Amplifying your message: content and channel strategy
As you deliver your projects, you will have messages you need to communicate. A ‘content and channel strategy’ will ensure your messaging resonates with your audience’s needs and priorities.
This animation explores how to shape your content around your audiences, and the channels you can use to reach them.
Animation: the virtuous circle of good engagement
In this guide, we will provide you with a framework to carry out effective and comprehensive engagement at any stage in the project lifecycle.
Media Relations
Whether you’re already starting to deliver your projects or are still working on your Business Cases, this guidance will take you through the key ingredients you need to deliver effective, compelling communications through the press.
This document will provide you with the necessary guidance to plan, prepare, and deliver proactive engagement with journalists, and the steps to follow if negative press is published about a project.
Communicating and Engaging During Delivery
Whether you’re already starting to deliver your projects or are still working on your Business Cases, it is key that you continue to put communications and engagement at the heart of your respective projects’ strategies and visions.
This guidance has been developed to help you maintain and progress your communications and engagement from Business Case to project delivery.
Project Delivery: Stakeholder and Community Engagement Q&A
Description:
This recorded Q&A session was an opportunity for all Towns to ask their questions on engagement, communications and consultation for project delivery.
About the speakers:
Charlotte Jordan
Charlotte is a motivated and collaborative strategist with extensive experience in communications, engagement and project management across a number of sectors. She designs and implements grass-routes engagement strategies and innovative communication approaches from Local Authorities to international institutions.
Charlotte was the Service Lead for Communications and Engagement during Stages 1 and 2 of the TFDP, delivering tailored and targeted support to 101 towns.
Laura Cunliffe-Hall
Laura specialises in strategic advice, stakeholder management and copywriting, adding value to projects with her sound understanding of public affairs and policy.
Laura has advised Towns on engagement, led engagement workshops and designed written guides, infographics and visual resources targeted to help Towns improve their communication with key stakeholders. These guides include how to engage with younger audiences, incorporate stakeholder engagement into a business case and how to best engage with seldom heard groups.
Towns Fund Communications and Engagement playbook
This communications and engagement playbook provides a comprehensive overview of the resources available to you on communications, consultation, community and stakeholder engagement through the Towns Fund Programme. These resources can help you develop your Business Cases and enhance project delivery to support you in this next stage of the programme.
As you finalise your Business Case and look ahead to delivery, we know that you will need to engage communities about your plans and keep them informed as your project progresses. This resource guide provides you with links to a range of documents to help you do just that.
Engagement Evidence
A community and stakeholder engagement plan is a key requirement to building a strong Business Case and it is critical in demonstrating how you manage stakeholders during project delivery.
A community and stakeholder engagement plan is key to building a strong Business Case and it is critical in demonstrating how you manage stakeholders during project delivery.
It needs to show how you have engaged with people and how you will continue to engage as you work up business cases, and project delivery.
But you only have limited space, so what evidence should you include? This guide gives you some tips on what to include, and how to present it.
Engaging Younger Audiences
This practical guide offers advice for Towns on how to engage younger audiences when drafting TIPs, developing business cases or delivering projects.
Every young person is unique with different needs and circumstances. Youth participation in projects is essential - now more than ever, young people are central to the economic recovery and stimulation of towns.
This short guidance note details the benefits of engaging younger people, and provides a variety of methods to undertake this engagement.
Engaging with Businesses
This guidance note provides nine practical ideas for Towns on how they can engage better with businesses, whether drafting TIPs, developing business cases or delivering projects and beyond.
From sole traders to multinationals, businesses are the lifeblood of a community. While some may have a long history in your town, others may be relative newcomers to the area. They can be contributors to the Towns Fund, or beneficiaries, as it seeks to galvanise local economies. Businesses should be at the heart of shaping and delivering Town Investment Plans (TIPs).
This guidance note provides nine practical ideas for Towns on how they can engage better with businesses, whether drafting TIPs, developing business cases or delivering projects and beyond.
How to Engage in a Digital World
Description:
Digital technology has changed the way we communicate. Embracing this change can open up engaging ways to reach new audiences - but the prospect can be daunting for presenters and participants more used to face-to-face interaction.
This recorded webinar provides some guiding principles for those taking their first steps in digital engagement, an overview of the tools available, and some practical tips on running your own online engagement activity.
About the speakers:
Diana Deans of Copper Consultancy teamed up with Claire Hazelgrove of Futuregov to present this webinar.
Copper is a strategic communications and stakeholder engagement consultancy specialising in the development of economic and social infrastructure. Diana has delivered community and stakeholder engagement programmes in the energy, aviation and rail industries.
FutureGov is a change agency supporting 21st-century public institutions being catalysts for change in the internet and climate era. Claire has 13 years’ experience of organising, mobilising and campaigning for change within the political and non-profit worlds, supporting organisations and communities to affect the change they believe in.
Guide to Good Community Engagement
Description:
When done well, community engagement can mean that communities are invested in bringing about change; understanding what is possible and what is not and where conversations are focused on creativity to deliver tangible and meaningful outcomes for communities and other stakeholders. It can be applied to local development initiatives and projects from the earliest phases of planning through to project inception.
This ‘Guide to Good Community Engagement' webinar considered how local authorities can create partnerships with communities that last beyond the creation of a TIP and any follow-up intervention. Focus was given to how different approaches and messaging can be used to engage different community groups, along with effective means of collecting evidence and evaluating feedback.
About the speaker:
This webinar was presented by Copper Consultancy.
Copper is a strategic communications and stakeholder engagement consultancy specialising in the development of economic and social infrastructure.
Copper works with public and private sector organisations in the UK, to develop proposals and projects that articulate the benefits they will bring and are understood by communities.
Copper is expert at communicating complex concepts, often in challenging political, social and environmental situations, and engaging with communities to support advocacy and enable positive change.
Stakeholder and Community Audit Guidance
A guidance document providing an overview of the types of information to consider when developing your Business Case or delivery plan and identifying stakeholders to proactively engage in the process.
To develop a successful Business Case or delivery plan you will need to actively engage with key stakeholders within your town. A shared vision and commitment from a range of stakeholders, showing how they have played (and will continue to play) an active role in the development of your project, will go some way to demonstrating that you have secured buy-in from the local community.
This document, produced by Copper, provides an overview of the types of information to consider when developing your Business Case or delivery plan and identifying stakeholders to proactively engage in the process.
Stakeholder Engagement Plan Guidance
This document provides you with initial guidance when developing your approach to stakeholder engagement, and a template that can be followed to establish a stakeholder engagement plan.
Written by our communication and engagement experts at Copper Consultancy, this guidance document aims to assist towns with preparing a plan for engaging, communicating and consulting with their local community and key stakeholders.
The document provides you with initial guidance when developing your approach to stakeholder engagement, and a template that can be followed to establish a stakeholder engagement plan. However, the approach to stakeholder engagement can and should differ according to local objectives, challenges and other specific characteristics of your town.