Is there an issue that affects you or your community, something you want to get more people talking about?
Diss HomePage allows discussions about any of the content posted here, and sometimes that might be all that’s needed.
But at other times, there might be something happening locally that you feel needs wider attention. You might be the person who wants to raise awareness and get more people involved. In short, you might want to start a campaign of your own.
The basics of campaigning
Successful campaigns depend on a handful of simple rules and ideas:
Have a goal for your campaign, so you can measure how well it has worked when you get to the end
Gather together a team of supporters to spread the workload and generate plenty of ideas
With the help of the team, put together a plan of the activities you’re going to organise
Work out which people or groups you need to target; who is it that actually makes decisions, and how can they be influenced by your campaign?
For more detailed advice on putting together your own campaign, download the documents at Campaign Creator – they’re packed with practical tips.
People worth contacting
There are lots of ways you can make your opinions known to the powers that be. The only difficult bit is knowing who to contact.
You can write to your local MP about any issue, and they will usually do whatever is in their power to help. Contrary to popular opinion, MPs spend a great deal of time outside the House of Commons, writing letters back to constituents.
The MP for South Norfolk (including Diss) is Richard Bacon, and you can contact him via his website.
It’s also worth contacting local councils; either through your local elected councillor (who will often know where to point you to, if they don’t know the answer to a question themselves), or via one of the paid council officials.
County councils (like Norfolk County Council) deal with larger, more expensive services like education, emergency services, and roads. District councils (like South Norfolk Council) look after things like planning applications, rubbish & recycling, leisure centres, and bus passes.
Other useful things worth knowing
They Work for You is an excellent website that publishes everything that’s said in Parliament. If you want to know what’s been said about your town, your street, or the issue that concerns you in either the House of Lords or the House of Commons, you can search They Work for You and find out.
The Government information website direct.gov is chockablock with useful information about all sorts of national and local issues, policies, and decision making bodies. It’s worth trying a search there using a variety of keywords related to your issue.
If you need funding for a campaign, look at the helpful information at sites like Funder Finder, Grants Online, and the Charities Aid Foundation.
Pledgebank and Meetup are good websites that can help you spread the word and get help. JustGiving is great for fundraising, because it handles all the money-collecting on your behalf. You just have to come up with a good idea and get the word out to potential sponsors.
