Support with producing newsletters

Creating a newsletter can be a really useful way of keeping members of your group regularly updated on important local issues, upcoming events and the work of your group. But it does involve a bit of forward planning and will take a bit of time.

The Resource Centre can help groups with every step of producing a newsletter – from planning to printing.

We can offer this support to volunteer-run groups based in Brighton & Hove which are:

  • Tenants’ or Residents’ Associations for Brighton & Hove City Council tenants and leaseholders, and/or
  • Groups run by and for people living in an area of social housing, and/or
  • Groups run by and for black and minority ethnic people, and/or
  • Groups run by and for disabled people.

If you think you may be eligible, contact us to find out whether we can help.

We need quite a bit of notice to design a newsletter, so get in touch as early as possible to make sure we can meet your deadline.

Planning

If your group thinks a newsletter might be a good way to communicate regularly with your members, but you’re not sure how to go about it, contact us to talk it through. We will advise you about the work that will be involved, and the decisions you need to make before you begin.

For example:

  • What kind of information will you want to include?
  • Who will be responsible for collecting the information/articles?
  • Do you want to print your newsletter or send it by email?
  • How often do you want to produce a newsletter?
  • How much will it cost to print your newsletter, and how will you fund it? (We can help with fundraising ideas and applications).
  • How far in advance do you need to start planning the next issue?

Writing

If you have ideas for articles or information you want to communicate, but you’re not sure how to write it all down, we can talk through the items with you and help to write your articles.

If you have handwritten articles, but don’t have a computer, we have computers at the Resource Centre you can use, or we can type them up for you.

Designing

If you want to learn to design the newsletter yourselves, we can offer help and training with the layout and design of a newsletter on a computer. But if you’d prefer us to design your newsletter for you, we can!

Printing

We have a community print room at the Resource Centre, with a variety of printing options. We have copyprinters which are very cheap. You can print in black, red, green or maroon, on white or coloured paper. Lots of groups use these machines for their newsletters.

We also have full colour printing available, (which costs a bit more), plus finishing equipment to collate, fold and staple your newsletters.

If your group wants to come in and do the printing yourself, we will show you how to use the machines; but again, if you want us to do the printing, we can.

Cost of printing

Although we do not charge for any support or design work, we do charge for the costs of printing (paper and ink). Look at our price list to get a general idea, or contact us for an exact quote.

If you are a Brighton & Hove City Council Tenants’ and Residents’ Association, the council may pay us directly for the cost of your printing, so you may not have to pay anything at all.

Written information

If you would prefer to get on with your newsletter without us, or are not eligible for this support, we also have lots of  written information to help with planning and producing newsletters. Go to Producing a neighbourhood newsletter.

Updated October 2018

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All Resource Centre information is available for free because we know small community groups have small budgets. However, we are a small charity, so if you are in a position to make a donation, it will help us to keep running this service into the future.

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