Engaging community members, policymakers, and other stakeholders can be an important strategy to reach your communications goal. While each audience requires a targeted message (see Step 3) based on its own motivators (see Step 2), outreach to any audience is based on some common themes.

The "Diffusion of Innovation" Theory
Diffusion of Innovation refers to how and when individuals change their behavior (in this case, participation). This theory tells us that there are groups of people within our target audience who will be easier to persuade to join than other groups. The diagram below depicts how one group may influence another.

• Innovators refer to those individuals who set trends. Others may look to this group to see whether it's OK to join.
• Early Adopters are influenced by Innovators. The ideas or actions that Innovators model will appeal most to Early Adopters-those who are in a preparation or action stage of the Stages of Change model.
• The Early Majority group holds back a bit longer when a new idea or action is presented to see whether it has been accepted or adopted by the Early Adopters. They may need more "evidence" that it's OK to join or participate.
• The Late Majority is the group that doesn't want to be left out. If everybody else is doing it, then they too want to be part of the action.
• The Laggards may never take action. They will likely have the most resistance to an idea or action.

Where would you begin your outreach efforts? Certainly not with the Laggards! In other words, go for the low-hanging fruit. Success breeds success, and if you concentrate your effort on the most difficult group, you'll have very little to show for it.

Increasing Participation in Your Program
"Participation" can mean becoming or remaining a program client or member of your advisory board, finding advocates for policy change or budget decisions, or gaining financial or other support from local businesses. There are essentially three ways to do this:

• Diversifying: Appeal to people who may not even be aware that your program exists. This outreach approach makes sense if you are looking to add members, clients, volunteers, and contributors that bring new energy, ideas, and resources to your organization.
• Broadening: Appeal to people whom you believe would be interested in your program but don't have all the information they need to participate. This outreach approach makes sense if you are looking to add more of the same types of members, clients, volunteers, and contributors.
• Deepening: Gain greater participation from your current members, clients, volunteers, and contributors. This outreach approach makes sense if you are looking to get greater participation from those who currently participate in your program (for example, a parent volunteer becoming a member of your advisory board).

Targeted Messages
Each audience needs to hear a different message to meet your participation goal. For instance:

• If you're trying to diversify your participation, your audience will need to hear why they should participate. They need to know:
  • What's in it for me? Why do I need it?
• If you're trying to broaden your participation base, your audience will need to hear what they'll get if they participate. They need to know:
  • What are you offering? How do I know this is for me?
• If you're trying to deepen your participation base, your audience will need to hear how they can participate more fully. They need to know:
  • OK, I'm here. How else can I get or stay involved? What else can I do?

Ambassadorship
A critical part of outreach work is knowing who can best deliver your message to which audience and who will have the most credibility with your intended audience. Here are some suggestions for conveying your message to a specific audience:

• Parent to parent
• Educator to educator
• Educator to parent
• Community leader to legislator
• Parent to school board member
• Constituent to legislator
• Researcher to foundation

Outreach Channels
There are a number of ways to reach your audience to increase participation:

• Public speaking forums, for example:
• Open houses
• PTA organizations
• Faith-based organizations
• Printed materials, for example:
• Brochures
• Flyers
• Direct mail
• Newsletters
• Media, for example:
• Radio PSAs
• Cable TV
• Local newspapers

Engaging and Retaining Participants
Strategies for parent or community member participation and retention include the following:

• Parent-to-parent networking
• Stipends or other incentives
• Changing program activities
• Training staff
• Recruiting parents as volunteers
• Developing meaningful relationships with other organizations within your community
• Interviewing program dropouts to find out why they left

Outreach to Policymakers
It's important that you understand legislative and other government processes so you can effectively work within their constraints. Relationships with legislators are important and are built over time. Outreach can be both ad hoc and through formal opportunities. Know the policymaker's background, political interests, constituency, and committees; it will then be easier to appeal to a common interest. Most policymakers prefer simple, credible, fact-based messages that are short and to the point. Policymakers receive a lot of information and many appeals; your outreach efforts will stand out if your message is clear, concise and compelling