Community Outreach
Overview:
Community outreach is an important part of developing any program. It is essential when planning art programs for visitors with visual impairments and other disabilities .
People with visual impairments have a broad range of experiences with the arts, both positive and negative. In the past, people with disabilities found museums inaccessible and felt that the visual arts and museums were not interested in visually impaired audiences. Thus, outreach is especially important, not only to ensure that your programs are enjoyed, but also to encourage visually impaired participants to become museumgoers and art enthusiasts.
In this module, we will review outreach resources and strategies. You will find practical tips, a sample media plan, outreach letters, sample meeting agendas, and checklists. We have found that an Open House can be a particularly useful outreach tool, and you will find specific tips and checklists for this type of event.Practical Considerations:
- Community Outreach
- Open House
- Media Tips: Getting Coverage for Your Program
- Sample Media Work Plan
- Media Advisory: Sample Media Alert
Checklists
Troubleshooting TipsFunding Strategies! Low Cost. No Cost.
Contributors and Reviewers:
Practical Considerations: Community Outreach
Establishing connections and creating a community outreach program requires research and perseverance.
Making Contacts
Take advantage of resources you already have in the museum. Survey staff members who serve on boards of different community organizations. Other possible contacts include:
- Schools/residential schools for the blind and public schools, and in some states, individual visually impaired students, are all connected to a specialized district or coordinating office.
- Service professionals working with this constituency, such as ophthalmologists and recreational counselors.
- The headquarters of national organizations representing blind people and their families to locate chapters and affiliates near you.
- Parents of blind children in organizations such as the National Organization of Parents of Blind Children or National Association for Parents of Children with Visual Impairments. Invite children and adults who are blind, their families and friends to participate in an art-making activity. This will show parents and museum personnel the children's capabilities, while giving the children a unique experience.
- Service organizations in your area where there may be blind or visually impaired members. These include rehabilitation centers, centers for independent living, veterans' organizations, senior centers, and centers that serve diabetics. Eye centers and hospitals may also help you contact potential participants.
- Your local affiliate of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Your local braille and large print librarian may have ideas about reaching our to the library's patrons.
- Internet research may provide listservs and other networks for communicating with blind and visually impaired audiences in your community.
Older Audiences
- Involve seniors and veterans with sight loss. Often people who have lost their sight later in life feel the most isolated. Contact your local Veterans Association or senior-citizen groups to schedule joint events with them. Start with a discussion about how the loss of sight has affected their feelings about museums, their sense of welcome there. If some are accustomed to visiting museums even after having lost their sight, encourage them to expand on their experiences, on why they visit and what they think others could get out of similar visits. If you have a touch tour or a verbal description tour at your museum, split the discussion into pre-tour and post-tour conversations, and use the opportunity to get feedback.
- Contact AARP and other senior-citizen advocacy groups, as well as staff of assisted-living centers.
- Attend Senior Expos.
- Seniors are Internet users! Recent market research shows that the number of seniors surfing the Web is growing rapidly. Make sure your programming information is available on your Web site and consider sending your information to Web sites used by seniors, such as http://www.seniormag.com, http://www.seniorjournal.com, http://www.TheMatureMarket.com, www.snowbird.net, and http://www.elderweb.com.
Programming and Information Strategies
- Use your museum Web site or other public information services to alert members of the community of the interest in developing programs for the visually impaired.
- Organize an Open House.
- Invite an artist who is blind or visually impaired to your museum. Bringing a blind artist to your institution can give your museum team a unique perspective on how visual impairment interacts with creativity and art making. Plan an exhibition of works created by blind and visually impaired artists in your galleries or educational center, and host a reception celebrating local artists included in the show. Invite the artists to speak to your sighted and visually impaired patrons. For advice on how to create such a show or to locate artworks your institution could acquire on loan, see the National Exhibition of Blind Artists, Art of the Eye, or the Cummer Art Museum and Gardens for its exhibit “Women of Vision.” To get in touch with local artists who are blind, or those who are willing to travel to your museum, try posting an e-mail on Art Beyond Sight's Discussion Groups. See Art Beyond Sight's Awareness Month Web site for resources to use in putting together an art show, such as a call for entries and an announcement template. Also check our E-Gallery, which features the work of blind and visually impaired artists.
