Author: Emma Houghton
It’s very easy to underestimate yourself, and what skills you can bring to your local community. But you can make a big impact and in less time that you think.
Earlier this year, we chaired an interactive workshop at Anthropy UK as part of its vibrant places alliance.
The title: what is our vision for market towns in 2055 – and how do we get there?
During the workshop at the Eden Project, we split attendees into groups to tackle a subject that may or may not be familiar to them:
- Housing, urban design and architecture
- Transportation and connectivity
- Markets and commerce
- Technology integration
- Community life, culture, health and wellbeing
- Environment and sustainability
We asked them to create their dream 2055 vision for each issue and then we asked them what practical, creative, solution-focused ideas they had in order to get us there.
It was a big ask, and 2055 feels like a Distant horizon.
So, in addition to blue sky thinking, we also asked them how they could spend just 60 minutes in 2025 to make a meaningful difference to their market towns?
Outlined below are some of the pledges made:
- Visit a local charity to offer support
- Explore autonomous vehicle options for rural communities
- Shop at local markets and repair cafés
- Host local producers in high street stores
- Provide pro bono PR support for small local firms
- Use networks to bring people together
- Reach out to owners of vacant spaces
- Publish a free training session
- Actively promote low-carbon energy
- Simply… Get on with it!
This idea that we can all make a difference in just 60 minutes really stuck out as a key takeaway from the session and had our attendees thinking about how they can make the most of an hour.
Volunteering time to paint a care home or donating to a food bank is incredibly valuable. But what if the skills we use every day at work could make just as much impact, in even less time?
Our PR experts, Emma Houghton and Jemma Page, teamed up to put their storytelling and PR experience to the test, offering to help local Nottingham charity Himmah amplify a 'royally high-profile' donation they’d just received.
Within just a few hours of the press release hitting the media it achieved:
Coverage on BBC
Interviews on Capital, Greatest Hits, and Heart Radio
TV spot on East Midlands today
After 24 hours it had been featured in a range of national and regional titles from HELLO! and People Magazine to the Nottingham Post and the Mirror.
The charity had issued a press release themselves but hadn’t had any response or coverage. Even when you have a brilliant news hook, in a world where journalists are strapped for time, stories must be written in a ready-to-publish format and it’s imperative to have access to the right contacts.
For Emma and Jemma, this is their bread and butter – an ‘easy’ task when there’s a compelling story to share.
Here’s a breakdown of what those 60 minutes looked like:
- 15 mins – Getting the story details
- 20 mins – Writing the press release
- 5 mins – Getting approvals
- 5 mins – Sharing with media
- 15 mins – Responding to press enquiries
What did we takeaway? Sometimes, the skills that feel effortless to you can be transformative to others.
Ask yourself, what’s your 'easy' skill? And how could you use it to make a difference in your local community in just 60 minutes?