Case Study

How can we shape our city around what its communities need?

Belfast Co-Design Framework

  • Size: 94 participants
  • Topic/Issue: Climate and the arts
  • Recruitment: Civic Lottery

Why?

Communicating and dissemination
of a project is vital to ensuring the work
you do is successful. Let’s define some
of the words we use in this process.

Dissemination means the targeted distribution of information and materials about an activity to a defined audience.

A communication plan is a strategic blueprint that outlines how information will be shared with partners ensuring clarity and consistency in message delivery. It typically includes components such as target audiences, communication objectives, messaging tactics, timelines and a list of any visuals needed, all designed to enhance engagement and understanding.

Your communication plan should cover the entire engagement process. It should explain why the engagement is needed and what decision it will influence. It should also set the context for the issue and outline how you will share information about your work. This includes promoting engagement activities, sharing key updates as they happen, and communicating findings and recommendations to partners, participants, the public, and any other audiences you want to reach.

It is important to connect with your comms team from the start to enable you to develop your communications plan at the planning stage in the engagement process. You can find more information on putting together your team here.

FAQs

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Communicating public engagement

Why communicating is so important

Communicating and disseminating are vital tools for effectively engaging with people on climate change. Communicating outcomes of public engagement shows politicians, policy makers and the general public the importance of engaging people in climate policy making. Effective communication showcases the work you have done in your engagement and helps to influence decisions on climate policy but also allows others to see where high quality public engagement is being done.It builds trust to be transparent, and communicating well and often will ensure that your work is seen positively by all involved.

The findings from your engagement help people to consider different perspectives and to listen to the views of others they may not have considered. This can help to develop a common understanding of climate and engagement issues. You also have a responsibility to feedback to the participants in your engagement, but to others more generally. This closes the ‘feedback loop’ and helps to counteract public mistrust around having their voices heard and acted upon.

Planning your communication and dissemination strategy

By considering your approach to dissemination and communication while planning your engagement project, you will be able to maximise the reach of your messaging and ultimately make more inclusive and representative decisions for your community.

Preparation and continuity are vital for any good communications and dissemination plan. Your communications plan should cover the whole of the engagement process and include regular updates to your key audiences. Finding ambassadors, both internal and external, can help to achieve impact from your communication.

The table below takes you through the key questions you need to ask when developing your communications plan. Have a go at completing this with your team.

ActionQuestions to Consumer
AudienceWho are you trying to reach with each piece of communication?
Key messagesWhat are the key messages you want your audience(s) to take away from your communication?

Can you write these messages in a way that is easy to understand?

Click here to download the table above for printing, with a space to write in roles and decisions.

Table of Contents

Your communications plan

Your communications plan should contain:

  • A summary of the project
  • A communications risk register
  • A communications schedule

Your project summary should include an overview of the project, including who is involved, who the participants and partners are and what the aims of the project are. This information may not necessarily be used for external comms but provides essential background for anyone disseminating or producing communications messages.

Your communications risk register should be used to record potential risks for communication on your project not only for your organisation, but also from external comms teams, funders, partners and anyone else attached to the project. Any partners should be consulted and any risks or sensitivities should be flagged at an early stage.

Your communications schedule should outline the activity you want to communicate about, what the key message is, who you are targeting, where and when you will share the message and who is responsible. We’ve created a basic communications schedule for you to use below.

Lastly, it’s important to know of any sign off procedures in this process. When developing any plans, please identify who has final signoff on any copy, visuals or collateral before it goes out.

Click here to download a template plan.

Types of Communications and approaches

There are a number of different types of communications you can incorporate into your engagement. We’ve created some simple guidance around the types of communications we see regularly in our engagement work.

Press Release and Media Pitch

Depending on the scope, topic and nature of the project, there may be potential for press or media interest. Securing media coverage can be beneficial as it allows you to share your work and mission with a wider audience.

A press release might be sent out at the start of a project to announce the news, at the end of the project to share learnings, or both. A template including guidance for writing a press release can be found here [INSERT LINK].

The media outlets that you choose to pitch to will depend on the project. Your comms team and partners may have an existing list of media contacts (such as local outlets or topic specific journalists) that they can pitch to.

Make your comms team aware of any plans to pitch to the media so they can advise and provide support. Ensure that any copy written for press is signed off by the appropriate parties internally and externally.

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