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Home - Diensten - Onderzoek - Get Organized - Part 3

3. Continuity

You have taken the first step and registered your organization or decided not to do so yet. At any rate you know your mission, vision and aims. Now the real work can start. Part 3 is about mobilizing the target group and keeping them interested, public relations, cooperation and backing and fund-raising.

The target group

The users’ organization now consists of a small number of active participants. You have got your mission, vision and aims, and there is a sizeable group of drug users involved. It is important to preserve this involvement. After all, you are speaking on behalf of a group and should know what is going on in their minds. Now and then you will also need the backing of a larger group, for example if there is a campaign to be put into action. It is not always easy to activate the target group, as was evident in Nikolaev:

• “There might well be a hard core, but the larger group is extremely passive. They want to see an immediate result and refuse to see what is really going on. We try and insure the continuity, so at regular intervals we hold a meeting, no matter what,” said a spokesman of the self-help group from Nikolaev at the seminar in Odessa."

In addition to holding regular meetings, it is a good idea

·         To regularly approach drug users on the street and tell them about the activities and progress being madeiii

·         To publish a Newsletter regularly (four or six times a year) with articles by the target group

·         To approach self-help groups, where enthusiasm for each other is the norm. This group culture is the breeding grounds for activating and stimulating each other

·         To radiate your belief in the power of people to accept them as they are.

 

 Public relations

Changing a negative image is probably part of your mission. If not, you will have to cope with an outside world that has certain ideas about your organization and in the worst case, does not feel it has a right to exist.

The message

To conquer stigmas and prevent a hostile approach from outside, it is good to ask yourself the following questions:
1) What message do we want to communicate?
2) What elements in our organization support this message?
3) What won’t the outside world be willing to accept? ii
 

1)     What do you want to tell the outside world?

It depends on your mission. Here are a few examples:

You can use the name of your organization to convey a large part of your message, as is illustrated by the users’ organizations in Odessa and Zagreb:

2) Which elements in your organization support your position and make the aims easy to understand?

The users’ organizations in Sofia and Moscow have their own ideas about this.

3)     What won’t the outside world tolerate about your organization?

It is obvious that you have to keep your organization from being associated with crime.i The organization in Moscow has the following suggestions. 

Making contact with agencies and institutes

Take a personal approach. Sending a letter is not enough, you need to talk in person. Take along a folder explaining your mission and goals and specifying who to contact at your organization.In the beginning, it can be effective to organize meetings for agencies and institutes, where you explain what you are doing, what your problems are, and what you have achieved.i

Media

Of course the way to reach the public at large is via the media, but it is impossible for some users’ organizations. In many countries, the media support a repressive system. Sometimes you can only get an article printed or your message on radio or tv if you pay for it. So you need to try and build up good relations with a reporter who is sympathetic to your cause. To find the right reporter, adopt an active approach to the media.

The media often are not so interested in a good story. The want something exciting or sensational pictures.

Sometimes it is better to avoid the media, e.g. if your organization has just been set up. It is good to wait until you have achieved something so you can show what you are doing. It can be harmful if articles are written about the organization without your having a say, or an impression is given that you have something to hide.

 

General tips on dealing with the media:

·         Decide beforehand who is your spokesman

·         Ask whether you can see the article before it is printed

·         If you are called by a reporter and you are not quite sure how to react, say you will call back an hour later

·         Formulate some one-liners, a short message, and if necessary write it down on paper.

 

The Open Society Institute and Human Rights Watch developed a guide to press releases. Here are some useful (revised) excerpts.

 

Step 1: Ask yourself the following questions: Have we made this point in previous press releases? (If so, maybe we should find a new angle.) Where is the news cycle on this? Are we informing the public about a court decision, or an arrest? Do we have something to say before the press, at least the daily papers, have written on it? Then jump on it-fast.

Step 2: The headline should be in bold 16-point type and CAPITALIZED (it reads better on e-mail) and it should fit all on one line. Bad headline: "KOLODETS CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION" Good headline: "PRISONERS DESCRIBE SYSTEM INHUMANE AND BARBARIC." Don't be legalistic! A headline should be an attention-grabber. In the headline, you can get away with using the passive tense

Step 3: The lead: follow the 17-word rule. The first sentence of your press release should not exceed seventeen words. Don't put long, complicated names and titles in the lead sentence. Make a reference like "leading French officials" and then wait until the second sentence to enumerate, "Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine and Interior Minister Jean Le Pen" (Are you awake?). If referring to a particular publication, never put the title of the publication in the first paragraph, or even the second or third. The substance of the publication is much more important than its name.

