News tagged 'communications messaging'

Digital Outreach’s new brand Convey is working with local voluntary and community sector organisations on a campaign to reduce blockages in the water system.

Anglian Water, in collaboration with social marketing experts Corporate Culture, identified the principal areas and neighbourhoods which had repeat blockages, and two priority audience groups. We designed an outreach programme to engage local community groups to help spread the messages to target households. Supported by training, literature, grants and giveaways to make disposing of waste easier, our partners cascaded the message about disposal of waste to other local organisations.

One of the organisations working on the project is Northampton Volunteer Centre.  Dana Hannon, Information, Marketing, Events & BME Engagement Officer, with LINk (an organisation hosted by Northampton Volunteer Centre) has been going out and about to talk to local groups.

Dana says. “We were in a great position to work on the Keep it Clear project. We regularly go to visit local groups across Northamptonshire to find out what their issues and concerns are about health services. The groups already knew us, so nothing had to be set up from scratch, which made it much easier for us to talk to them about water use.”

The target audience is women aged between 18 and 45 in very specific areas, so Dana and her team have targeted the groups that supported women in this age group. Dana said: “It’s not as simple as just going to the geographical areas where the problems are, we needed to find the groups that women living in those areas attend.”

Dana found one very important group was the local Neighbourhood Watch which put them in touch with some very localised, informal groups that they wouldn’t have been able to reach otherwise. “These groups might just support people who live in a few streets, so they rely on word of mouth and don’t advertise,” Dana says. “The Neighbourhood Watch is a really active group and our relationship with them was key to getting in touch with these smaller groups.”

Dana found that talking to people face to face about the subject has been very effective. “People have been very responsive. Being able to give people the information face to face really helped, as lots of people didn’t realise that the things they were doing every day were causing problems.  People don’t always take in a poster but if you’ve handed them information and discussed it with them, it reinforces that the message. They also have the opportunity to ask questions and find out what they can do to dispose of fats in an alternative way.”

Having materials to give away was important too. “People loved the sink strainers, and the bags went down exceptionally well too!” Dana says. “This is all making people aware of how they can safely dispose of fats and grease, which will help make a positive difference to local water systems.”

The outreach programme has benefited Northampton Volunteer Centre and Northamptonshire LINk too.  “Although we have great networks with our communities, working on this project has introduced us to new, more informal, groups that we had never heard of before – particularly the groups we got in touch with through Neighbourhood Watch. They are now in contact with us and we can communicate with them about other issues that might be important to them. It’s helped raise awareness of our organisation amongst these people too, which will help us to achieve our aims of supporting people and groups in the community and voluntary sector.”

Thanks to Northampton LINk and all the other organisations working on the Keep it Clear campaign.

Case studies

Mums & Tots - Methodist Church, Park Avenue North

The Mums & Tots Group meets every week at the local Methodist Church. Around 20 parents come to the group each week, with their children.  Northamptonshire LINk contacted the church to say they were talking to lots of different groups about water use and asked if they could come and talk to the mothers’ and toddlers’ group.

The group hadn’t realised the environmental cost of putting things like baby wipes down the toilet - as many wipes are advertised as ‘flushable’ they hadn’t considered that there could be any problem with getting rid of wipes in this way. The group often visit parks and open areas with their children, so they were concerned about smells and environmental damage in their neighbourhoods and were very keen to help by taking the simple step of putting wipes into the bin.

Northampton Bangladeshi Association

The Northampton Bangladeshi Association supports members of the Bangladeshi community of all ages to access training, education, health services and to give the Bangladeshi community a voice. Dana from Northamptonshire LINk went to visit the group leader, Ms Begum, to have a chat with her and explain the Keep it Clear campaign.  Ms Begum said that she uses lots of oil in her cooking, as this is an important ingredient in many Bangladeshi dishes.  Like many of us, she didn’t realise that oil in its liquid form can actually cause blockages, and that there are other ways of disposing of it safely.  She said she would pass this information on to the various groups she supports, and reported back that the sink strainers had gone down very well and that everyone is now aware of how to dispose of fat, oil and grease appropriately.

We are very pleased to be working with a fantastic set of well known and trusted organisations in the Tyne Tees TV region to make sure everyone gets the support they need to prepare for the digital TV switchover, which takes place in the region this September.