- Plan a student art exhibition. Contact your local school for blind and visually impaired children. Invite the school to put together an exhibition of student artworks in your education center or galleries, at the local library for the blind, or even at the school, and then arrange a reception for the public. If the school has a music or dramatic arts program, encourage them to host performances at the reception as well, creating a multi-sensory art experience. If the school in your neighborhood has a music/drama program, but not an art program, invite the students to perform at an event, as that will bring the students and their families into the museum.
- Take advantage of Museum-School Partnerships . Schools and classroom teachers play a role in creating lasting change in the education community and in the lives of students; in turn, museum programs provide schools with the crucial support needed to accomplish this transformation.
Be Part of Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month
Another way to begin reaching out is to make your efforts part of Art Education for the Blind's annual Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month. Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month provides an opportunity for museums, libraries, schools and other community institutions to showcase the work they are doing to promote art education for people who are blind and visually impaired, as well as to raise public awareness. On the Awareness Month Web site, you'll find ideas for a wide range of activities for museums, libraries, schools, and recreational facilities to fit a variety of budgets or schedules. The following resources were designed for Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month participants, but can be used or easily adapted for your institution's programming needs:
- Postcard
- Posters
- Interdisciplinary listserv poster
- Stationery
- Art show resources (entry form, call for entries, certificate, announcement)
- Sample letters
Practical Considerations: Open House
The Open House is a useful tool for introducing programs and resources to a larger community. It provides an informal, commitment-free environment for meeting and information exchange, and can take place at the museum, a community center, or other space. It can be “open” to the public in general, or have a more limited, targeted audience, depending on your needs and budget. If you can, link your Open House to a variety of activities, such as a sample tactile-exploration tour, a verbal-description tour, an appropriate exhibition, or a conference. Ideally, the event should be planned with a variety of community partners, such as the members of your advisory board, to ensure good attendance and focused activities.
Goals of an Open House
- To introduce the communities in your region to the museum's collection and resources, including other museums, non-visual arts organizations (such as performing arts, music, poetry and literature programs), community programs, healthcare workers, school educators, students, researchers, and artists. Don't forget to invite members of the press.
- To introduce a specific program.
- To introduce these various communities to each other, providing a forum for discussion and networking.
- To promote resource sharing, which ultimately strengthens all programs and communities involved.
- To promote museum attendance.
- To create an informal space for you to find out how to better serve the community. Open House attendees may have ideas on how to develop your programs.
The Open House is an opportunity for relationship building between your institution and a variety of communities. Prepare and provide these materials:
- Publicity for the Open House
- Posters to distribute to community partners
- Press releases
- Invitation and/or registration-form mailing
- Museum and Education Department mission statements
- Exhibition or permanent collection descriptions
- Program descriptions
- Postcards of works in collection
- Evaluations
- Tour
- Folders or bags to organize materials
- Contact list (compiled during the Open House and distributed after the event to facilitate networking follow-up calls)
- Refreshments
You may want to plan your Open House during the annual Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month to take advantage of the international synergy and additional programming.
Getting the word out is equally important after the event. After your successful Open House, present your results at professional conferences such as the National Art Education Association (NAEA), the American Association of Museums (AAM), and the College Art Association (CAA). You can put together a panel of your participants, or be part of a poster session. This is an excellent way to take advantage of the momentum created with the Open House, as well as to learn how to improve your programs and facilitate the growth of other new programs. Art Beyond Sight also has a broad range of listservs, where you can brainstorm ideas and solicit participants in your panel or presentation.
Practical Considerations: Media Tips. Getting Coverage for Your Program
PLEASE NOTE: The following materials have been taken from the Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month Web site to provide an example of how to create a media program. Please feel free to adapt it to your needs.
How to Become Media Savvy in One Easy Lesson
Good media coverage should be a major priority! If you want to let your local community know about your upcoming Awareness Month event(s), use the media to help spread the word. Here's how:
1. Update your media lists of local newspapers, radio, and television stations.
- Call each news organization on your list to update your files.
- Verify the names of the television anchor who does the most work for your community, as well as the news director, the public service director, and the assignment editor.
- Ask if the station would be interested in airing public service announcements (PSAs).
- Get the names of the education and feature writers for your local papers.
2. Invite a local news anchor or reporter to participate at your program, whether that be taking a touch tour or attending the awards presentation for an art show.
