ANYONE can Stir-Up an event. Think about all the events that you have attended over the years: trivia nights, comedy shows, dinners, dances, fashion shows, fairs, etc. If you can get organized and you can recruit some friends to help, YOU can run your own event! How...?

You need friends to help. Unless you want to run around organizing every single aspect of your event, you need to recruit some helpers. So if it's at school, at church or your neighbor, grab some people from there - anyone willing to give a hand. You can still be in charge, but you will need all the help you can get.

You need to decide what it is you want your event to achieve. Do you want your event to alert people about families who suffer from poverty and homelessness? Do you want to raise money? An event can do both, but you need to determine this first.

On a smaller scale, you could:

• Run a sausage sizzle
• Do a car-wash
• Organize a trivia night at your church and invite friends and family, charging a small fee
• Run an 'enlightenment' seminar at your church or school and tell people about homelessness and what they can do to help (no charge for this one).
• Organize a food drive to benefit the homeless families
• Put up a display at your church or school. Have a table with information from My Father’s House and give people suggestions of how they can help.

• Put on your own fair and charge an entrance fee. This would require LOTS of help, organization and major sponsorship.
• Stage Awareness. Have a night of sleeping on the school or church floor to remind others of how it feels to be homeless.
• Stage a fun-run, where you get people to sponsor you for every mile you run.
• Stage a Trivia Night, Fashion Parade, Dance, Dinner, Comedy Night etc. on a larger scale. Hire a hall (or better still, get one donated for the night), decorate, provide a bit of food and charge at the door.

Remember that you want to keep costs as low as possible, so with determining your location, try to find somewhere cheap or deal with someone that you already know who will be more likely to help you out (i.e. your school principal or pastor).

NOW, you’re ready…Set a date, choose a time and let everyone know!

• Make sure you let everyone know way in advance.
• Phone, email, or write letters if you know who it is you wish to invite.
• Letter-box drop the area - making sure you include all relevant information, including why it is you're doing this.
• Put posters up around the area, making sure you check with the relevant people first - you don't want to be charged with littering.
• Hand out fliers at other events or around your area.

If your event is a major one and would warrant media attention, write a media release and send it to local newspapers/radio programs. Make sure you include all relevant details, including your contact information, and keep it short and in simple language. Chase up a week later if you haven't heard anything. You want as much publicity as possible!

Also involved here is perhaps getting some sponsorship. If your event is low cost you may not need it, but if you are running a large scale event you won't be able to do it all on your own. Remember that you want to be able to charge a reasonable fee for people to attend and you want as much of it as possible to go towards helping My Father’s House.

When approaching people for help, try and think of it from their perspective - why should they help you? So if you're running a sausage sizzle, try and get the local butcher to donate the sausages; tell him you'll put a sign up on your stall with the name of his shop. If you want helium balloons, go to a party shop, etc. It makes far more sense to approach people who sell the product that you want to use, rather than just asking people for money, although in some situations, that may work too.

Email/call My Father’s House for promotional material to hand out at your event.

• Wear your My Father’s House T-shirts.
• Bring name tags for organizers and VIPs.
• Use banners and have signs up so people remember what you're about.
• Always have someone manning the door if there is money to be collected.
• If you have another event planned, advertise it to the people at your current one.
• Have a way to get contact details from people who are interested in your cause.
• Stick to a time plan and stay on track.
• Think about refreshments.

• Thank everyone who helped (workers, speakers, donors, event staff).
• Contact My Father’s House and let us know how it went.
• Let others know, by writing your story, so we can all be inspired.
• Start planning the next one!

You Can Do Your Own...

STIR-UP EVENT

Call Heather for more information: 503-492-3046

www.familyshelter.org