic communities.
Among the approaches used, Brent tPCT supports a 'Facilitated Forum' of
around 50 statutory, voluntary and community organisations, as well as
individuals, which meets bi-monthly to discuss issues around race, health and
social care. The sessions are chaired by a community representative, and the
Forum itself sets the agenda and acts as an advisory body to statutory
agencies in the borough. Alongside other forums, they provide an opportunity
for different groups of service providers, users and carers to share knowledge,
better understand community priorities and improve accountability through ongoing, minuted dialogue in formal meetings.

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6. Audiences, Messages & Channels for Outreach

Identifying audiences for outreach
Outreach activity can be appropriate for many different types of audience,
such as people who are much less likely to use conventional media channels
or have access to mainstream public services. These might include:
Non English speakers
New arrivals (migrants, asylum seekers etc)
Socially excluded, e.g vulnerable young people, isolated lone parents,
Gypsies and Travellers
Older people
People with disabilities
Audiences for outreach can be segmented much as any other audience for
communication not everyone within a given community is likely to be equally
hard to reach. For example, street marketing or stunts may raise awareness
among younger, mobile members of the community, whereas home visits or
talks at community centres may be a more effective way of reaching the
elderly.
Targeting audiences should be based on knowledge of their socio-economic
profile, culture, behaviour and attitudes ethnic minority communities are
markedly different from each other, and like any community often have
internal divisions too. For example, in Leicester, different outreach and
support approaches are used to address three types of ethnic minority
community:
the newly-arrived (who may have limited English and few established
social networks)
those with high levels of dependency on support from statutory
agencies, but who have developed community welfare and support
networks
those who are well established and largely self-sufficient, but may still
experience prejudice.

Tailoring messages for outreach

It is important the message and any materials used in any outreach activity
are appropriate to the particular target audience. The message needs to be
simple and clear and should aim to illustrate the specific benefits to the
particular target audience. A clear call to action is important - outreach
activity can often take people quickly from being unaware of an issue to
wanting to sign up immediately. Whereas conventional social marketing

30

approaches may emphasise knowledge, and to some extent, attitudes,

outreach is well-placed to help people develop strategies for action i.e.
tailored, practical steps they can take.
Case Study: Charlton Athletic Football Club community schemes
Charlton Athletic runs a large
community scheme which positions
the club as a community hub. Much
of the activity is delivered in the form
of partnerships, such as with the local
council or community groups. Over
250 staff are employed full or part
time to deliver schemes to support
education, and anti-racism objectives linked to sport of which only 50%
directly involve a ball. Virtually all of the staff are recruited locally so have the
knowledge and credibility to relate well to young people in the area.
Over the course of some schemes which can run over a number of weeks
there are plenty of opportunities to build personal relationships and skills.
Messages can be introduced in a positive, subtle way: they dont even know
youre educating them, says Ben Tegg, Community Liaison Manager. Issues
of diet, exercise and teamwork emerge naturally from a desire to follow role
models and take part in the activities themselves.
For example, one scheme involves coaching days with young kids, drawn
equally from the local White and ethnic minority communities. They train
together in the morning, watch a match in the afternoon and end up making
friends and swapping phone numbers to set up their own matches.
Website: http://www.cafc.co.uk/main_community.ink
Using the message (and materials) from a mainstream campaign to target
ethnic minorities often does not work, so it is advisable to conduct small scale
qualitative research among the target audience prior to developing themes
and messages for the outreach activity, to check they are interpreted as
intended.
Example: Black organ donation
Q: Why should people from my community register on the organ donor
register?
A: Because within the Black Caribbean Community there are high levels of
diabetes and hypertension which can lead to renal failure whereby a kidney
transplant is the best treatment. In order to get the best tissue match,

31

kidney donations need to be from the same ethnic group

Similarly, any creative material, such as leaflets and posters etc, which is
designed to target people from ethnic minority communities, needs to be
sensitive to cultural and religious ways of life, particularly if it is targeted at
older people. There are certain guidelines, which have been developed by
COI Inclusivity Unit, which are outlined briefly below. There are certain key
issues which need to be considered prior to the development of such creative
work in order to avoid making mistakes. At best some mistakes may cause
the material to be overlooked or ignored by the target audience and at worst
some mistakes may cause offence.

Target Audience

For older audiences, particularly people from ethnic minority communities,

it is probably best to stick to explicit, clear messages which are
unambiguous and direct
Younger generation are more advertising/marketing literate and have
higher expectations than the older generations. Multi-culturalism within
creative executions is seen as the norm in advertising by young people,
particularly in youth based media.

Cultural Decorum/Images
It is important that any images which appear on leaflets targeted at people
from ethnic minority communities, e.g. photographs of people or use of other
design symbols, should be culturally appropriate. For example:

Images used on the cover or in the body of the text must be compatible
with the community language used
Publicity material aimed at Muslims, e.g. Pakistanis and Bangladeshis,
Somalis, should take into account the fact that Islam requires men and
women to be dressed modestly in all contexts
Use of religious symbolism should be avoided; e.g.
Quotes from the Koran
Images of Hindu gods

Involving the audience

Several outreach practitioners recommend involving members of the audience
or members of a street team in developing as well as delivering the message.
By definition, they are closer to the issues, audiences and language within
their community (though they may need briefing on the technical aspects if

32

necessary). Involving them in the message development process helps to

keep things rooted in their world view.

Something-for-something
Outreach practitioners talk of the importance of ensuring the message and
proposition includes something of value to offer to the audience a gift or a
useful service of some sort (e.g. home fire safety checks, free lanyards etc).
Where community groups help deliver the campaign, it is important not to
abuse this goodwill for example you might offer to pay for catering at an
event they are hosting on your behalf.

Key channels for outreach

In terms of outreach used as a communication tool, it is often best used in
tandem with a well targeted above or below the line campaign. Posters in
relevant outlets, locations etc and PR features in local media will help raise
awareness of the issue in advance of the outreach work.

Intermediaries
Intermediaries are often used by organisations to deliver outreach activity. It
is important to be able to select the most relevant and appropriate
intermediaries dependent on the target audience. In this respect it is essential
to distinguish between community workers and community leaders as both
fulfil different functions.