3. Find out deadlines for submitting all materials. Focus on events that offer good visuals.
4. Two weeks before your celebration date, send out a media advisory to people on your press list.
5. A few days later, call the people on your list to be sure he or she received your media advisory - and invite the reporter to attend your Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month event.
6. Fax or call your key media contacts the morning prior to (or a day or two before) your event, as a reminder.
7. Have enough visuals - colorful books, interesting backdrops, a diversity of students and teachers - to ensure interesting photo opportunities for the press.
8. Please! Please! Send a personal note to thank the media for their coverage.
Adapted with permission from the National Education Association
PLEASE NOTE: The following materials have been taken from the Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month Web site to provide an example of how to create a media program. Please adapt it to your needs.
Month-by-month Strategies and Tasks
Get the Most from Your Local Media
With the Sample Media Work Plan below, you are just a click away from media outreach success for your activities! This plan is designed to help local groups focus media attention on the annual October Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, and the issue of art for people who are blind and by artists who are blind, as well as assist Art Beyond Sight organizers in reaching out to their local media to obtain event coverage. Adjust this plan to your own issues and events, and be sure to make full use of the resources on the Public Relations page.
Objective #1: Focus media attention on the issue of art for people who are blind and visually impaired, using Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month as a hook.
Tasks:
- July/August: Develop key messages to integrate into all press materials and talking points for spokespeople. See our sample materials for ideas.
- July/August: Develop a press list. Make a list of all the TV and radio stations, including college- and university-affiliated stations, local newspapers, including weeklies, and magazines. Then call and ask for the name of the editor, reporter or producer who covers education or cultural issues. Also get telephone, fax, and if possible, e-mail addresses. Be sure to add "Assignment Editor" to your list at all stations, just to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
- August: Collect personal stories about young, blind artists and exemplary teachers, librarians, and volunteers for use in creating human-interest stories. See our samples for ideas.
- Late August/early September: Send an editorial memo (a written memorandum with specifics about an issue editors and reporters can use to develop their own stories) to all education/culture editors of local newspapers and family publications. See our samples for ideas.
- September: Send an editorial memo to all TV and radio producers interested in issues related to education/parenting and follow up with phone calls.
- Late September/early October: Send human-interest stories to media interested in publishing them.
- October: Write an Op-Ed (Opinion-Editorial, a piece written by a member of the community who has a particular point of view) to be signed by a local spokesperson or celebrity, and work to get it placed in the newspaper. Call the Editorial Page editor to see if he or she is interested in receiving an article on art for blind people.
Objective #2: Obtain publicity for the Art Beyond Sight Collaborative, Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, and your institution.
Tasks:
- Perennial: Branding is critical for publicity. Always use the term "Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month" rather than "Awareness Month."
- August: Send save-the-date announcements to local publications.
- August/September: Send announcement and activity ideas to editor of the "kids' page" of local paper or contact local Newspapers in Education staff.
- September: Create a video PSA (public service announcement) with a local spokesperson(s).
- Late September: Send an editorial memo about Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month to columnists interested in education and culture.
- Late September: Send Art Beyond Sight human-interest stories to all interested reporters.
- Late September/early October: Work to get a local anchor or reporter on a morning talk show to mention or promote Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month.
- November: Have the kids in your program create a huge thank-you card to send the week after Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month in appreciation for a good story. You might even contact the reporter to see if he or she would host a group of kids from your program so they can see what it's like to work at a TV or radio station or newspaper office. Maintaining that relationship once the event is over will help you the next time you are looking for some publicity.
- December/January: Stay in contact with reporters who produce stories. Contact them to see if they'd be interested in doing a follow-up story.
Objective #3: Focus media attention on Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month events.
Tasks:
- Plan your event with the press in mind. Some things to remember:
- Include good visuals . Make sure your event has lots of color and action, and signs or banners with your program name and “Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month” prominently displayed.
- Choose two or three spokespeople . They might include a teacher, a parent or volunteer, a prominent member of the community, or an articulate youngster. Make sure your spokespeople have the messages you've created and are familiar with all aspects of the event.
- Sign up reporters and identify them with badges or nametags as they enter your event so everyone knows who they are. You also might want to assign volunteers to stay with reporters, to introduce them to people, explain activities and answer questions.
- Two weeks before your event: Send a media advisory (who, what, where and when) that will serve as an invitation to reporters on your press list. If you have a news service bureau in your community (Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters), be sure to fax a copy of the advisory to the "Daybook Editor."
