Planting a pollinator garden. Coding in JavaScript. Completing a flawless pirouette. Perfecting your lemon meringue pie recipe. What do these skills have in common? They can all be learned throughout an engaging community workshop!
As a park and recreation professional, you might be looking to plan an exciting workshop that engages community members and invites them to take advantage of community services. Workshops offer members of your community a way to connect with their neighbors, learn a new skill, and take a break from the hustle and bustle of daily life.
This guide offers a few tips to help you plan your next engaging community event, including:
- Choosing a theme based on your target audience.
- Inviting community experts to get involved.
- Prioritizing safety.
- Promoting your workshop widely.
A well-thought-out workshop will leave a great impression for community members, encouraging them to get involved with future events as well. Let’s dive in!
1. Choose a theme based on your target audience.
When planning a workshop, your target audience and theme go hand in hand. Therefore, it’s important to understand which themes are most engaging for different demographics within your community audience. For example:
- A youth audience might be interested in themes like mental health, photography, fiction writing, drawing/crafts or sports.
- A working adult audience might find topics like coding, resume writing, job interviewing or graphic design intriguing.
- A retired adult audience may want to engage in a workshop about gardening, composting, dancing for exercise, bird-watching or pottery.
Don’t be afraid to base your community workshop around what’s trending with each age group. For example, kids in your community might love a TikTok dance-themed workshop, while adults might enjoy a charcuterie board-making class. Making your workshop relevant and timely adds more intrigue for community members and a unique element to your event.
2. Invite community experts to get involved.
Community workshops are most effective when they’re run by and for the community. Making an effort to involve local experts or business owners will make your events much more engaging. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from prominent professionals first-hand and get to know more people within their local area.
For example, you might ask a local:
- Dance teacher to run a dance class for senior citizens.
- Restaurant owner to host a cooking or wine pairing class.
- Artist to teach a still life painting class for local teens.
- Career coach to host a resume writing and interviewing workshop.
You can offer compensation to these individuals if your budget allows, or ask them to volunteer their time in exchange for a marketing opportunity for their business. Either way, be sure to thank them for their help and support with a nice gesture, such as a gift basket or handwritten thank-you note.
3. Prioritize safety.
As with any community event, you must place safety as one of your top priorities throughout the workshop planning process. Ensure that you protect community members from potentially harmful situations and your community center from liability.
For instance, you can implement an online community rec center waiver system for community members to sign before any events that involve physical or potentially dangerous activities, such as a sports workshop. Or, incorporate social distancing and mask requirements to keep participants safe in light of the ongoing pandemic.
Let’s look at a dance workshop as an example. Dance studio owners know the key to a successful dance class is ensuring participants have fun in a safe environment. If you’re hosting a community dance workshop, be sure to require all participants to sign waivers, host the class outside (if possible) to encourage social distancing, and live stream the class so community members can attend remotely.
4. Promote your workshop widely.
Your work isn’t complete once you’ve planned your workshop. Now, it’s time to start promoting your program to reach the widest audience of potential attendees.
We can again look to the dance world since there’s plenty of overlap when it comes to marketing dance classes and other types of community classes. DanceStudio-Pro’s marketing guide recommends using the following platforms to spread the word about your workshop:
- Social media
- Direct mail
- Community flyers at the local library or other popular locations
- Local news
The more people you can encourage to register for your event, the more opportunities attendees will have to meet and get to know their neighbors. Be sure to reach out to individuals who’ve attended your workshops in the past to share information about your upcoming opportunities.
These tips will put you well on your way to planning a fun, safe and engaging community workshop. You’ll be able to foster greater community bonds and engage local community members in your organization’s services and programs. Happy planning!
Olivia Mode-Cater (she/her) is the senior marketing manager for DanceStudio-Pro and is an industry leader in dance education and dance entrepreneurship, having presented on these topics on a national and international level. Mode-Cater’s work draws on her experiences as a veteran dance educator in all teaching settings: higher education, PK-12 schools and studios.