Thank you for your dedication to leading an outreach for the Justice for Workers campaign. Your efforts are essential in growing the movement for decent work for all.
Just finished your own local outreach? You can use either our Google Spreadsheet or Google Form to input the contact information for supporters who want to get involved in the fight for decent work. If you use the spreadsheet, please make sure to share the completed spreadsheet with <[email protected]>.
Looking to plan your own outreach? Our step-by-step guide is packed with valuable tips and best practices gathered from our collective experience to help you conduct a successful and impactful outreach.
Leading an outreach is important because it allows us to engage in one-on-one conversations with members of our community, addressing their concerns and questions about key issues like raising the minimum wage, securing 10 permanent paid sick days, and advocating for permanent resident status for all. Through these discussions, we can inspire confidence and encourage people to join us in the fight for workers' rights.
This guide will help you conduct a successful and impactful outreach, making a real difference in the lives of workers and their families. You can download and print this resource here.
1. Strategically pick a time, date, and location
- When and where works best in your community to reach new supporters? Mainstreets? Festivals? Apartments? Rush hour transit stops?
- When and where is best for your core team? If the best time is Sundays from 10 am to 12 noon, start planning from there.
2. Promote the event, personally invite people, and send reminders
- Organising is about bringing new leaders into the movement. It’s not only what you bring to the table, but who else you bring with you.
- Promote the event: Put up posters, create event listings on social media, and send out group emails. But don’t just rely on indirect promotion. The best way to bring people out is through personal 1-on-1 conversations.
- Send a reminder call, text, or email a day before (and the day of) the event. Be clear about where you are meeting. Leave a phone number or email for people to contact in case folks get lost.
- Small is beautiful. If 3 people show up for the action, that’s great! We must start small to grow big.
3. Assign roles to your team before the action
- Outreach actions can be hectic. Dividing up the tasks before the action lowers everyone’s stress level and ensures everyone is clear about what everyone is working on.
- Roles can include:
- Preparing and bringing all the materials (petitions, pens, posters, decorations, tables, music);
- Facilitating the introduction and debriefing;
- Promoting and inviting people to the action;
- Experienced outreach leads to pair up with new organizers;
- Getting the contact information of every activist who attended;
- Taking photos to post on social media.
4. Create a welcoming and friendly atmosphere
- Decorate and make the space yours. This could mean: Postering all 4 corners of a street intersection; playing upbeat music; or setting up a table with hot chocolate, a nice tablecloth, and factsheets.
- If you’re on the move doing door-knocking in apartments or houses, folks can wear buttons, lanyards, or carry clipboards decorated with a campaign poster.
5. Have a great outreach!
- Start the action with a group introduction. What is the petition? What issues are we talking about today? What conversations would people run into during this action?
- Practice with a roleplay.
- Ensure everyone participates at their comfort level. Not everyone starts off comfortable talking to the public, and that's ok. Pair people up with experienced organizers so they have a great experience. Alternatively, some people might prefer putting up posters or dropping flyers in people’s mailboxes.
- Respect people’s time. If folks are getting tired or you’re running out of time, don’t push it till you finish the apartment building or collect a certain number of signatures.
- It's better to end on time and leave people excited to attend the next action. Plan for a manageable time: 1 or 2 hours max.
6. Debrief and decompress
- Take a photo! It helps with promoting future events and celebrating the people who came.
- Announce how many signatures and contact information was collected as well as how many posters were put up.
- Leave time for a group debrief. How did it go? What was a great conversation? What challenges did we face? Make room for people to celebrate and/or vent.
- If possible, do this at a local coffee shop or park where folks can rest and have a snack.
7. Follow up and plan the next action
- Remember the rule of halves: Spend the same amount of time doing follow-up as you do outreach.
- Input or type up the new contact information of people who signed as soon as possible. Try to call them or email them the same day. You can use either our Google Sheet Template or our Google Form to input your contacts. If you use, the Google Sheet, please make sure to share the completed spreadsheet with <[email protected]>
- Keep a record of the folks that attended. Having a list of activists who came out in the past is a great place to start inviting future actions.
- Have a time/date/location for the next event so you can follow up with everyone soon to let folks know about the next action.
