3.6  Mobilize the Community

In some communities, there is a need to improve community readiness in relation to increasing support from stakeholders. Although building coalitions involves developing formal organizational structures, it must also involve program implementation and development. Coalitions are fragile. Members must experience benefits to their community, their organizations, and themselves to remain committed.

Recruit coalition members. Think of recruitment as an ongoing process. Coalition members can be recruited from prevention agencies or the general population. Recruiting for larger coalitions can be a full-time job, so consider hiring an experienced recruiter. Recruit people who have a strong sense of community, are homeowners who have lived in their neighborhood for an extended period of time, and who plan to remain in their neighborhood. Recruit by direct invitation through friends. Ask existing coalition members to themselves recruit one or two friends each year or each 6 months. Conduct media campaigns with call-in telephones for volunteers. Conduct direct mail recruitment efforts to neighborhood residents, and conduct recruitment at coalition events, town hall meetings, and trainings.

Train coalition members. Training improves the likelihood of effective participation and is often viewed as a reward. Provide an orientation and develop a handbook for new members that includes the history of the coalition, and its mission, goals, structure, and membership. Repeat the orientation program at regular intervals. Conduct training sessions to integrate new members into existing teams. Assign new members to a buddy who can provide the institutional history, rules, support, and encouragement. Ask senior buddies to contact new members when they miss meetings or provide help with transportation or other barriers.

Promote coalition participation. Conduct an inventory of coalition members’ professional and nonprofessional skills and interests. From this inventory, develop a skills bank or matrix that can be used for organizing activities and events. Develop a telephone tree to reach coalition members for events. In this system, members routinely call several other members, who in turn, call several other members until all members are reached. Retired members often enjoy conducting this task. Send postcards for reminders. Develop a newsletter to keep all members informed of coalition activities. Develop a listserv if sufficient numbers use email.

Convene coalition events. Coalition events can educate and motivate. They provide opportunities to share information in a relaxed setting, allow members to get to know each other, and recognize and celebrate group and individual achievements. They can permit recruitment of new members. They can provide opportunities for local print and television media to promote coalition activities. Develop task forces to carry out some of the coalition event activities, especially those with event management skills. Seek in-kind donations for food, beverage, space, entertainment, setups, and cleanups. See The Resource Library for meeting event checklists.