- One week before your event: Call all reporters/editors/producers who were sent the advisory to make sure they received it and find out if they (or someone from their media outlet) can make it to the event. If they are unable to attend, ask if you can send a news release on the day of your event. Many news outlets may be willing to print a press release, but are unable to send a reporter to an event.
- Write a news release as soon as all event details are nailed down. The news release is written like a news story, but has the advantage of being written from your point of view. It contains quotes form important people, background on your program and Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, and always contains your top three messages. It should be no longer than two pages double-spaced. It must list a contact person and daytime and evening numbers. Because you will distribute the news release at your event, it should be written in the past tense.
- Put together a press kit. You will only need as many kits as the number of reporters you think will show up for your event. The kit should, at the least, contain the news release, a one-page background sheet on your program, and the Frequently Asked Questions about Art Beyond Sight.
- Distribute press kits at a "press sign-in table" at your event.
Adapted with permission from the National Educators Association
Media Advisory: Sample Media Alert
PLEASE NOTE: The following materials have been taken from Art Beyond Sight's Awareness Month Web site to provide an example of how to create a media program. Please adapt it to meet your needs.
Distribute two weeks prior to event:
Use this media advisory to alert the people on your media list about your upcoming events. For maximum effectiveness, you should send it out two weeks before your events. Be sure to read Media Tips for information on building a media list, and to see how this advisory fits into your overall media strategy.
Contact:
Phone:
e-mail:
For immediate release
[today's date]
[headline – INSTITUTION joins others across the world in a massive Art Beyond Sight outreach activity]
Blind people in [your town] will join thousands of their peers around the world in experiencing and celebrating their access to art during the month of October.
"Everyone has to the right to learn about the shared culture and art of our world and to participate in the thrill of artistic self-expression. Since all the research shows that people who are blind can experience art,” says [president of your institution], "museums, schools, parents, and community members are joining together to make universal access to art a reality.”
Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month is sponsored by the Art Beyond Sight Collaborative, an international group of researchers, blind people, educators, museum professionals, tactile graphics experts, and people from pretty much every field that is in any way related.
One of the goals of Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month is to make people aware of just how important pictorial literacy, or familiarity with common visual images, is in daily life. Conversation is sprinkled with references to common visual experiences that people who are blind do not commonly have, but which they could have, and which Art Beyond Sight is committed to giving them.
WHO:
WHAT:
WHERE:
WHEN:
Visit www.artbeyondsight.org for the latest information about other celebrations to include here.
[If you have photographs appropriate to your event/press release, include them in your press kit, and key them to captions at the bottom of this page. Or, note that “photographs are available upon request.”]
Sample Letter
This letter is written largely from the viewpoint of a museum professional. Feel free to adapt it to your needs.
Dear _________,
[Institution] has been always been at the forefront of diversity and inclusion, and, true to its mission, it is now taking a leading role in Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month. Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month is a project of Art Education for the Blind and the Art Beyond Sight Collaborative of which [institution] is a proud member.
The Art Beyond Sight Collaborative includes institutions and professionals who have been working for years on the joint issues of researching the cognitive capacity of blind people to understand and enjoy visual information, creating the tools with which such information can be conveyed to people without sight, and raising awareness among both people who are blind and institutions providing services to those people about the research and tools that have been made available. Among these institutions are the Museum of Modern Art in New York , the Cummer Museum of Arts and Gardens in Florida , the Finnish National Gallery, the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille, and our own [institution]. During Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month, [insert dates], m useums, schools, libraries and blind and sighted people from around the world come together to address the problem of making art and the cultural history of the world accessible to all.
[Institution] will be hosting a [event name] on [date] for [target population]. [While the event is targeted to people who are blind or visually impaired,] this is an opportunity for the whole community to come out in support of our museum and its diversity. [If having community event, such as art show or concert, elaborate].
Sincerely yours,
[name]
[institution]
[phone]
[e-mail]
[address]
Sample Letter
Save the Date!
Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month [event name]!
[Institution] invites anyone and everyone with an interest in making arts and culture a part of the lives of people with visual disabilities to a community day of learning and interaction. [insert date] is Art Education for the Blind's Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month around the globe, an international initiative dedicated to making art accessible to all. You will learn new things about making museums and our culture's rich visual heritage accessible and appreciable to those people who are blind or have low vision.