The lead sentence should include somewhere the words, "Open Space representatives said today," or " IDUMS urged the government to," etc. Good verbs to use here are "said," urged," "charged," "called on," "condemned," and "criticized." Don't use fancy verbs like "asserted" or "claimed" they only draw attention to themselves.

The most important thing to remember: we are operating in an attention-deficit world. You have to make someone want to keep reading your press release. If the press release is accompanying a publication with no major news peg, the key here is to tease out the actual news in your report. For example, "'Roma are subject to discrimination, a leading foundation charged in a report released today," is okay. But it's even better to say that Roma are subject to "growing discrimination," to insert that idea that something new is happening. After all, discrimination against Roma is a long-standing problem. What's the news here?

Step 4: Short sentences, short paragraphs. The first paragraph should be one or two sentences long. So should most of the others. The sentences should be short, too-kind of like the ones you're reading here. In general, we aim to sound like a news organization and not like an earnest foundation. Think Hemingway: let events speak for themselves and cut out unnecessary adjectives. A good press release sounds like a good wire-service story. The first quote should come in the third, or even the second, paragraph. Don't wait until paragraph six-the journalist may not read down that far!

Step 5: Our pet peeves. Lawyers: shake yourselves free of legal language. In legal documents, you have to plug up every loophole and every possibility. In press documents, think of yourself as unplugging some holes and letting the breezes go through. You're not talking to other lawyers now. You're talking to your grandmother.

Don't start a sentence with "while" or "despite." Bad: "While long introductory clauses that give you lots of information and explain complicated things at some length are not ungrammatical, we discourage them." Better: "Long introductory clauses are not ungrammatical, but we discourage them."

Step 6: Quotes and how to use them. Quotes do not impart new information. They do not contain statistics. They are just commentary on the information you've provided already.

We quote only people, not the institution. Never: "This re-occurring injustice is appalling," said the Hope 01 Organization. Also, with quotes, we only "say." We do not "assert," "state," or "claim." These words draw attention to themselves and away from the quote itself. Just use "said."

When it comes time to write the quote, take your fingers off the keyboard and look out the window. Start getting really mad about the issue you're writing about or rejoice in the particular success of a grantee. Now imagine your grandmother is sitting in front of you, and she says, "Sweetheart, what are you so mad/happy about?" Tell her. What's the essence of the thing that disgusts/cheers you in all this?

The trick for quotes is: does it really sound like a person said it?

Here's an example of a bad quote: "Access to health care is a top priority for the manifold uninsured who are incapable of getting proper care in a country as rich as the United States and suffer accordingly," said Lenny Benardo. GOOD: "Health insurance should be guaranteed to all Americans," said Benardo.

Step 7: Press releases should be no more than two pages long-ideally, only one. If you find yourself needing to write something longer, then you are trying to convey a lot of background information, which should go into a separate document called a fact sheet or background information. These are very good documents to have ready or prepare when an issue bursts into the news and we know much more about it than most journalists or governments do.

Step 8: Close the door of your office. Read your press release out loud. Which sentences did you stumble over a little? Rewrite them. Which sentences did your eye have to pass over twice? Rewrite them. Does your quote really sound like something a human being would say?

Step 9: Follow up with the journalists you think might actually cover this topic. Phone them. Have your sound bites ready (not the same one you have in the press release, please). Be able to explain in one or two sentences why our information is important in a big-picture sense. Remember to include a judgment on the news-we're not just there to give information or give contacts-we want them to quote our analysis of the situation. Be sure to spell your name, and give your title, at the end of the conversation. This will help to convey to the journalist that you expect to be quoted. But remember-in order to be quoted, you have to say something quotable.

 

Cooperation and support

Most organizations start as part of a harm reduction project and then split off, sometimes because they didn’t agree with the policy, which is too limited. The idea is often that as an independent organization, you can exert more influence on the policy.

If you work with an agency, it is important to make clear agreements about both your expectations, contact people, and which services and facilities can be used.

Pitfalls

Whether or not you are backed by professional agency, there is always the risk of your not being taken seriously, and of people turning to more reasonable drug users. So backing can be withdrawn if you are perceived as being overly militant. Professionals can try to question your right to exist, or decide to back other less critical drug users and their organizations.iii

Cooperating with an agency can also lead to demands being made as regards the activities. This happened to the organizations in  Koper and Voronezh. 

Sometimes the agency you are working with can turn against you. You can make this less likely to happen by have regular talks.i If a confrontation can not be avoided, make sure you have the backing of other agencies or individuals such as a politician or high police official. You can go to the media or to the public health department or some comparable independent agency.

