Seven ways to start a successful community course

Paula Pridham, Community Learning Manager at Care for the Family, suggests seven top tips on how to kick-start your church’s training courses.

1. Get trained yourself!

Make sure you are equipped to deliver. This may mean attending a specific training day, such as one of Care for the Family’s two-day DPYK presenters’ courses. Or you could investigate gaining a qualification in adult learning, or attending a facilitation skills course. If you’re looking for local authority funding to get started, you will probably be required you to have the right qualifications.

2. Start with people you know

Those who have been most successful in running courses in the wider community started with people they knew. People are more likely to come along to something if they know, and trust, the person putting it on. This can be even more important than the topic itself! For example, you may already have links to a local school, in which case that would be a great place to start.

But if this is your first foray into the wider community, please don’t expect to be up and running overnight. Building wider relationships take time. In fact you would probably be better off running your first course to people in your own church. Then they can invite their friends to the next one, who can then invite their friends and so on.

3. Hold an information session

It can be difficult for people to commit to something they know nothing about, especially if you are going to ask them to give up six evenings, for example, for a complete course. By holding a short information session, for about an hour, you give people an opportunity to try out what’s on offer. Make sure you give people refreshments - tea and biscuits - or cake!

At the end of the session get interested people to sign up, and start your course within the next couple of weeks, if possible. Send out reminders, or call them, a few days before the first session.

4. Timing

You may not have much leeway over when you run your courses, because of prior commitments. However, at your info session it is good to check out when people would prefer to come along. Single, non-working parents, for example, may prefer the daytime when children are at school and there are no childcare problems for them. Others would prefer mid-week, early evening or a weekend breakfast meeting. The more flexible you can be, the better your chances of success.

5. Venue

The right venue is incredibly important. You need to consider:

• Accessibility – for disabled, prams, etc
• Location – easy to get to by public transport, parking, safe area
• Comfort – is it actually nice? Would you want go to anything there? (If your only option is the local village hall that needs a lick of paint, invest in tablecloths and flowers to brighten it up).
• Childcare – you may want to put on a crèche; does it have the space for this?
• Familiarity – is it known as a venue for community events? If it is, then it’s a less threatening place to go, particularly if you are on your own.

6. Pricing

Putting a price on something gives it value. If it’s valuable, people want it. So even if you don’t charge, it’s good to let people know how much the course is worth. For example, on publicity material you might put: “Costs £10, but thanks to local sponsors we’re able to offer it free.”

7. Pick the right course for you

Get in touch with Care for the Family, who offer a range of courses suitable for every church, including How to Drug Proof Your Kids® (DPYK), 21st Century Marriage, 21st Century Parent, The Money Secret Adult Education Course, and the brand new course which launched in autumn 2008, Quidz In – raising financially confident kids.

Last Updated 14 October 2008