Outreach Strategy
Whether you're promoting yourself, your company, products and services, or creating social change, planning
and strategy are the foundation upon which you are going to build your public outreach actions. Laying out a
good outreach strategy will define the vision and goals for your project from start to finish and the plan you
create based on that strategy will be your worksheet to follow as you carry out your public outreach activities.
In the six years I served as public information associate at Mission Springs Water District, I brought several
water conservation and water awareness education programs to the community served by the District, including an
annual poster contest for 6th - 8th graders, a community water education program called WISG (water issues study group), and
an educational program for 6th graders called Living Wise, a turnkey water and energy education and conservation program
produced by Resource Action Programs and which resulted in a measurable savings of well over 5 million gallons of water
in the community each year the program was administered.
A big believer in networking and collaboration, I also partnered with the local school district and various organizations
that promoted environmental sciences education to further identify and secure resources and community partners for providing
water education.
The result of this collaboration placed me in the role of an active community partner in the
planning and creation of CREEC’s Environmental Youth Experience (EYE). This popular program
produced by the CA Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC) has inspired students from
throughout the region to plan and implement environmental service-learning projects in their campuses
and communities and is going into its 5th year. Projects completed by participating students include
campus-wide waste reduction programs, organic gardens on campus and in the community, community clean
up events, and more. More information about the EYE program is found on my Networking page.
The success of the projects described above are a telling example of the great results that can come
from a strong foundation of outreach strategy planning combined with networking and forming effective
public/private collaborations.