North Tyneside VODA, Wansbeck CVS, Age UK County Durham (pictured below), Tees Valley Rural Community Council and North Yorkshire and York Forum will be engaging local groups to support them to provide information and advice to end users. They will offer free training, access to a small grants scheme and free materials to local groups, enabling them to give advice to their end users at existing events and activities in the community about how to switch to digital TV and what help is available.

To reach people who don’t have contact with community groups and who are eligible for the Switchover Help Scheme, volunteers from Tees Valley RCC and Circles Network will work with trusted individuals in local communities, such as local shopkeepers and mobile hairdressers, who are aware of the people in their community who might need some extra support to access the Help Scheme.

The organisations have had extensive training from Digital Outreach, Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme, and are ready to start spreading the word!

If you are supporting people in the Tyne Tees region, please get in touch with the organisation covering your area.

Contact details

North Tyneside VODA - covering Tyne and Wear
Lynne Craggs
lynne.craggs@voda.org.uk
0191 643 2633

Tees Valley Rural Community Council – covering Teesside and Darlington
Andrew Samuel
asamuel@teesvalleyrcc.org.uk
01642 201 096

Wansbeck CVS – covering Northumberland
Anne Kidd
anne.kidd@wansbeckcvs.org.uk
01670 856 587

North Yorkshire and York Forum – covering North Yorkshire
Claire Petty
claire.petty@nyyforum.org.uk
01347 825710 

Age Concern County Durham – covering County Durham
Mark Dunne-Willows
mark.dunne-willows@ageukcountydurham.org.uk
0191 374 6363



Success stories

Advice point volunteers help elderly gentleman re-tune his TV

An elderly gentleman who was very hard of hearing came to the advice point run by lead organisation COVER in Thetford. He knew quite a lot about switchover from the TV adverts and door drop leaflets he had received. However, he was struggling to re-tune his TV. He had tried to call the DUK advice line, but because of his hearing difficulty he could not hear the instructions that the adviser was giving him.

He saw an advert in the local paper for the switchover advice point so decided to go down there for some help. The volunteers demonstrated to the gentleman how to re-tune, taking him through the process step by step so he could see what he needed to do. The gentleman knew the model of his TV, so the volunteers looked up the exact instructions for re-tuning his TV and wrote them down for him to take home. The gentleman was really pleased that the volunteers had been there to help him.

Communities Programme volunteer engages trusted people to spread the word ‘

Joan’ is a volunteer for Suffolk ACRE who helped to engage community supporters through the Communities Programme. Joan was taking a trip to the north of the county and took a ‘scenic route’ visiting rural villages along the way. Joan visited many villages, stopping at two drop-in centres, three church groups, a vicar’s, and a disability day centre. She spoke to people she knew about the Switchover Help Scheme and asked them if they knew of anyone in their community who might need support to access the help they were eligible for – for example, because they were isolated or found it difficult to fill in forms.

Two weeks later, Joan re-visited all the villages and found that the people she had spoken to had in turn spoken to people they knew who were eligible for the scheme. The leader of the three church groups said that he’d spoken to a number of people who were eligible, and that one of the congregation had already phoned him to say that the Help Scheme were “coming to sort her TV out”!

Joan was really pleased she had been able to help.

The final transmitter in the Anglia TV region, Tacolneston, switched to digital this month.

During the run-up to the switchover, we worked with VCS organisations in the region who have strong local networks to deliver a range of outreach activities and events to help local residents prepare for the switchover. Together they put in a fantastic effort, delivering some great results for Digital UK and the Switchover Help Scheme and ensuring target groups knew what they needed to do to continue watching TV after the switchover.

Lead organisation COVER ran four advice points on the Tacolneston switchover days, where friendly staff and volunteers supported over 330 people. During the run-up to the switchover, COVER and their partner organisations overachieved on all of their targets, delivering 101% of their end user events and 118% of their one to ones.

Photo: A gentleman receives support from an advice point volunteer

Through the Communities Programme, trained volunteers from Norfolk Rural Community Council (Norfolk RCC) and Suffolk ACRE engaged over 1,200 ‘community supporters’ – people who are known and trusted in their local communities by those the outreach programme aims to reach. These community supporters supported over 100 people to access the Help Scheme.

