Build your team

Building a small team of volunteers and partners will be the first important step to set you up for success. You don’t need to have everyone on board from the very beginning but try to build a small group of committed people who possess some of the skills and experience below and (most importantly) share your passion and enthusiasm for making your town or village the best that it can be!

Some of the jobs that will need to be filled include the following:

The Organising Team

• Communications, Design & Marketing - this is the person who’ll be responsible for everything communications related. The person who makes sure everyone knows what projects you’re planning and how they can get involved as well as telling your story to local media and managing your social media accounts.
• Financials & Governance - this is the person that will make sure everything is in order from a finance and legal perspective. This may not seem important at the very beginning but if your group grows and you begin fundraising to cover the costs of projects as well as working with a large group of volunteers, having this stuff in order will save you headaches further down the line.
• Project Planning & Leadership - this is the person who loves to plan and organise! It’s important to have a project manager who can help plan out the projects and assign volunteers, resources etc.

You may be good at one or all of these things but make sure that across the team you have everything covered. Roles don’t need to be too clearly defined from the outset but it’ll make your life easier as the project grows.

Partners

• These are the local businesses or organisations you’ll need on board to help make your projects a success.
• Paintshop - your local paint supplier or hardware store.
• Space to store your materials - maybe a local hardware store or garage that has some extra space.
• Media Partners - local radio, local newspaper, community groups on social media e.g. Tidy Towns and resident’s associations.
• Local artists

Selezionare 2 progetti

Una volta costituito il team e iniziato il reclutamento dei partner locali, il passo successivo è selezionare i primi due progetti per reimmaginare le aree trascurate o fatiscenti della vostra città. Forse avete già individuato le aree che avrebbero bisogno di una rinfrescata o non sapete da dove cominciare?

In ogni caso

, riunire il vostro team e passare un po' di tempo a passeggiare per la vostra città individuando edifici, vicoli, ponti e strade vi fornirà l'ispirazione necessaria per iniziare.

È meglio iniziare con idee che non siano troppo grandi o impegnative e che sapete di poter realizzare con successo.

Il processo di selezione deve essere il più democratico possibile, quindi potrebbe essere una buona idea organizzare un workshop per delineare alcune opzioni e poi far votare il team. In questo modo tutti si sentiranno coinvolti, impegnati e infine orgogliosi di ciò che avete realizzato insieme.

Muraledelle cassette elettriche

Approach local funders

This might sound like the scary part but once you get started and begin improving your town, you’ll realise that lots of people will want to join that journey with you! Local businesses are always looking for opportunities to contribute to the area and supporting a project of your Reimagine team is a pretty great opportunity! The costs are relatively low (approx. €1,000 - 2,000 per project) and the impact will be very clearly visible making the town more attractive for everyone.

There are seed funds available through changex.org to get started, depending on your location. In July 2018, there will be seed funds available to community groups across County Cork. If this is available in your location, it'll provide a great boost to allow you build a local funding base from and show other local funders the impact you can have locally.

Complete training

Before you complete your first project, it’s a good idea to have a practice session so that when it comes to the real deal of painting those electricity boxes or that mural you and your team are pros!

Your Reimagine Nation mentor is someone who has been through this whole process before so they’ll come and visit for a day’s training. You’ll cover some of the basics like stencils, how to use masking tape and painting on different surfaces.

The training will also help you and your team to organise most efficiently to make sure that everything runs smoothly on your first project day.

Implementation and unveiling

Your first project day

It generally works well to assign a day to complete the project. Saturday or Sunday work well to get as many volunteers together as possible. You’ll always have to remain flexible as you’ll need dry weather conditions for any outdoor painting.

Once your first project is complete, you’ll be dying to unveil it to the local community! It can be nice to hold a small launch event on the evening of your project day, inviting along all of your key partners, local businesses, the local council etc. This allows you and your team to show off your hard work, bring to life your vision for Reimagine in your town and celebrate all that’s great about your town or village.

An event like this will be a great way to build more support and awareness of your work which will help in recruiting volunteers, funders and partners for your next project!