Community organisations v community leaders

National and local organisations often have self-appointed leaders with their
own specific agendas, and therefore care should be taken in relying
exclusively on their views.
Imams (priests) etc might represent the community on religious matters, but
may only give a partial picture in relation to the perspective of young people.
However, they are often very influential with elders and are able to
communicate messages that require a religious interpretation, e.g. organ or
blood donation.
Many outreach campaigns make much use of community centres or
organisations as part of the distribution and local marketing strategy. These
organisations are mainly voluntary organisations which provide advice,
information and advocacy. They are a vital source of support for non-English
speaker, and have high levels of trust and contact with the community.

33

Many are pleased to work with government in order to provide up-to-date

advice and information to their community. Often they will host special
sessions at the community centre with the workers acting as interpreters.
However, it is important to consider working in partnership with the
organisation from the start and not just to use them solely as a distribution
channel. They have a wealth of experience that public sector communicators
can tap into and can advise on the best way to communicate the initiative to
community. For example, The Pension Service Local Service works with
these organisations to reach elderly people in order to provide access to
Pension Credit and other benefits.
Community centres should be seen as a key target audience as well as a
distribution channel, though clearly there is a need to distinguish information
targeted at the workers from information aimed at the end user.

Developing integrated campaigns incorporating outreach

Because it is localised and small-scale, outreach often works best as part of
an integrated campaign, where other media such as advertising can create
initial awareness and interest. For example, the outreach work for FRANK
benefited from the brand awareness and materials created as part of the
mainstream campaign.
Local and regional media are very important to access ethnic minority
communities. In developing integrated campaigns aimed at ethnic minority
audiences, you might consider:

Working in partnership with local press and radio to generate editorial

interest as well as placing advertising

Developing targeted campaigns around cultural and religious

celebrations, hobbies and pastimes specific to ethnic sub-groups

Making creative use of local shops or services for distribution and

publicity. These could include hairdressing salons for black women,
record shops for black young men, betting shops for older Caribbean
men, and mosques for Bangladeshi and Pakistani men

That many ethnic minorities, particularly British-born members, have a

dual identity and will often consume mainstream media such as
magazines instead of or alongside ethnic titles.

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7. Delivering Outreach
Who can do outreach?
Fundamentally, outreach techniques depend on trust, credibility and personal
interaction.
Some practitioners believe that outreach activity works best when the
outreach worker is drawn from the target community, or at least shares their
faith or race. Other practitioners feel this is not necessarily important for some
issues, where other aspects of the work such as the individuals personality
or the suitability of the supporting materials and proposition are right. In fact,
in some situations, an outreach worker from outside the community can
benefit from a degree of independence and neutrality, which can help when
facilitating community cohesion or where communities are segregated by
tribal or language divisions.
Case Study: Electoral Commission Ethnic Minority Voter Registration
Campaign
The Electoral Commission ran a campaign in the West Midlands in 2006
designed to increase voter registration amongst young ethnic minority groups.
Alongside radio advertising and posters provided to local community
organisations, field marketing was used. Street teams and an 'ad wagon' (a
vehicle with blacked out windows and a large plasma screen) was used to
engage the audience, explain the need to register to vote, help people to
complete registration forms and return them to the local Council office. The
support of local councils was of vital importance to help identify key target
areas and ensure the registration forms could be processed effectively.
Evaluation of the campaign found that having Black outreach workers did help
to engage the audience because they were able to discuss the issues that
mattered to young people and thus explain why registration is important:
'Street teams also reported that the presence of a Black public
information team provoked considerable public interest not only
because it was unusual and intriguing but also because young ethnic
minority audiences were likely to communicate with them.
Source 9: Evaluation of Electoral Commission ethnic minority voter
registration campaign, 2006

The street team achieved almost 900 registrations in a three week period
and the Commission is currently considering rolling out the activity.

35

On balance, the most important considerations seem to be:

Whether the people involved in delivering outreach have cultural
awareness and sensitivity, based either on willingness to research
cultures and customs, listen and learn or from their own experience
Having language skills or access to help in communicating with nonEnglish speakers
The objective or message concerned: straightforward factual
messages for example around health can be credibly delivered by
experts regardless of their background. But more complex messages
around discrimination or cultural pressure carry more weight when
delivered by a peer or someone who shares a similar background to
the target community.
But perhaps most important are the personality and confidence of
the outreach team, in terms of having integrity and honesty in how they
deal with the community, persistence in forming and developing
networks and contacts, and skills to make proactive contact with
individuals and groups.

Models for delivering outreach

The examples presented in this Guide showcase some of the different ways
of implementing outreach approaches in practice. These include:

Training existing in-house teams

Recruiting specialist outreach teams
Commissioning specialist agencies
Community development/empowerment

Training existing in-house teams

This approach, perhaps most relevant where the organisation already has
staff engaged in face-to-face customer contact, involves developing these
teams in some of the specialist aspects of conducting outreach work, but
building on their existing skills and contacts.
Case Study: Army recruitment
The Army has a regional network of recruiting offices involving over 1,000
soldiers in recruitment. To help meet targets for the proportion of ethnic
minority applicants to the Armed Forces, these existing teams have invested
heavily in a wide variety of outreach approaches from small scale street
corner recruitment sessions through to major events involving thousands of

36

young people organised through schools. The Army engaged an ethnic

minority marketing agency to advise on forming relationships at local level
between Army recruiting teams and local community groups.
Individuals have made their own efforts to better understand the communities
they want to recruit from: one Recruiting Officer in the Midlands worked with a
local inter-faith network to set up a weekend stay with a local Asian family to
learn more about their culture. Using willing volunteers from the existing
network to undertake outreach can both increase their understanding of the
communities being targeted, and enable people from the community to have
direct contact with and testimony from people within the organisation, without
going through intermediaries.
As a result of its all its activities aimed at these audiences including
advertising and outreach the Army has achieved 3.6% of enlistments from
ethnic minorities.
Website: http://www.armyjobs.mod.uk/Army+Jobs.htm

