Hard to Reach and Community Groups

Mixenden v Ovenden community recycling campaign

This was an innovative three month campaign aimed at two ‘hard to reach’ groups in Calderdale, namely Mixenden and Ovenden. Both areas had poor levels of recycling.

However, there is a historic rivalry between these two areas, and with the support from the two community groups, A&P realised that there was an opportunity to take advantage of the situation to stimulate real recycling activity in the two regions.

To obtain buy in from the community groups, A&P designed the campaign with their consultation through a series of focus groups consisting of local memebers of the public who acted as ‘key’ voices in the community. Once the campaign concepts had been agreed, it was launched and run by the two community groups with a small amount of support by A&P, although ownership of the campaign was given to them.



Branded posters and leaflets were distributed through households and displayed in shops in both areas by the community groups. A website was also set up to provide fortnightly updates of the recycling figures as they came in. A mid campaign update leaflet was also distributed to boost the promotion and provide feedback of the competition so far.

Cash incentives were also used to reward those putting their recycling out, and at the end of the promotion both communities received money to spend on a community project.

Results

In the first week of the campaign over 100 new recycling bins and bags were requested and recycling figures increased against a control target; in Ovenden they were up by 15%, and in Mixenden they were up by over 21%.

Following the promotion the recycling levels continued to grow in the two areas.

Park Ward Promotion

Another ‘hard to reach’ group in Calderdale is the Park district which largely consists of an ethnic minority population. Consultation findings with the community group suggested that the key barrier to the residents not recycling was that they were unaware of what needed to be done. Furthermore, the additional barrier was language and literacy that needed to be overcome with any form of communication.

A dual language and visual communication piece was developed with half of the booklet in English, and the other half with an Urdu translation. Cash incentives were also given to encourage participation. As with the Mixenden v Ovenden promotion, the Park Ward community group took ownership of the project to give it added weight within the community.