In a recent workshop as part of the FPA Professional Institute, twenty participants sat around a meeting table, sharing their experiences with the media.
One described how she couldn’t convince a reporter to give anonymity to a vulnerable client. Another was depicted negatively after replying, “No comment.” And a third was peppered with the same question over and over, despite saying that she couldn’t answer it.
Not only did Derek Antoine, a long-time communications professional and one of the course instructors, offer his advice, but so did many of the other 20 professionals in the room.
“The advantage of these courses is that you’re getting professional guidance from experienced instructors, but you’re also gaining the wisdom of everyone else there,” explains Antoine. He and Carleton University instructor Gina Grosenick led the “Strategic Communication for Nonprofits” workshop as part of the FPA Professional Institute in June. Antoine is a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at Carleton University while Grosenick has more than 20 years of experience as a nonprofit communicator.
The Institute is offering six courses this year, ranging from advice for health communicators dealing with vaccine hesitancy to instruction on mining big data sets for new stories.
The workshops reflect the Faculty of Public Affair’s mission to contribute to informed citizenship, stronger democracy and better societies, both at home and abroad.
Khaled Salam, the executive director of the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, found the camaraderie in the small group setting beneficial.
“This workshop provided best practices, practical tools and valuable dialogue among participants regarding strategic planning and the use of various forms of current day media to assist organizations in achieving their mission, goals and objectives,” wrote Salam in an email.
In the case of “Strategic Communication for Nonprofits”, Gina Grosenick and Derek Antoine reviewed not only their recommendations for strategic communications plans, but also covered much of the research on effective communications. The workshop finished with a practice session on media relations, including mock television interviews.
Based on the feedback of this year’s participants, the pair are hoping to expand their course next year.