Case Study: Department for Work and Pensions

Research for the Department and Work and Pensions summarised the
approaches taken to outreach in relation to work and benefits:
The type of services provided on an outreach basis include: regular
one-to-one meetings with key workers or personal advisers; advice on
in-work benefits and tax credits; overcoming barriers to work; referrals
to other agencies; help with jobsearch and CV preparation; helping with
the costs of childcare and transport; and ongoing, in-work support.
Outreach provision is able to offer a full advisory service to customers
in similar ways to Jobcentre Plus, the main differences being:
- services are provided closer to home;
- they are usually voluntary and customers are not mandated to
participate and encounter no sanctions if they opt not to do so;
- outreach providers may be different to mainstream (Jobcentre Plus)
providers. Outreach may be delivered in different ways. They may be
delivered in a specific, separate site (the satellite model), for example,
a high street shop or they may use another organisations premises
(the peripatetic model), such as a room in a community centre.
Outreach staff may go out into the community and engage with
customers outside any organisational settings (the detached outreach
model), for example, in shopping centres or mosques, or they may visit
people in their own homes (the domicillary model).
Source 17: Maximising the role of outreach in client engagement, 2006

37

Recruiting specialist outreach teams

To develop community networks quickly where these are not currently in
place, some organisations recruit specialist outreach workers or teams from
the communities concerned, or who have knowledge of them. These are often
based in the community, in outreach offices or community centres. Unless
they are already service providers or subject specialists, they will need
support and training, and frequent communication to prevent them becoming
isolated or detached from the organisation.
Case Study: Southampton Community Outreach Team
To address racially-motivated prejudice and a number of violent incidents,
Southampton City Council formed a Community Outreach Team. The team
was designed to act as an interface between new and established
communities, police and the local authority. Team members were recruited on
the basis of their knowledge of and links with the citys communities, and had
specific language skills and cultural understanding which helped them form a
wide range of contacts. Over the two year period the team was in place, its
membership changed, reflecting staff turnover and the changing shape of
Southamptons ethnic communities for example, a worker with links to the
Iraqi Kurd community joined the team as increasing numbers of Kurds started
to arrive in the city. Though initially the work of the team was concentrated on
reducing tension and forming contacts, over time it became more
sophisticated in creating positive opportunities for community cohesion.
Ultimately, the team helped the council develop an early warning system and
become forewarned and equipped to deal with potential conflicts, as well as
providing council staff with a greater appreciation of community needs and
perceptions, and diffusing community tensions.
Website: http://www.southampton.gov.uk/community/inclusionperformance-and-strategy/overview.asp

Commissioning specialist agencies

Large scale outreach campaigns commissioned through COI draw on a roster
of specialist ethnic marketing agencies, many of which put together integrated
campaigns with outreach used alongside other media such as community
radio or posters. The techniques used can vary, but these agencies often:

identify influential organisations or individuals in the community,

sometimes through their own networks of community consultants with
strong roots in the area
38

build relationships with these community figures, and sometimes

arrange an introduction for the client organisation
develop most appropriate marketing approach at local level
maintain the relationship and try to expand it into further networks
and opportunities such as through PR opportunities

Case Study: Dept for Communities & Local Government, Fire Safety
Fire and Rescue Services around the
country do a lot of active outreach work in
their communities to increase awareness of
fire safety issues. In particular, there are
specific fire safety issues affecting some
ethnic minorities which use fire as part of
celebrations such as Diwali, Eid, Chinese
New Year and Chinese Lantern Festival.
Through COI, the department engaged a
specialist ethnic marketing agency, Media
Moguls, to deliver training to Fire Safety
Officers to help them approach and inform
local ethnic minority communities about
these specific fire safety issues.
The training involved regional briefings incorporating a tailored analysis of the
profile of, and likely issues affecting, local ethnic minority populations, as well
as guidance on how to engage groups effectively and support materials to
help with this. A number of local teams took up the offer of further specialist
training to give them the knowledge, skills and tools to take their outreach
work further into these communities. The Commission for Racial Equality
highlighted the campaign as an example of good practice regarding
engagement with ethnic minority communities in its evidence to the (then)
ODPM Select Committee on Fire.
Website: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1123799

39

Community development/empowerment
With a community development objective, outreach is not so much delivered
as facilitated were not just organisers of other peoples agendas says one
community development specialist. The commissioning or supporting
organisation will try to identify community figures, but rather than designing
the marketing approach directly, will work with the group to build their capacity
(such as through training workshops) and provide on-going support as the
group take the activity forward. This might involve giving a grant, providing
specialist help on evaluation or contacts in relevant statutory agencies.
Case Study: University of Central Lancashire, Centre for Ethnicity &
Health
The Centre for Ethnicity and Health has taken a community engagement
approach to delivering a recent research project into the health needs and
priorities of ethnic minorities. Rather than conduct the research directly, they
form a relationship with an establish host organisation in the community, help
them to recruit a team of researchers from the community and provide six
days of training workshops in research and analysis techniques. They then
offer advice and quality assurance in a mentoring role, but leave decisions
over the research method to the community research team, overseen by a
local steering group of community and agency representatives. This approach
enables research to be conducted on a much larger scale and according to
community priorities, with the central team focusing on quality assurance and
management, rather than direct implementation.

What are the practicalities to consider when planning outreach?

Cascading to local organisations
Effective outreach planning requires a deep understanding of local needs.
Many centrally-funded outreach projects are delivered via a cascade from
central statutory agencies, through regional agencies or national
representative organisations (e.g. Hindu Forum, Muslim Council of Britain), to
umbrella bodies at local level. These are then well placed to co-ordinate,
identify and support local community groups and faith organisations with the
networks and facilities (e.g. venues, events) to support outreach. Broadly
speaking, they are also more likely than individual groups on the ground to
have the capacity to manage a relationship with central government, prepare
funding bids and undertake robust evaluation.

40

Supporting individual outreach workers

Many of the outreach techniques described here depend heavily on the skills
and continuity of a individual outreach worker though as with any employee,
outreach staff move on. In addition, working as an outreach worker in the
community can also carry the risk of isolation if the individual has limited
contact with their manager or team.
Making outreach more resilient might involve establishing formal relationships
between agencies to supplement personal contacts, or creating an outreach
team who can provide mutual support. For example, in Northamptonshire, the
Fire & Rescue Service outreach programme has expanded from a single
worker to include additional sessional workers trained to conduct fire safety
checks in Gujurati-speaking and Muslim households.