One of the goals of Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month is to make people aware of just how important pictorial literacy, or familiarity with common visual images, is in daily life. Conversation is sprinkled with references to common visual experiences that people who are blind do not commonly have, but which they could have, and which Art Beyond Sight is committed to giving them.
Join members of your own visually impaired community and others worldwide at [insert location], on [insert date]. At [insert time] there will be a [event]. Come; bring your family, and friends. There will be plenty of fun for everyone!
Mark your calendars now! If you have any questions, feel free to call [insert contact name and phone number].
Join in! The Art Beyond Sight Collaborative listservs are your resource to experts in every field. Go to www.artbeyondsight.org for more formation about our listservs, Awareness Month and other invaluable resources.
Meeting with Advisory Board About an Open House
- Develop Concept for Open House
What kinds of experiences would you like to have available? Tactile, tours, art making, art exhibition, tours of facilities, lectures, guest speakers, artists, other professional resources to highlight.
- Create List of Possible Sponsors, i.e. Local Businesses
- Develop List of Contacts and Invitees
- Print Materials: Postcard Invitations, Posters, Handouts; Credit Funders and Sponsors
- Develop Budget
Include materials, refreshments, staffing (educators, security, maintenance), and funding source for event (in-kind donations of materials and time).
- Assign Responsibilities
Checklist: Community Outreach
- Compile mailing list of local organizations and contact persons, using this list as a guideline. This may be a good project for your interns.
- Professional artists and amateurs who are blind or visually impaired
- Parents/families of blind children
- Art lovers and museum goers with sight loss
- Seniors with sight loss
- Veterans with sight loss
- Homebound individuals with sight loss
- Blind students in schools for the blind and public schools
- School educators
- University programs for teachers of visually impaired students; graduate students
- Researchers and university professors
- Recreational counselors
- Ophthalmologists and optometrists
- School administrators, special education divisions at the Department of Education, Federal Quota trustees
- Art therapists who work with visually impaired people
- Librarians and libraries for the blind and physically handicapped
- National organizations of blind people
- Design publicity, according to your budget, ranging from simple large-font fliers, to color postcards, and posters. Re-design these files for e-mail distribution.
- From your mailing list, create a database to track responses to mailing.
- Contact your information services manager to determine what kinds of networking options you might have: listservs, newsletters, automatic mailing lists, etc., to keep the flow of information between potential participants and museum fast and efficient.
Checklist: Open House
Before Event:
- Design publicity for your Open House. Verify information, such as date, time, place. Make sure it is as accessible as possible to the visually impaired: large, clear graphite font, clear contrast. Refreshments are often a draw—mention them in the publicity if possible. The design can then be incorporated into fliers and invitations.
- Generate small posters or fliers and distribute to community partners.
- Mail press releases two to three weeks before and week of event.
- Mail invitation and/or registration-form mailing.
- Track RSVPs. Follow up on those who do not respond, if possible.
- Create information packets (folders or bags) that can include:
- Museum and Education Department mission statements
- Exhibition or permanent collection descriptions
- Program descriptions
- Postcards of works in collection
- Sample tactiles
- Evaluations of the Open House
- Design and organize tour of your institution. Contact security, visitor services, etc., to alert them of your needs.
- Design other activities—lectures, tactile demonstrations, verbal description demonstrations, meet the artists sessions, and so forth.
- Organize refreshments.
At the event:
- Provide contact/mailing list sign up sheet. You may want to give those attending the option of obtaining a copy of the list, as well as having their names distributed as a contact. This will help the participants contact each other. They, of course, may choose not to have their names disseminated and just be on the museum's mailing list.
- Have enough staff and volunteers available to assist attendees, answer questions, and serve refreshments.
After event:
- Generate a contact list (compiled during the Open House and distributed it after the event to facilitate networking follow-up calls).
Troubleshooting Tips: Community Outreach
- To Find Local Blind Children. If there is no residential school for the blind in your community, and you do not know how to locate blind children in public schools, contact the local department of education and get in touch with the person responsible for working with children with disabilities in the public schools. Staff may not be at liberty to share the addresses of their students and educators who work with them. But you can ask them to send out a letter introducing your program or your invitation to an event. Another way to contact families is through local chapters of national organizations of parents of blind and visually impaired children.
