United Youth of Australia Public Relations Plan - Report Example

UYA Public Relations Plan xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Institution xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecturer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 Problem statement 3 Situation analysis 3 Description of targeted publics 4 Goals 4 Objective for each public 5 Action plan 6 Communication plan 7 Media strategies 8 Budget 8 Feed back and adjustment of the plans 10 References 11 UYA Public Relations Plan Introduction Public relation is very essential in that it entails cultivation of relations for organization product or services that are favorably with the public using various communication tools and channels (Sheldon 2005). At United Youth of Australia, we believe in maintaining and establishing mentorship projects to assists Muslim Australian student. By way of fundraising events, social networking and through establishing a dialogue with targeted publics, we are confident we can ensure ongoing success for this non-profit organization. We have formulated an initial budget amounting to $5000 AUD, all of which we are confident can be regained through public donation. The budget amount will has been divided among described targeted publics as indicated below in the goals. Problem statement It is quite evident that within UYA funds are needed to support mentorship programs for the Muslims students. Funds are needed to create awareness that will highlight the various barriers faced by Muslims students within Australian communities. Further, funds will be needed to implement personal mentorship programs where Muslims students will receive guidance and counseling individually throughout their studies. More volunteers will be needed so as to cut down the cost likely to be incurred. Situation analysis The United Youth of Australia (UYA) is a non-profit organization concerned with the wellbeing and education of Australian-Muslim students. Because of the various challenges Muslim students face in Australia today, UYA hopes to put into practice personal mentoring programs, intended to provide individual Muslim students with continuing counseling and guidance all the way through their educational life. UYA believes mentors can fulfill a fundamental role in young Muslims lives, helping them overcome difficulty, challenges and misconceptions and helping them flourish emotionally and professionally. Through our public relation strategies, we hope to help UYA reach target publics such as ministry of education, churches and mosques and university administration. Research indicates that a general lack of understanding exists among non-Muslim publics; further contributing to the barriers many young Muslims face in Australian communities. Description of targeted publics In order to ensure that the implementation of the proposed mentorship program, UYA have described targeted publics as; Australian ministry of education University administration Churches and educational associations Parents and other volunteer students Goals 1. UYA targets to increase funding that will ensure that the project will be implemented across all universities and learning institution in Australia. This will be achieved through ii) $ 2500 AUD- Australia ministry of education iii) $1000 AUD- Australian university administration iv) $ 1000 AUD- churches and Australian educational associations v) $ 500 AUD-parents and other volunteer students 2. Ensuring that barriers that exists between Christians and Muslims students across Australia learning institution are destroyed through creating unity and peace through awareness of freedom of religion 3. Guiding and counseling students both Christians and Muslims as a major way of fostering togetherness among all students. 4. To ensure Muslim youths have access to broad and effective personal support throughout their private and academic lives, which in turn will allow them to prosper in their future professional endeavors ( Gregory 2001). Objective for each public 1. Australian Ministry of education To obtain grants from the ministry that will help to meet the expenses of the project Use the ministry to gather more donors more so those from other nations. Merge with the ministry as they carry out national youth campaigns that bring together youths from different backgrounds in so doing popularize them with UYA. To obtain professional mentors from the ministry who will serve as trainers to the volunteer mentors. To obtain enough advise that will boost the success of the project. 2. University administration a) To obtain monthly donations from universities with mixed religions across the country. b) Get permission from the administration of these universities to frequent their library and other resource facilities in order to acquire knowledge related to mentorship from either books, journals or the internet. c) Seek permission to conduct regular workshops within the universities with the Muslim students and to recruit volunteers from them. d) To introduce Muslim movements in the universities so as create confidence in Muslim students. 3. Mosques and Educational associations i. To cooperate with educational associations and start a campaign to stop discrimination of Muslim students. ii. To get links with Muslim leader in top positions in government to be voice out the issue in parliament so that it can be addresses as a national issue. iii. To alert all leaders in Mosques and other social gatherings of the existence UYA in order to capture any interested youth. iv. To obtain regular financial donations from mosques to help fund the project. 4. Parents and other volunteer students To obtain funds and donations from the parents. Recruit volunteers from the students to work as mentors. Some parents could also be recruited as volunteers. To conduct regular conferences with Muslim parents to sensitize them and educate them on how to raise the self-confidence of their children. Get genuine request of Muslim parents who are unable to educate their children and find ways of raising such funds ( Cook 2002). Action plan 1. Australian Ministry of education Submit application for grants to the ministry of education in addition to other ministries such as the Ministry of sports and youth affairs as well as the ministry of finance. Send an yearly budget to the ministry together with the grants application from Send regular time tables so that the ministry can consider our activities as they plan for their own. Forward a list of the professional volunteers who might be availed by the ministry such as mentors, financial experts and project managers. 2. University administration Select representatives to represent UYA in crucial decision making forums. Submit donation applications forms. Post regular newsletters to emphasis on the progress of UYA and to inform them of upcoming events. 3. Mosques and educational associations Appoint a team of speakers to visit and address at least three mosques and one association every month. Develop a follow up team to direct newly recruited members from the mosques. The team will also be responsible for reaching out to other stakeholders such as the ministry and universities. Post regular newsletters to notify members of any new activities. 