Forming partnerships
Many of the examples of outreach we found were formed of partnerships,
typically between statutory agencies (sometimes at both central, and regional
or local level) and the voluntary sector, with funding and governance
arrangements in place to formalise the relationship. As well as achieving
business goals more efficiently, these partnerships can also help improve
stakeholder relationships, demonstrating that central and local government
respects and trusts the voluntary sector, and that there is something useful to
offer community groups. The Department for Work and Pensions found:
many reported that outreach offered a way to work in much greater
partnership with local services and agencies, and to raise the profile of
their services and organisations more generally. In the case of
Jobcentre Plus, one project manager stated that they were able to put
something on the table in relation to local regeneration which improved
relationships with other local stakeholders significantly.
Source 17: Maximising the role of outreach in client engagement, 2006

Data capture
Though it is easy to overlook, capturing accurate and consistent data from
marketing activity including outreach is important if you want to evaluate
its impact. For example, this may involve ensuring that contact centres record
source of awareness or the ethnicity of the caller, so you can monitor how
many participants in outreach or members of the target audience follow up an
outreach contact.
41

Case Study: Army recruitment

To help assess the effectiveness of
the many different recruiting activities
conducted nationwide, the Army has
introduced a single, standardised data
capture coupon to be used at all its
recruiting activities.
This coupon is completed by the
enquirer who has expressed an
interest in an Army career, it is then scanned electronically into a database
and the enquirer receives a recruiting brochure and DVD. Maintenance of the
database helps to ensure a consistent set of details are captured for each
enquirer, and also identifies the source of the enquiry, enabling more
sophisticated future analysis of which recruiting channels and activities have
been particularly effective.

Central and local co-ordination

Relative to other forms of marketing, management of outreach is often highly
devolved. The examples of effective outreach presented in this guide suggest
that allowing flexibility for local or regional offices is valuable, so they can
tailor their activity to local needs, communities and opportunities. But when
central teams are involved in commissioning outreach activity themselves, the
result can be awkward such as booking two separate stalls at a community
event.
This underlines the need for central and local teams to work closely together
and communicate clearly about what kind of outreach activity is planned. As
well as avoiding the risk of duplication, this can help to ensure messages and
targeting are consistent. It also helps the organisation as a whole be ready to
deal with potential enquiries or issues arising from outreach to avoid the risk
of a positive experience of outreach contact being followed up by an
insensitive experience of dealing with the rest of the organisation.
Consulting internally about outreach dubbed in-reach by one outreach
worker we spoke to can be a valuable way to collect knowledge from around
the organisation. This may comprise personal contacts, introductions,
information about the scheme or message to be communicated and may
just help to clarify the objectives for the outreach that the organisation has.
42

Developing colleagues
Outreach can provide a lot of value in developing colleagues within the
organisation, to increase their awareness of and empathy with the
communities they serve, and the potential impact on them of services or
campaigns.
Cultural visits and exchanges where individuals or teams tour a community
facility or place of worship are one technique for connecting the community
with others in the organisation. Some organisations run internal training in
cultural awareness or community cohesion. Making colleagues part of the
feedback loop is important, so that issues which emerge from outreach
workers on the ground are communicated to those responsible for the policy,
service or campaign.
Case Study: Leicester City Football Club
As part of its extensive community work, Leicester City FC organises cultural
visits for its executives and customer-facing staff to local places of worship
such as mandirs (Hindu), gurdwaras (Sikh), and mosques (Muslim) for a tour
and explanation of the faith, through question and answer sessions. There are
reciprocal behind the scenes tours for faith leaders at the Leicester City
stadium.

Funding streams
Several of the practitioners we spoke to mentioned that funding for outreach is
sometimes a hurdle in itself. Consistency can be an issue, with short term
funding running out before outreach has a change to take root, leading to
relationships being cut short.
Postcode funding was also mentioned, where funders try to target activity
with pinpoint accuracy to areas of statistically high deprivation. Most funders
are only interested in what ethnicity and postcode they are from says one
outreach worker, frustrated at this bureaucratic hurdle to delivering outreach
to groups they know fit the real profile of the target audience.
Case Study: Calderdale Early Years Childcare and Development
Partnership
The Early Years Childcare and Development Partnership is tasked with
increasing and improving the representativeness of childcarers in the area.
43

For some ethnic minority residents, one barrier is the need for prospective
recruits to achieve a vocational qualification in childcare, which typically
involves attending a course at a local college, which can seem unfamiliar and
intimidating. For them even to cross the threshold of an educational
establishment was a barrier says Lynda Ball of the EYCDP.
Following on from a national campaign led by DfES, Calderdale created a
series of short stepping stone courses to help bridge the gap between initial
orientation sessions and the vocational course. The EYCDP formed a
relationship with a local association for Asian women, which opened up its
centre to run the sessions, and helped to promote them. The courses
themselves are delivered by established childcare tutors and provide more
information and build participants confidence, in a familiar setting. They also
offer extra support in the form of interpreters and careers advisers on-hand,
and a crche for participants use. This style of inter-agency working at local
level has been picked up by other organisations, and is being formalised to
help ensure the scheme is able to withstand changes in funding or personnel.
Website: http://mailhost.calderdale.gov.uk/learning/early-years/

Use of brands
To what extent outreach activity draws on established brands depends on the
relationship the audience have with the brand, and its role in providing
awareness for outreach without carrying negative perceptions. For example,
the FRANK campaign branded its outreach clearly as linked to a well-known
but arms-length government brand. By contrast, the Department for Work and
Pensions found:
Many respondents thought it was absolutely crucial not to use
Jobcentre Plus livery, staff badges, etc. in order to build trust with nontraditional customer groups who were often suspicious of government
organisations. This is not to say that customers were deliberately
misled about the fact that Jobcentre Plus was funding or delivering the
provision, but rather that this type of information was played down, and
not deemed to be of any import, especially early on in the intervention.
Essentially, customers have to be won over in the first instance and
distancing outreach provision from statutory services was often seen
as facilitating this.
Source 12: Maximising the role of outreach in client engagement, 2006

44

Summary: an outreach workers tools of the trade

The outreach workers we spoke to described a number of techniques and
skills they practice as part of their networking role:
mapping of communities and issues in the area, so they have an
overview of the communities they serve, the groups within these, and
the needs and issues that affect them

language skills or access to support for translation/interpreting

cultural and faith understanding through their own personal

research

listening skills

black book of contacts, with individuals and groups

flexibility and adaptability (of style, dress etc)

something to offer, to demonstrate respect for time and effort made

professional outlook and objective, to provide a clear rationale for

involvement and dispel suspicion about motives

contact with umbrella groups a more stable point of contact than

individuals or small community associations as a channel for funding,
service delivery etc

senior level trust, support and patience, able to create breathing

space for outreach to develop over a period of months or years

personality:
o courage/confidence (including talking to large groups)
o persistence & patience (one outreach worker told us: In the
best of all worlds, youre a broker; in the worst of all words,
everybody hates you)