A users’ organization that is part of an agency usually has a fixed contact person. He can get into trouble if the users’ organization is too negative about the agency policy. In the worst case, this can result in his  being dismissed or disqualified. He can also decide to stop working with the users’ organization. The problem can be avoided by having the contact person switch to a different agency. It would be wise for him to not work from within the agency, but from some other address.iii

The list below shows some of the advantages and disadvantages of working with a professional agency.

 

Advantages of working with a professional agency	Disadvantages of working with a professional agency
-          Continuity is insured -          Backing is there -          Professionals have more insight in user expertise and how to apply it  -          Contact is easier to make with other agencies, the police and the justice system -          Cost effective: an office and other facilities free of charge	-          Many users distrust agencies; being linked to an agency can make an organization distrusted -          Users can feel you have treatment privileges -          Chances to criticize agency policy can otherwise be limited; sometimes there is the impression having a say is only for show.

Professional support

It is important to have backing, especially if you organize an action or need expert information. Who can help you? You can never have too many allies, so long as they are really allies. Reaching out and building a broad constituency should be aimed at. Choosing wrong allies can lead to dilution of principles, where on the other hand support sometimes comes from rather unexpected fields.

·         Doctors can provide medical information about replacement substances and infectious diseases. You can also approach them for statistical information that can scientifically support your mission and aims.

·         Lawyers can give advice on matters of justice - and injustice. Try and find a lawyer who is sympathetic to your organization and can help the target group free of charge or for a small fee - a user-friendly lawyer. 

·         Scientists can help collect information about the target group, include the client perspective in their research, or give your mission and aims scientific  backing. 
 

·         Politicians and policy makers can be useful, but don’t get too connected to one party. It would exclude most of the potential support. Besides which, political support can have negative consequences.

·         Human rights organizations can give moral and organizational support, though it is generally difficult to convince them that criminalizing drug use is a human rights violation.
 

·         Religious organizations have an image of reliability. That is why their backing is good for your image. . They can also provide organizational support.

·         In the first instance, the police and the criminal justice system seem to be your arch enemies, but there are people there who support the idea of harm reduction. There are often things they can do to help, such as emphasize the need for harm reduction measures in response to problems involving public order 

·         Users’ organizations in other countries or in the region can also back you. National and international meetings are regularly held. The users’ organization Kolodets in Moscow serves a support function throughout the region. A list server is actively functioning, and is in Russian. If you want to join the list, visit send an e-mail to owner-drugscene_Russia@yahoogroups.com . Another interesting list server is the so-called Drug Policy Foundation Users list server. This is an international list for user activists, the working language is English, and it provides many interesting threads. The list delas with confidential topics, meaning you can only subscribe if you meet with certain criteria, of which being a user activist is the main one.

To join you need to be nominated by a person that is already on the list server and the one that nominates you needs to fill in the following survey:

A.  NAME OF PERSON:

B.  EMAIL DETAILS:

1.          Please give the persons email address below:

2.          Can you confirm that this email is only used by the nominee or other approved list members?

3.          If the person shares a computer within people not on this list or thecomputer is at work, can you confirm that it is password protected?

C.  CRITERIA FOR MEMBERSHIP:

1.          Is the person an International Drug User Activist?

2.          What is the nominees role in drug user activism?

3.          If the person is not a drug user activist, what are the  exceptional reasons why should they be considered for this list?

4.          Is the person committed to harm reduction and a human rights perspective?

 

Funding

Fund-raising is a tool, not a purpose.

(from the NGO Management Training Course,

Civil Society Development Foundation Hungary)

An independent users’ organization needs money to get set up and keep going. To start with, there are expenses for housing, furnishings, communication (post, email, copies, newsletter) and transportation. Your activities will also cost money. If your personnel is paid for their efforts,  the need for funding can become a sizable. This section tells you about fund-raising.

Various sources

There are any number of ways to raise money for your organization. National or local governments sometimes grant subsidies, and private individuals, non-profit organizations and business firms can make donations. Of course you can also invest your own money or ask for a contribution, a membership fee, from the target group. You can also earn something extra by selling T-shirts, pens and so forth. ii

Inventory the potential sources of funding, and write down who you already receive a structural contribution from and who you received a one-time contribution from. Don’t forget the intangibles such as housing, volunteers, and emotional or psychological support

Potential funding

Once you have drawn up a long list of the potential sources of funding, you can make a preliminary selection. You can do so on the basis of the following questions:

·         Which comparable organizations receive funding?

·         How much do the potential sources of funding distribute every year and what is the average amount?

