6.1 Disseminating
Your Results
What
is Dissemination? | Giving
Presentations | Working
With The Media | Other
Ways of Getting The Word Out
What is Dissemination?
Dissemination
is the process of communicating the lessons learned from the
project and evaluation to relevant audiences in a way that
is timely, honest and consistent. It means getting the word
out to all those who were involved in and supported your project.
The strategy you’ll use to disseminate your results should
be designed in advance with your stakeholders and community
partners.
Why Disseminate
Your Results?
It’s important
to share the Iearnings of your mental health promotion project
with as many different audiences as possible. Disseminating
information about your project, including your evaluation
findings, helps to:
- provoke
thinking and discussion about the issues you’re working
on;
- encourage
others to take action on the issue;
- attract
volunteers, funding and in-kind resources from local citizens
and agencies;
- maintain
and renew interest and commitment to your project;
- raise
the profile of your efforts, and lets people know what you’ve
been doing to improve the quality
of life for people in your community;
- establish
a network of people and agencies with similar goals;
- encourage
community partnerships to promote mental health.
Who Are Your
Audiences?
Those
who have supported your work in the community should be the
first to know about your findings. Volunteers, funders, and
others who have contributed to your efforts need to be kept
up- to-date on your group’s efforts and successes.
Sharing
your results beyond the individuals and groups immediately
involved in your efforts will help to raise interest and awareness
of your mental health issue more widely. Some of the key groups
that you might want to share your findings with will include:
- civic
organizations;
- grassroots
and advocacy organizations;
- business
groups;
- church
groups;
- the
local press;
- health
and social service agencies;
- elected
and appointed local government officials;
- funding
agencies.
How Do You Get
The Word Out?
The best
way to begin your dissemination strategy is to identify a
variety of different avenues for getting the word out about
your project. Some of these may include:
- giving
presentations - to community members, local agencies,
local politicians, civic and business groups, service clubs,
etc;
- working
with the media - newspapers, radio and television;
- other
ways of getting the word out:
- writing
reports
- creating
newsletters
- using
the internet to create a website for your project,
- accessing
professional journals by collaborating with university
or college based research teams.
In this
section we explore the different avenues of dissemination,
so that you can decide on the best way to get the word out
about your mental health promotion project.
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The
plan for disseminating the final results of the Inclusion
project was built in from the very beginning, and was
included in the initial project proposal. A substantial
component of the project itself involved documenting
the experiences of the project as it unfolded in different
communities.
In
the ‘Guide to Local Action’, the resource guide developed
by the participants and project staff, each site presented
its own discussion of how the participants felt they
had done in reaching the goals they set for themselves,
as well as the overall goals set by CMHA National.
The
guide tells the story of the different communities as
a way to encourage others to create their own inclusion
projects. Each site’s section included participants’
own reflections on their work: what worked, what didn’t
and why. These reflections form the basis of the broader
analysis of the common issues raised in the sites. Each
site also includes a short synopsis of the results of
its Inclusion project.
A
Guide to Local Action was distributed nationally to
CMHA Branches and Divisions, as well as many other community
groups. The inclusion project was featured in several
newsletters, such as Community Action, the magazine
of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, CMHA
branch and division news-letters, and consumer/survivor
newsletters.
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6.1
Disseminating Your Results - Giving Presentations >
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