45

8. Measuring and evaluating the impact of outreach

Amongst those using outreach, evaluation is seen as a challenge. It is
perceived to be important in order to justify investment and effort expended
but not always particularly meaningful. In many cases, evaluation is an
afterthought, comprising a quick feedback form or a report of the number or
ethnic profile of participants in outreach activities. But it can be really valuable
as a way of checking that the activity is going to plan, and ensuring that the
views and needs of the community are properly reflected.
Fundamentally, evaluation should be about measuring performance
objectively in order to make improvements:

measuring: involves a process for collecting, recording and sharing

data, perhaps from a number of sources, or of different types
performance: how successful the activity has been, which means how
well it met its objectives, budget and timeframe including unintended
outcomes or side-effects
objectively: trying to overcome natural personal and psychological
inclinations to look on the bright side, remember peaks or anecdotes,
and try to consider every aspect of the activity fairly and in proportion
in order to make improvements: not just evaluating for its own sake,
but with the aim of making it better in future, through refining
techniques or developing individuals

According to this understanding of evaluation, it makes sense to evaluate any

and every outreach project however small. Evaluation which is merely about
justification or collecting meaningless data may indeed be pointless, but
properly measuring its success and using that to identify learnings for the
future definitely isnt.
This section aims to provide you with some techniques and principles to
consider when evaluating outreach, to make it useful and meaningful.

The challenge of measuring and evaluating outreach

Evaluating outreach successfully means overcoming the following barriers:

The fact that outreach is generally small-scale, involving relatively small

numbers of people, so drawing a sample for conventional research may be
difficult

46

Outreach is sometimes about earning the right to talk to the community,

who can be hard to reach. It can be hard therefore to measure a baseline
or benchmark, until outreach has helped to develop those relationships. It
may be difficult to recontact people touched by outreach to see the long
term impact it has had on them.
Outreach projects may have poorly-defined or changing aims (reach,
awareness, response, behaviour change, corporate reputation?), which
make it hard to identify what kind of change in performance constitutes
success
The full impact of outreach may take a long or unpredictable timescale
before it becomes apparent, as contact can be the start of a process of
changing hearts and minds which eventually leads to an action. Despite
this, outreach is often under pressure to show quick results, which
leads to measures of less meaningful factors like the number of activities
undertaken or the immediate outputs
The impacts of outreach are notoriously difficult to measure for
example, community cohesion, capacity building or race equality are high
level concepts to which any individual outreach activity can only contribute
a small part
The relative influence of outreach is difficult to capture and awareness
may be misattributed by people to other, more visual media such as a TV
commercial where this is also on-air as part of an integrated campaign.
Measuring prompted recognition of an advert is much more straightforward
although even in this case, attributing cause and effect is hard.

The national evaluation of the Positive Futures scheme found similar

problems, and frustration that the difficulty of fairly evaluating outreach is
overlooked:
For some organisations, or, more specifically, for some front line
workers, success may be much more qualitatively focused, even at
odds with the simplistic and difficult to quantify reduction/increase
measures of success which are sometimes used by statutory service
providers. A senior Youth Service worker bemoaned the fact that some
of the softer work - precisely because it is harder to monitor/represent
- is under valued by funders and partners, adding that youth work
exists in an atmosphere of performance indicators, which actually
obstruct and reduce the value of more intensive, outreach style work.
Source 12: In the boot room, second interim national positive futures case
study, 2006

47

Principles for evaluating outreach

Outreach practitioners have employed a number of approaches to
meaningfully evaluating their work which overcome these challenges:

Ensure the objectives are clearly defined, along with the desired
outcomes and any assumptions. Make the ultimate aim explicit and
specific but also challenging (i.e. probably not just about raising
awareness) but manageable (i.e. playing a specific part in delivering better
community cohesion). It is hard to establish what to measure unless these
objectives and assumptions have been set out.
Use multiple, meaningful sources: including a representative range of
participants wherever possible, but not forgetting the feedback from people
involved in delivering the outreach, such as outreach workers, street
teams, front line staff who handle enquiries etc. Count everything, says
one agency involved in community development: You need to evaluate in
10 different ways.
Adopt multiple, meaningful measures: the measures selected should
address the activity as a whole, including the amount of activity (numbers
attended etc) but also perceptions of the outputs, and data about response
or long term change. In the case of outreach, simply collecting the number
of contacts tells you nothing about the quality of those contacts, or the
barriers which individuals have to overcome in order for the desired
outcome to be achieved.
So, keep in mind that data doesnt have to mean numbers: qualitative
data, or loosely-structured feedback from people about their experiences
and perceptions provides depth and detail, and is no less valuable than
percentages from surveys or operational statistics. In fact, where the
numbers of people involved are very small, statistical data may be
inconclusive (and will usually need expert help to interpret) so qualitative
data from people involved is essential to properly measuring performance.
You really see the difference from little interactions, says one grass roots
outreach worker Showing that youre interested in them makes them
happier. Charlton Athletic estimate that around 20% of community
schemes do not work effectively at launch, and are quickly revised or
cancelled as a result of informal feedback from frontline staff.

What to measure
The ideal set of measures for evaluating outreach would be able to provide
answers across the lifecycle of the project:

48

Inputs:
Activities:
Outputs:

How much resource was invested in the project?

What happened in the course of the project?
What did the activities produce, and how much/many?
Who took part?
Outcomes: What happened as a result? What direct response was
there?
Impact:
What changed in the community following the activity?
How much is attributable to the outreach?

Sometimes, it may not be possible to gather data on each of these, but aiming
for lots of different meaningful measures, from lots of different sources should
help to build a rounded picture of performance, identify at what point things
have gone unexpectedly well or poorly, and help you suggest opportunities for
improvement to the activity. This will often involve evaluating and getting
feedback from the outreach practitioner or stakeholder, as well as the target
audience:

Participants

Outreach
practitioners &
stakeholders

Involvement

Who?

Age, gender, ethnic profile etc

Awareness

What did they

find out?

Awareness of outreach activity,

awareness of issues/opportunities/support

Attitudes

What did they

think & feel?

Change in perceptions, skills

and confidence

Response &
Behaviour
change

What did they

do?