- To Find Local Blind Adults. There are people with visual impairments who are neither in school nor members of national organizations. Many lost their sight recently. Get in touch with them through rehabilitation centers, centers for independent living, veterans' organizations, senior centers, and centers that serve diabetics. You may also want to send a flier to local ophthalmologists or the ophthalmology department of your local hospital.
- Use Technology. If people you contact have difficulty leaving their homes, try to arrange telephone conference classes or distance learning via the Internet.
- Keep Contact Info. A common problem with organizing ongoing programming is encouraging the second or return visit. It is important to write down the contact information of each visitor and keep them informed about events at your museum. Make sure that your contact database includes the type of accessible format that a person prefers to receive information (braille, large print, or email).
- Think Ahead. When scheduling an event, give advance notice and consider your audience's transportation needs. Find out about the public transportation services for blind people in your area and how your visitors can make arrangement to come to your event. Advance notice is also important for those who will come with a sighted companion or who will use alternative transportation, i.e., a friend or family member to drive them.
Troubleshooting Tips: Planning an Open House
- Ways to Prevent Low Turnout.
- Ask that people confirm their attendance by sending RSVPs or by calling. Not everyone will, but if you get no responses you will know that you need to step up your awareness campaign.
- When planning the event, find out if transportation is available for your intended audience at that time.
- One excellent way of having good attendance is to have a concurrent event, such as an exhibit of work by artists who are blind, artworks made by students or participants in your art-making program who are blind or visually impaired, or to have an artist who is blind speak about his or her work, followed by a reception.
- Expect Criticism. Participants in your Open House are likely to express different or even conflicting criticisms about the program. For instance, one person may feel that there was too much emphasis on verbal description without enough of a tactile component, while another may feel that the tactile part of the program was overdone and that you need more verbal description. With people who are blind and visually impaired, as with all audiences, you may find that you cannot please everyone. Consider the needs of most, and you'll be doing well.
- Be Open to Change. If you find that some people needed more assistance or felt left out, apologize and find out why. You may hear simply that there were not enough staff members, in which case you will need to improve visitor/staff ratio next time. If, however, people say that there were enough helpers around but that your assistants simply didn't know how to help, ask them for more details, and invite them to come speak with your staff about things they could do to be more effective.
- Don't Wait. Sometimes people are reluctant to host an Open House before their program is fully operational. However, the purpose of the Open House is as much to boost attendance at the museum and increase the feeling of museum community, as it is to showcase the program and get feedback. Having an Open House will increase your attendees' sense of ownership about your museum and collection, and will make them more likely to attend any program you do develop.
Funding Strategies: Community Outreach and Open House
Low cost.
- Contact your development office for grant-giving organizations that may have an interest in programs for seniors or for people who are blind and visually impaired.
- Reduce costly mailings. Avoid color pamphlets, posters or mailings. Send large-print fliers with simple illustrations and follow up with phone calls. Try to contact as many of the groups in the above list as possible, but focus on contacting organizations or schools, where you are likely to reach many people at once.
- Buttons with large print/braille are excellent tools. They can be taken home as souvenirs, publicity, and reminders.
- Prepare certificates of participation for children, and letters of appreciation (follow-up) to the schools, libraries, and rehabilitation centers that are represented. Certificates of participation can be exhibited on institutions' walls, which will lead to more publicity about your program.
- Try to get the use of a facility in your community; it may be willing to share the costs of supplies, refreshments and publicity, and provide services, like cleaning.
No Cost
- The most important and inexpensive factor of a successful Open House is atmosphere. Make sure your staff people are friendly, courteous, polite, and comfortable with blind people.
- DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF WORD OF MOUTH! Make some well-placed phone calls to libraries, centers for the blind, and local chapters of national organizations for the blind. Use people you know to get the word out. Make sure to take down contact information.
- E-mail is also a wonderful, inexpensive method of communication. Many blind people are computer literate and network through listservs. If you can get information about your program to be disseminated through listservs run for or by people who are blind, you can reach many people.
- GET DONATIONS: There are a lot of things for your event that you can get donated. Do not be shy to ask, and do not forget to thank your kind contributors at the event and in your printed materials. Things you can get donated include space, food and service, poster design, printing posters, making color copies of the materials, event photographer, buttons -- almost anything you need for your event can be donated by a local business or agency.
