factsheet – DIY community awareness ideas

DIY community awareness ideas
(To download this factsheet please click here)

You don’t need a big budget to raise awareness about cat welfare in your community but you do need planning, commitment and energy.

If you can get together a small team this will help you with developing ideas as well as meaning more feet on the ground to do the work.

Identify your target audience: in this case, cat owners and prospective cat owners. Identify the best places to reach them, eg, vet clinics, shopping centres, workplaces, community groups and community centres, such as libraries, childcare centres and local schools.

Cat Protection is happy to help if we can but please be aware that our resources are limited. Please phone or email us if you would like a speaker and we will do our best to provide one. Let us know if you would like us to post you copies of our brochures, and don’t forget you are welcome to download the factsheets from our website www.catprotection.org.au. You might also like to show the cat care tutorial videos that are available on our YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/catprotectionsociety.

Our video about the health and welfare benefits of early-age desexing is very informative and a key component of The Good Neighbour Project. A quick workplace event would be to take a morning tea break to show the video and leave some brochures behind in the staff kitchen. Events don’t need to be fancy!

Do you have a local community radio station? Maybe you could arrange an interview for the local vet to discuss the benefits of desexing and how to create an environmentally enriched home for the indoor-only cat. A poster display at your local library can be a simple and effective way to generate interest.

A pet fair day – or adding a pet-focused stall to an existing event such a school or church fete – can be a wonderful community event. Invite local pet suppliers such as pet stores, doggy day care, pet minders, rescue groups, pounds and vets to participate. Seek brochures and samples from suppliers of cat enclosures and cat-proof fencing if they can’t send company representatives to attend. Events need significant planning, research, leadtime and organisation so if you don’t have a dedicated team, keep it simple and piggyback on existing events.

Engage with your local community networks such as Rotary, Lions, youth and church groups and find spots for guest speakers. Invite Cat Protection or a local advocate such as a vet, vet nurse or the council’s companion animal officer. Identify popular activities such as trivia nights and sporting events, and simply ask to distribute brochures to guests.

Create a demonstration project for a needy local resident: is there a home- and -cat-owning pensioner who’d love to have an outdoor cat enclosure but can’t afford it? Time to rally the locals for your community’s very own ‘backyard blitz’! And have fun being a great neighbour!