The event, which included a special performance by the charity's patron, Norman Cook (DJ Fatboy Slim), attracted over 150 people who work with young people.

 
 
 
 

The brief

York-based Coaching for Hope - part of the international volunteering and development charity Skillshare International - uses football to create better futures for young people in West and Southern Africa.

Skillshare International is part of a government-backed consortium commissioned to deliver the ‘International Citizen Service’ programme, which provides opportunities for 18 to 25 year-olds to volunteer in Africa and Asia to help reduce poverty and inequality, and to improve access to education, healthcare and sustainable livelihoods.  

Skillshare International's Coaching for Hope programme offers young people in the UK the opportunity to volunteer in South Africa, Lesotho or Botwsana, using sport to reach out to disadvantaged young people and teach life skills in rural and urban communities.

The Coaching for Hope team appointed us to help them launch and promote the International Citizen Service programme in the North East, and generate interest and enquiries from young volunteers.
Coaching for Hope
 

The campaign

Our first task was to promote a special performance by Coaching for Hope’s patron, Norman Cook (DJ Fatboy Slim - pictured) in Teesside, inviting local and regional media to cover the event. 

The event attracted over 150 people who work with young people to a state of the art youth centre in Middlesbrough to learn more about the ICS scheme.

We have also run a 'what is news?' workshop for returning volunteers to help them identify opportunities to raise awareness of volunteering, as well as some of the issues they helped tackle through their ICS experience. Those opportunities will form part of a series of case studies to further promote ICS through Coaching for Hope.

The results

Our media invitation attracted interest from the key regional print and broadcast media, who all attended the event, resulting in coverage for the programme in the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette, Northern Echo, Darlington & Stockton Times, Tyne Tees TV and BBC Radio Tees. 

The media coverage represented a 500% return on investment for the charity, and the exposure prompted key education institutions in the area to contact the charity to discuss volunteering opportunities for their students.  

Coaching for Hope said: "Partners Group weren’t just supportive of the work we commissioned them to do, they took the time to learn about our programme and people that we worked for, too. We will certainly work with them again as their professionalism and dedication to making the job they deliver is of the highest standard possible. We had a really positive experience working with each of the members of staff."

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