·         Do you meet with their guidelines?

·         What do you have to offer? In other words, how can you help them reach their long-term aims?

·         Are they perhaps considering altering their policy in the future, and would you then no longer be eligible?

 

After you have made a selection, answer the following questions:

·         Do they have an interest in supporting your organization or activity?

·         What is their reason for backing you?

·         How much can you expect from them?

·         Do you have the same mission and aims?

By now you know which potential sources of funding can be approached. Whether they will meet with your request largely depends on how you present yourself.

 

Initial introduction

Before you contact a potential source of funding, it would be wise to consider the following points. These points can be used for any kind of official meetings and situations in which the group presents itself.

 

·         What do you want to say about your organization and the conditions in your city or region?

·         How do you want to make the first contact? By dropping in, or by first writing a letter to introduce yourself?

·         Do you have good references?

·         Are there any specific questions you want to ask?

 

Carefully prepare for the first talk.

·         Decide beforehand what you want to attain that day.

·         What are the most important subjects you want to talk about? Keep in mind that there is only a limited amount of time.

·         Mention concrete activities and information about your organization.

·         Take along written documents on your organization (such as the mission, vision and aims).

·         Know what your weak points are and be able to deal with them.

·         Take someone along with a good position in society who supports your aims and mission, such as a member of the board.

 

Maintaining contact

·         Be reliable and transparent and keep your appointments. Submit regular written financial and activity reports and evaluations.

·         Have one person from your organization maintain the contact.

·         Keep the funder informed about any changes in your organization.

·         Invite the funder for whatever important events you organize. 

·         Make sure someone is available to help the funder.

·         Send a Christmas card!

TIPS for fund-raising (mentioned at the seminar in Odessa)

·         You usually ask for money for various activities, so approach various potential funders for specific projects.

·         Bear in mind that prices are rising.

·         An accountant has to be paid, so include this expense in the amount you ask for.

·         Make sure the final account is no more than 5% above or below the amount you have received.

·         Put someone with a business mind in charge of raising and managing the funding.

 

RESOURCES

Here you find a number of links to interesting websites on user organizations and activism in general from allover the world.

In Russian:

www.drugscene.ru                Kolodets, Moscow user  organization

www.drugscene.narod.ru       Drugscene Russia

www.drugusers.ru

www.shinin.narod.ru

www.cures.by.ru

 

In English:

www.brugerforeningen.dk     Danish Drug User Union

www.vandu.org                   Vancouver Drug Users Union

www.aivl.org.au                   Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users’ League

http://www.virtualactivism.org/resources/advocacy.htm                                               Virtual Activism

http://protest.net/activists_handbook/

http://web.amnesty.org/web/content.nsf/pages/gbr_campaigning_manual             Amnesty International

http://www.amnesty.org.au/airesources/docs/member/MAM%20Version%202.pdf

www.drugtext.org                   Drugtext Foundation

www.tuf.org.au                      Territory Users’ Forum

www.legalize.net                   Legalize!

www.soros.org/harm-reduction           International Harm Reduction  Development Program

 

Other languages:

www.uho.hr                          UHO, Zagreb user organization

www.asud.org                      ASUD, French Network of user organizations

www.stayalive.ro                 Stay Alive, Constanta user group

www.mdhg.nl                       MDHG, Amsterdam user group

www.lsd.nl                            LSD, National Interest Group of Drug Users

CONCLUSIONS

 

This section summarizes the main steps for setting up and developing users’organizations. In general, one could say that working in a user organization to realize specific goals takes a lot of energy and endurance. User organizations around the globe are faced with contempt to say the least. Therefor, to set up a user organization, the following topics are essential.

First, you should identify mission, vision and aims. What and whose interests do you want to represent?  What are the priorities?  What are the aims of the group, both in the near future and in the long run? Write these topics down in a report and start discussing this with people who are involved in the issue and those you wish to work for.

Second, but equally important, is to find suitable persons that help you run the group and undertake actions. In other words, organize the organization. Once a hard core of people have been choosen, start registration procedure to become a legal organization. Decide about organizational structure of the group and divide responsibilities according to one capabilities.

Once the groups is registrered and will legally represent the needs of those you have decied to work for, you need to give feedback to the target groups, both proefessionals en drug user communities. Give broad attention to the public about your aims and approach. Conduct actions to support your vies and beliefs.

Finally, find ways to continue the activities of the organization. Fundraising is an important activity, but also building a network of allies, on a local , regional, national and international level.

Superfinally, make it possible that you always give insight to your target group regarding your achievements and obstacles. Be in close contact with the target group.

 

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