Direct response to outreach activity,

medium and long term changes to
behaviour

For example, the projects described in this guide measured:

Involvement

Awareness

Number of people at each outreach event, and their

ethnic and socio-demographic profile

Ethnic profile of staff/supporters

Whether peoples knowledge of sources of help

increased

49

Attitudes

Response &
behaviour change

Whether participants became more confident

Whether street team members detected a change in

attitudes amongst the people they spoke to

Whether capacity increased, as measured by

subsequent employment using the skills developed

Change in emotional intelligence of the members

of the street teams

Progress against centrally-defined targets for

recruitment

Numbers of inspections in ethnic minority

households

Introduction of new formal structures to co-ordinate

multi-agency partnerships

Registrations on the donor register

Calls to the ethnic minority language advice helpline

Changes in local Performance Indicator targets for

community cohesion

Long-term progress towards employment in terms

of overcoming barriers to work

Approaches to evaluation
Pre and Post tracking or benchmarking (quantitative)
What does it involve?
Conducting two similar surveys amongst a sample of the target audience, one
before any activity starts, and one after the activity has completed or is well
underway. The surveys measure awareness of the activity, attitudes to the
issues and reported behaviour or responses. By comparing responses
amongst the same type of people to the same questions at different points in
time, you can measure the change that has occurred in awareness, attitudes
and behaviour.
What are the advantages?
If a sufficiently large, representative sample is used, pre-post surveys can
provide robust measurement of change, and help distinguish between
different levels of awareness or action.

50

What are the drawbacks?

Pre-post surveys are often expensive to administer, and sometimes require
the help of research specialists. Hard to reach groups are also generally hard
to sample for research purposes, and specialist or bilingual interviewers may
be needed. These surveys can fail to take account of the causes of the
change, and you may not be able to isolate the effect of the outreach activity
unless the issue is very specific and the outreach activity recognisably
distinct.

Test and Control, Pilot or Experimental Design

What does it involve?
The most rigorous kind of experiment aims to keep other variables constant
while changing just one element of the environment, so the link between
cause and effect, stimulus and response is made clearer. Applied to outreach,
this might mean introducing outreach techniques in a small area or specific
community, and monitoring the impact it has in comparison with the same
measures monitored in a similar community or area not exposed to outreach.
The pilot approach is slightly less rigorous, looking instead at the impact that a
variation in technique can have by comparison with the mainstream approach.
For example, this might involve applying a community development approach
to a regeneration project, rather than conventional consultation and planning
approaches, and comparing the impact on community satisfaction.
What are the advantages?
Can be very robust and produce firm evidence of impact, as long as other
variables are tightly controlled. Piloting offers the opportunity to test new
approaches on a small scale. Potentially, this kind of approach allows projects
to move at different speeds, allowing some to demonstrate early results
without putting undue pressure on the mainstream.
What are the drawbacks?
Outreach in real-world environments is difficult to control so precisely, and it
may be hard to justify limiting outreach to a particular area or community
purely for the sake of rigorous evaluation. Potentially heavy commitment in
terms of measurement or research.

51

Outcomes model
What does it involve?
An outcomes model (sometimes known as a logic model, developed by the
WK Kellogg Foundation) involves establishing at the outset how the activity is
designed to achieve its objectives, and collecting data on performance at
different stages of the process, to see how well these have worked
individually and in conjunction.

Source 15: WK Kellogg Foundation: Logic Model Development Guide, 2004

Applied to outreach activity, the elements of the logic model might be:
What resources
were used in the
outreach
activity?

What form did the

outreach take?
How much was
there?

What did the

outreach deliver?

What were the

benefits achieved
by the outreach?

What long term

changes were
there as a result?

Outcomes

Impact

Inputs

Activities

Outputs

10 full-time staff,
150k budget

A community
meeting with 300
attendees,
5,000 leaflets
distributed,
a database of 500
organisations was
compiled

200 people signed

up,
the website had
5,000 visits,
feedback from the
event was
overwhelmingly
positive

52

The proportion of
ethnic minority
recruits rose by 5%,
There were no
racist attacks for 6
months,
Colleagues started
to ask how they can
improve service
delivery to groups

Community
cohesion
improved,
Perceptions of
discrimination fell

At one level, this is little more than common sense but by applying a
framework to the evaluation and looking at whether each step has had the
intended outcome, it is easier to spot unexpected problems objectively and
avoid using trivial or unfair measures.
What are the advantages?
By using a range of different measures, these can be made more appropriate
to the basic purpose of the activity, and provide better diagnostic feedback.
This can help to make evaluation of complex or long-term outcomes more
valid, for example by considering qualitative feedback as well as hard
response data.
What are the drawbacks?
The building of the model is a subjective process, so there is a danger that the
evaluation can be undermined if the measures established are not sufficiently
objective. Outreach activity may take unexpected forms and have unintended
consequences both positive and negative so it is important that the model
reflects this in some way, and assess why and what impact the change in plan
had on the intended outcomes.

Qualitative techniques
What does it involve?
To understand why people behave in a particular way rather than just how
many people have taken action, or hold a particular opinion you should
consider using qualitative techniques such as in-depth interviews or group
discussions.
What are the advantages?
Moderated carefully (ideally by a trained professional) they can provide rich
detail and stories, some of which only come out in the course of discussion or
debate. In the case of outreach, qualitative evaluation can tap into the change
in attitudes or perceptions which may have occurred, which is harder to detect
in quantitative survey results. In some situations, trying to conduct a robust
survey can be difficult or prohibitively expensive, whereas convening some
discussion groups (with an interpreter if necessary), may be easier and more
revealing. It can also be an effective approach at the start of a project, to
explore issues within the community to inform subsequent outreach, as well
as creating a qualitative baseline from which to compare later.

53

What are the drawbacks?

