Module 4. Unit 4. Communicating ideas for improvements in the local area 1

Investigating the practicalities of the 15 minute city concept in your local area

Students will develop a presentation on the ideas which were discovered from the previous sections of the course to an ‘audience’. This may be internal to the institution but ideally could be made to decision makers.

e.g. providing student agency by drawing in local politicians, councillors or members of the planning department to share their thoughts and findings. Local press / newspapers / bloggers could also be invited if appropriate.

Identify appropriate stakeholders to which the plans need to be communicated. This will vary depending on the nature of the local area, and the way that it is administered locally, regionally and nationally. Consider what is required to have in place for this to be a success.

Choose a preferred method, using ideas from the modules 1-3

While making a plan for communication, you should consider some basic questions:

  • Why do you want to communicate with the community?
  • Who do you want to communicate it to?
  • What do you want to communicate?
  • How do you want to communicate it?
  • Whom should you contact and what should you do in order to use those channels

How can you develop a plan for communication?

While doing so, you should keep in mind the following steps:

  • Define the message you want to share
  • Evaluate the resources available to you
  • Consider possible obstacles to getting the message across
  • Analyse how to exploit potential links to other people and open data / media
  • Organise a plan for communication and decide how to monitor and modify it to achieve your results

Remember Module 3, and the following issues to consider:

  • Content: your audience may influence the effectiveness of your message 
  • Language: it may differ depending on the audience. Consider the possibility of translating into other languages to widen the impact of your message as well. What translation options are available?
  • Mood: keep your tone positive
  • Design: increase the visibility of your message, exploiting channels offering higher visibility, including social media, websites, posters, newsletters as well as the face to face conversation you have with the audience