4. Parents and volunteer students Obtain their cell phone numbers and email addresses in order to communicate with them effectively. Conduct frequent meetings with them more so when the schools are on recession. Provide the donor parents with donations forms (Smith 2009). Communication plan It is crucial for UYA to continually keep contact with all the stakeholders involved in the project. This will not only boost the smooth running of UYA but will assist much in a system whereby everyone is accountable for their actions. Membership forms are of paramount importance at the onset of the project. These forms should be submitted to all potential stakeholders and the feedbacks keenly assessed to determine the positive responses. The forms should provide enough details on addresses such as physical location, mobile/office phone numbers and email address. The board can make calls or use short text messages to communicate some minor issues. However, when the issue is of a greater magnitude, especially those involving money, representative should be sent to the respective areas. UYA will utilize newsletters to be posted to universities, ministry of education and mosques at least once per week. In so doing, the stakeholders will be kept at bay with every progress of the project. Letters, grant application forms and other formal documents will be sent via emails. UYA also plans to conducts frequent fund raising events to bring together the stakeholders and communicate any new information to them during such events ( Grunig et al 2002). Media strategies The organization through its top management will purpose to contact the local reporters from the surrounding radio stations. The main purpose for this is to have their stories to be featured in the local newspapers and TV news bulletins. This will enable the organization to enhance the knowledge of the society on their activities thus being able to advertise their services to a wider network. Other issues that will be raised through the media include press releases on the fund raisers and being able to raise the awareness of the community members and other Islamic youth through radio and TV talk shows. This will be cheaper and faster compared to other communication media. The organization also intends to utilize the available social networking tools like twitter, face book, LinkedIn and Badoo to be able to reach the wider Muslim community that use this networking sites as they are cheap and fastest communication modes in today’s globalized world. An elaborate and well defined mode and organogram is to be drawn to enable effective relaying of information and instructional procedures (Drobis and Tysse). Budget All the public relations plan activities are to be accomplished from the donations from well wishers, the Islamic community and other monies collected from charitable events that are to be organized by the organization in collaboration with the community members. The following is a plan evaluation of how the funds are to be mobilized (Moriarty, 2003). Mobilization of the funds by August 2011 The annual collected funds to be officially committed by April 2011 Volunteers to be committed by the end of April 2011 Mobilization of health care givers and other support staff to volunteer for the course Plan implementation The grant applications are to be completed in advance and the list of the mailings for the Islamic community and well wishers including the local mosques to be completed before April 2011. The secretaries of the UYA are to compile a list of all the associations in the state that are to be involved in the course and identify the strategic venues for the activities. The volunteers are to be assigned with the relevant tasks to foresee the distribution of the mails to the selected and identified partners and other local surrounding institutions. Slots are also to be left out for any other stakeholder who will be interested to join the good course. The mailing process is to be followed up through phone calls and electronic mails (Moriarty, 2003). The UYA volunteer facilitators are to plan for a group presentation that will be aimed at orientating the participants and other new volunteers into the group’s activities. In addition to this, the UYA volunteers in collaboration with the IEC personnel are to design and produce brochures and other IEC materials that are to be used in the UYA activities. A budget for the production is to be drafted and it should be in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of the target community group. The designing and production should be target group specific based on the needs and requirements that had been identified from the results of the baseline survey that was carried out. The UYA management is to form a methodology through which the needs are to be skillfully prioritized. Other relevant counseling and referral facilities are to be identified with great specifications. The development of the brochures is to go hand in hand with the development of other tools that are to be utilized in reaching out to the target audience (Moriarty, 2003). Feed back and adjustment of the plans Clear and elaborate evaluation procedures are to be identified to be able to assess the impact of the project’s activities to the target community. The UYA team is to set up questionnaires that will be able to gauge the participants’ level of knowledge and improvements in behavior. A clear referral system is to be developed to identify the impact indicators of the project on the target beneficiaries. This should be able to link up with the feedback that will enable the organization to assess the effectiveness of their strategies. This will be useful as the organization will be able to have an effective SWOT analysis of their community activities as well as having a basis in the event that they have to make adjustments to their program. Lastly, it is vital for the organization to be able to develop a reporting system that is able to identify the progress of the project. The reporting will also be relevant as it will provide the stakeholders with the information on the appropriate use of the mobilized funds and the impact of the organizations activities to the target community and thus form a basis for further support to the organization (Kelly). Template action plan to be completed by the staff/volunteers. Action step Who is responsible Time frame Impact indicators Resources Remarks References Cook, L. 2002. A public relations plan : information resources. Manchester City: Rowan University. Drobis, D and Tysse, J Maintaining Effective Client-Agency Partnerships accessed from http://www.duhoconline.net/modfnet/Librarian/eBooks/Eco/Mic/Marketing/Summary/Summary%20-%20Public%20relations.pdf on the 10th of August 2011. Gregory , A. 2001.Planning and managing public relations campaigns. London : Kogan. Grunig, L., Grunig, J. and Dozier, E. 2002. Excellent public relations and effective organizations: a study of communication management in three countries. New York: Routledge. Kelly, S. Environmental Issues in Public Relations: A Matter of Credibility accessed from http://www.duhoconline.net/modfnet/Librarian/eBooks/Eco/Mic/Marketing/Summary/Summary%20-%20Public%20relations.pdf on the 10th of August 2011 Moriarty, S (2003). The Big Idea: Creativity in Public Relations cited from http://www.duhoc-online.net/modfnet/Librarian/eBooks/Eco/Mic/Marketing/Summary/Summary%0-%20Public%20relations.pdf on the 10th of August 2011. Sheldon, R.2005. Guide to Managing Media and Public Relations in the Linux Community. London: Linux Professional Institute. Smith, R. 2009. Strategic planning for public relations. New York: Routledge. Read More