Qualitative research is not designed to provide statistics on the extent of
changes to perceptions or awareness, so may not convince hardened
sceptics that outreach approaches deliver genuine shifts in attitudes. It is
crucial that qualitative conclusions are based on a valid sample and
methodology, which means that participants in the groups must accurately
reflect the audience for the outreach and discussion process must not
introduce bias.
Case Study: Evaluation of Jobcentre Plus Ethnic Minority Outreach
The Policy Studies Institute evaluated the impact of the Jobcentre Plus Ethnic
Minority Outreach (EMO) pilot. The evaluation included 148 initial depth
interviews with two cohorts of EMO clients. The research had a longitudinal
dimension which included two or three follow-up interviews with a sub-sample
of clients over an eighteen month period.
The researchers explored the participants' work history, barriers to work,
perceptions of employment prospects and support offered by the EMO
providers. The longitudinal strand provided an opportunity to compare the
clients positions, soon after their initial contact and then at roughly six month
intervals. Given the diversity of the outreach techniques used across the
locations involved in the scheme, and the wide range of participants, the
evaluation approach mainly consisted of qualitative interviews, though
quantitative measures were also used to compare provider outcomes.
The detailed report highlighted the role that outreach played in bringing some
segments of the target audience 'closer to the labour market' and was able to
discuss which interventions had commonly had significant positive impacts on
individuals.
It also demonstrated the importance of using multiple measures in evaluation.
One key operational target was to increase the number of Jobcentre Plus
registrations amongst the target audience. However, the evaluation found that
many of those involved in outreach were in fact registered, but had not been
making effective use of these employment support services. For some clients,
contact with outreach workers and subsequently other members of provider
staff had facilitated enhanced levels of engagement with mainstream
Jobcentre Plus services. A simple measure of registrations would not have
captured this important finding, nor revealed the reasons why services were
not being taken up.
Source 7: Ethnic Minority Outreach: An evaluation (Research Report 229)

54

Observation
What does it involve?
Since outreach can take so many forms including ones not originally
planned for it can be useful simply to observe the approaches taken from
the point of view of evaluating the dynamics of the interactions. For example,
a community engagement project in the East Midlands involved evaluators
sitting in on three different community consultants as they facilitated different
types of group sessions or workshops. The evaluators noted the group
behaviour, the facilitators work, and followed the outputs and outcomes from
the sessions, and combined these with feedback from participants to derive
conclusions about which of the approaches were most effective.
As a contrasting example, an agency which runs a street team of young
people uses their affinity with technology to help monitor the activity on the
ground. It equips them with digital cameras or camera phones and asks them
to take pictures of the locations they go to when working for the team, and
where they put up posters. This helps not only to verify that the activity has
taken place, but also provides insights into the kinds of areas where the target
audience in this case, peers of the street team members are to be found.
What are the advantages?
Observation can provide lively first-hand or visual testimony about the
outreach, which brings evaluation to life. It also introduces an objective
assessment of outreach activities such as events, which the outreach worker
and participants may not be able to offer.
What are the drawbacks?
Observation is by definition an outsider activity, so does not provide
feedback from the point of view of the target audience the activity may look
good, but did it achieve its objectives? It also demands that the evaluators
make a strong effort to remain objective, and not be unduly influenced by the
participants or by isolated examples they later remember. Observation can
also be very intrusive introducing a third party observer to some outreach
situations which demand trust and relationship building may be impossible.

Feedback
What does it involve?
One of the most common approaches, feedback typically uses a standard
form to collect participants views on the activity shortly afterwards. It differs

55

from surveys in that those who respond are self-selecting, i.e. there is no
specific effort made to ensure the source of the data collected represents the
profile of everyone involved. In the course of a face to face interaction, there
is a golden opportunity to collect feedback, even without a form: simply asking
a question or two of visitors - and recording their answers - can provide
information about perceptions or reactions.
What are the advantages?
Feedback can be easy to collect, and relatively straightforward to analyse it
can simply involve distributing a simple form and adding up the responses. It
is also a quick way of collecting views with a view to checking the activity
meets its objective. For example, one agency collected feedback from visitors
to a stand in a shopping centre about the location of the stall, and found that
people recommended they move to the other side of the centre in order to
reach a wider audience.
What are the drawbacks?
Because it is self-selecting, feedback may not represent the opinion of
everyone involved in the activity. Often, people who give feedback have
stronger views than average, or perhaps have more time or inclination
(including literacy, importantly) to complete a form. Since feedback is often
given directly to or collected by the outreach workers, people may be less
willing to be frank.

56

9. Applying Outreach Effectively: Some Tools

Tool 1: Selecting outreach techniques
Your decision of which outreach technique if any to adopt will be guided
by many practical factors such as timescale, budget, personnel or networks
available. However, whether outreach is successful depends heavily on the
four factors below:
Objectives: how complex or deep-seated the change is that you want
to effect
Depth of engagement: how deep a relationship you want to form with
members of the target audience
Barriers: which types of barriers exist preventing you from
communicating with the community, and what form of interaction or
additional support (e.g. language skills) are needed
Community infrastructure: how strong the community infrastructure
is can influence whether or not you are able to use existing networks to
reach members of the audience directly

Outreach options you might try:

Objectives

Depth of
Engagement

Barriers

Community
infrastructure

Raise awareness?
(e.g. help available)

A B C

A. Street marketing
and stunts

Get a response? (e.g. sign up)

B E

Change behaviour?
(e.g. stop risky activity)

D E

B. Peer education,
street teams or
referral marketing

Convey a message?

A B

D. Active service
delivery

Deliver a service?

Build community capacity?

E. Community
networking &
events

Get community
ownership of the issue?
(e.g. regenerating the area)

F G

F. Community
development

Physical? (e.g. housebound)

Attitudinal or cultural?

B C E

Language?

B D F

Strong community organisations?

C E

Weak community organisations?

A B D F

C. Sponsorship

G. Active citizenship
& participation

57

Tool 2: Outreach dos and donts

Do

Dont

set clear, challenging objectives

against which outreach can deliver
and be evaluated

try to micromanage - give local teams

scope to meet the objectives in
different ways

put in place effective monitoring and

data capture to gauge the impact
outreach has had

expect immediate results

relationships take time to build

have a clear call to action and a

straightforward message that the
audience can grasp and outreach staff
can work with
think carefully about the outreach
technique you adopt there are lots of
possible approaches
try to keep the team and focus
consistent as much as possible, to
give relationships time to form
co-ordinate activity with colleagues
and partner organisations so they
know what is going on
invest effort in understanding the
community, through mapping and
researching their profile and culture
respect the communitys help have
something to offer them in return
integrate outreach with awarenessraising media such as radio or local
press to give outreach a foot in the
door
apply segmentation to outreach
explore which groups need which kind
of support or contact

rely on a single, hard measure of

success outreach works in a number
of ways and needs to be evaluated in
the round
forget to collect feedback from
participants and outreach teams be
prepared to act on it and adapt your
approach
make assumptions about communities
they are complex, sometimes
fragmented, and can present both
surprising barriers and enablers.
miss out on opportunities to use
outreach to build understanding and
empathy within your organisation,
through visits, tours or talks with
community figures
become entirely reliant on an
individual try to build resilience into
your outreach through involving more
people or formalising relationships
with community groups
overlook the contact points the target
audience has with the rest of your
organisation, to ensure a positive
relationship once established is
not put at risk

58

Tool 3: Outreach planner

Based on the lessons learned by the outreach practitioners we spoke to in
preparing this guide, we have put together the following checklist or outline
planner which sets out the key stages and questions to address in planning
effective outreach. Clearly, there are lots of intermediate steps and questions
to answer, so this planner should be used in conjunction with the rest of this
guide.