CSV, which delivered the targeted awareness programme in over 50 Tacolneston postcode areas identified as having a lower response rate to the Help Scheme mailings, engaged volunteers who used their local knowledge and contacts to ensure Help Scheme literature and posters were displayed in 120 community venues (such as medical centres, libraries and churches), and 114 commercial venues (such as post offices, cafes and hairdressers) and encouraged local venue and business owners to spread the word about the scheme.

WRVS made sure that Help Scheme eligible people who requested a home visit received face-to-face support from a friendly volunteer to help them complete their packs, be there with them as a chaperone when the engineer calls, and help them use their new equipment.

Photo: Age UK Norfolk cascade the messages about switchover to their clients.

A big thank you to COVER, Norfolk RCC, Suffolk ACRE, CSV, WRVS and all of the volunteers who gave their time to help. The outreach work you have delivered has ensured that over 6,000 people in the Tacolneston area have received the support they needed to switch to digital – a fantastic result.

In July 2011, Digital Outreach’s new brand Convey delivered community outreach sessions as part of a pilot campaign in Peterborough to help reduce blockages in wastewater pipes and drains. The campaign – commissioned by Anglian Water and managed by social marketing company Corporate Culture - aimed to change people’s behaviour around the waste they put down sinks and toilets.

Blockages in water pipes cause 15,000 blockages a year in the area and cost over £7m a year to clear and prevent. The campaign was very successful, with blockages reduced by more than 60% over just a few weeks. It had a significant impact on people’s attitudes and actions, with the number of people agreeing that reducing blockages is a shared responsibility rising from 52% to 92%, and the percentage saying they were making an extra effort to get rid of waste rising from 51% to 72%. (Source: Street survey, sample of 200 customers)

Anglian Water is now rolling out the project to other ‘hot spots’ where blockages are an issue for local communities. A spectacular animated light show in Peterborough marked the launch of the campaign and explained to residents why the campaign is happening.

Case study – working with the Islamic community in Peterborough
The pilot campaign included a ward in Peterborough where approximately 60% of the population is Muslim. The messaging of the campaign linked in very well with the Islamic faith, which places a high value on water, its purity and cleanliness. Convey approached Peterborough Islam to see if they could help spread the message. The organisation was only too happy to help, and local Imams spoke to over 3,000 people at Friday prayers about the importance of keeping water clean and how residents could take action to reduce contamination in the water in their own communities. Peterborough Islam’s women’s workers were also able to reach Muslim women’s groups to talk to them about putting waste like cooking fat, baby wipes and other items into the bin rather than down the sink or toilet into the water supply.



Convey will be working with Southend Association of Voluntary Services to deliver outreach in the Southend area, and will soon be engaging more voluntary and community sector organisations to help deliver the programme in Northampton, Bedford, Lincoln and Norwich. Supported by training, literature, small grants and giveaways like ‘fat traps’ to make disposing of waste easier, these organisations will cascade the message to other local groups like community groups, children’s centres, faith groups, mother and toddler groups and pre-schools.

The outreach delivered by Convey will link in with activities provided by Anglian Water such as roadshows, engagement with local businesses street teams (to talk to local businesses) and traditional marketing activities like radio/press adverts and posters.

Encouraging results from the pilot project

The results of the pilot project showed the campaign had a big impact on attitudes and behaviours around the disposal of waste.

The chart below shows the rise in concern amongst domestic customers about blockages in wastewater pipes and drains following the pilot. (Source: Street survey, 200 customers)

The chart below shows very large increases in understanding, importance, responsibility and belief that it is easy to act among domestic customers.

If you would like to be amongst the first to hear about new projects such as these, update your details on our database.

Keep It Clear is part of Anglian Water's groundbreaking Love Every Drop sustainability campaign to bring people together to put water at the heart of a new way of sustainable living.

A research paper by Digital Outreach has been published in the Working with Older People journal this month. The paper looks at the effectiveness of the community outreach model in tackling digital exclusion amongst older people and people on low incomes.

To download a pdf of the article, click here.

To read the abstract on the journal's website, click here.