A major question facing any public education and awareness effort is whether the message is the right one for the audience and the purpose. Testing messages with members of your target audience can help you find out whether there's a mismatch. Evaluation, discussed below, also provides important feedback on this point.

A public education campaign targeting the entire community will take a lot of effort. You may want to start on a small scale—for example, with your neighborhood or student body. Once you learn how to get your message across, you can send it to larger areas.

Being turned down for publicity or getting no acknowledgment from major communicators can be a disappointment. Don't give up if the news media or other organizations don't respond immediately. It may take several tries before you get the response you want. Find out if members of your group know adults with contacts at the organizations in question. Sometimes a personal introduction makes the case when a paper presentation falls flat. Organizing events that focus attention on your project and are "good copy" (interesting news stories) can get your education message out to millions.

Youth In Action Bulletin

December 1999     Number 12