Objectives

What change is the campaign designed to achieve?

What impact is outreach intended to have?

Audiences

Which groups are you targeting, and why?

What is their profile, what do they do, how do they think and feel?

Proposition

What is the message you want to convey using outreach?

What are you offering to communities to engage or interest them?

Format

Who will deliver the outreach? Specialist agency, in-house team, new recruits?
Which techniques will be most effective in reaching/engaging the audience?

Integration

How is the activity linked to what is going on locally/centrally?

What role does outreach have in relation to other channels, e.g. advertising?

Evaluation

What information are you collecting to help measure change due to outreach?
How will feedback be used to improve the effectiveness of the outreach activity?

59

Tool 4: Sample evaluation questionnaires

Sample Community Activity Evaluation Form

Date:
Venue:
1. How helpful or unhelpful did you find each of the following:
Very
helpful

Fairly
helpful

Not very
helpful

Not at all
helpful

Dont
know

Overall
Leaflets
Website
Staff you spoke to
2. Do you have any other comments about [THE ACTIVITY]?
.
3. Have you heard or noticed any other elements of the campaign in the following
media?
q Newspapers
q

Radio

TV

Posters

4. How suitable was the location of [THE ACTIVITY]?

q Very suitable
q

Fairly suitable

Not very suitable

Not all suitable

If you feel the location was unsuitable, please tell us why: ...
5. How much, if anything, did you learn about [ISSUE] as a result of [THE ACTIVITY]?
q I learned a lot about [ISSUE]
q

I learned a little about [ISSUE]

I didnt learn anything at all about [ISSUE]

If you feel the that you didnt learn anything, please tell us why: .
Thank you for your time.

60

Sample Evaluation Questionnaire for Street Team Members

Thank you all for your work on the <CAMPAIGN> campaign. Now that the campaign
activity is complete we would like to ask for your feedback for use in the evaluation of
the campaign.
It is really important for us to know how the street marketing campaigns went so
your views are really valuable.
1
Your details:
Name: ________________________
Area: ________________________

Team: __________________

2 Roughly how many of the young people you met had heard of <CAMPAIGN>
before?
All of them
Most of them
A lot of them
About half of them
Some of them
Not many at all
None of them
3 When people heard it was a <CAMPAIGN> campaign what the most common reaction you got?
They thought <CAMPAIGN> was cool
They were interested in <CAMPAIGN>
They didnt react because they didnt know what <CAMPAIGN> was
They thought <CAMPAIGN> was naff
4 How did the scratch cards go down with most of the young people you handed
them to?
They liked them and played the quiz
They liked them at first, but then didnt bother with the quiz
They didnt do the quiz but said theyd keep the cards to enter the prize draw
They thought it was naff
5 How did the dog-tags go down with most of the young people you handed them to?
They really liked them
They thought they were OK
They didnt seem too keen to have one
They thought they were naff

61

6 How did you think the <STUNT> went down?

They generated a buzz people got talking about them
They were ignored
People thought they were naff
7 Did many people ask questions about the scratch cards?
Yes
No
8 Did many people ask questions about other issues?
Yes
No
9 Did you have any problems at all? If you did, do you want to tell us what they
were?

10 Is there anything you think we should do differently next time?

11 Do you want to add anything else?

12 Are you interested in working on future campaigns like this?

Yes
No
13 Are you interested in coming to an event in April (at the end of all the street
marketing campaigns) where all the teams get together to celebrate?
Yes
No
Thank you for all your work on <CAMPAIGN> we couldnt have done it without you!

62

Links & Contacts

Central Office of Information (COI)
Patricia Macauley

Christine Roberts

Ross James

Ethnic Minority
Campaign Manager

COI Inclusivity Unit

Head of Inclusivity

Christine.Roberts@
coi.gsi.gov.uk

Ross.James@
coi.gsi.gov.uk

020 7261 8849

020 7261 8852

Patricia.Macauley@
coi.gsi.gov.uk
020 7261 8215

Community Development Foundation

http://www.cdf.org.uk
Non-departmental public body which supports the community development
sector, and is involved in administering the Faith Communities Capacity
Building Fund on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local
Government.
Community Engagement in Policing
http://www.communityengagement.police.uk
Website of practical approaches to and examples of community engagement
designed for those working in community safety.
Crime Reduction Active Communities
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/activecommunities74.htm
Section within the Crime Reduction website offering advice on planning and
delivering effective community involvement, and links to formal reviews of
what techniques are effective at local area level.
Evaluating participatory, deliberative and co-operative ways of working
(by Diane Warburton, Shared Practice)
http://www.sharedpractice.org.uk/Downloads/Interact_Working_Paper.pdf
Useful paper outlining the value of evaluation and some approaches you can
use in evaluating participatory techniques including outreach.
Interfaith Network for the UK
http://www.interfaith.org.uk
Organisation which promotes understanding and respect between faiths.

63

Involve
http://www.involving.org
A new organisation focused on the practical issues of making public
participation work, and authors of the People & Participation report.
Neighbourhood Statistics
http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk
Local area profiles based on census and other data from the Office for
National Statistics. Includes breakdown of wards by ethnicity and faith.
Renewal.net
http://www.renewal.net/
Resources for practitioners in the field of neighbourhood renewal including
tools and case studies for how involvement techniques have been employed.
Southwark Alliance
http://www.southwarkalliance.org.uk
Non-statutory group set up to improve quality of life and community cohesion
in Southwark. Has published a How To guide of community cohesion ideas
and principles.
Together We Can
http://www.togetherwecan.info
Supports active citizenship and participation in local decision-making.
Contains reports and guides to techniques for empowering local communities.

64

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