Charities across the Channel Islands have been learning about the power of story-telling to help promote awareness and understanding of their work at two special events in Guernsey and Jersey.
The seminars, arranged by the Lloyds Bank Foundation featured panel sessions made up of three media figures in each island, alongside the keynote speaker, John Williams, Vice Chair, Association of Chairs and Communications Consultant.
Each included workshops in which delegates discussed cost-effective digital content solutions led by Digital Communications Specialist, Kirsty Marrins, and panel sessions in which delegates could ask members of the media questions about piecing together effective and efficient stories. More than 150 charity representatives attended across the islands, as well as States members and senior civil servants.
Keynote speaker, John Williams, gave some simple and sound advice about how one person and one story can be so much more powerful than a set of figures.
He said: “Take it back to something people can connect with because people don’t connect with statistics.”
The panel of media members included James Filleul and Laura Clayton from Bailiwick Express, Naomi Dunning of BBC Radio Jersey, Simon Jupp from ITV Channel TV, Shaun Green of the Guernsey Press, and Tamara Timothy from Contact magazine.
Katie le Quesne, Chair, Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands, moderated both panel sessions and said: “The purpose of the seminars was to help local charities improve their communication and particularly to encourage them to use social media in addition to the traditional media outlets of TV, print, and radio. In this way, they would be more effective at telling their story to attract interest and raise funds.”
Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands work in partnership with charitable organisations which support people, particularly who are disadvantaged and disabled, to play a fuller role in the community. In addition to the grant programme, the Foundation also offers non-financial support for charities through the sharing of time, expertise and skills with one-to-one support for charities and through its annual seminars which focus on trending issues in the charitable sector to educate, debate, and form solutions for the local charity leaders.
