Totally Locally is a grass-roots campaign, which works precisely because it is run by ‘the people’. When local authorities or business groups try to implement any campaign like this, it becomes top-down instead of bottom-up, and as such can either fail to launch or just fizzle out. It has to be OWNED by the town, its businesses & volunteers.

BUT we’ve worked out a way of combining the clout and resources of local authorities & business groups with the community-led, feet-on-the-ground energy of volunteer groups. And it excludes no one, as long as they are an independent business.

Our mentoring package is how a Local Authority, BID or other organisation can become officially Totally Locally Certified and is designed for an organisation to provide support to start a local grass-roots group that will boost their local economy and help independent businesses long-term through collaboration. The funds from this enable us to train a local volunteer group to run our campaign enabling your organisation to benefit from the association & positivity this can bring to your town over many years.

This mentored approach can give a local group a boost in setting up Totally Locally in your town and giving it the best chance of making a difference. See here for feedback on how our campaign has benefited other towns.

Our mentoring package is compatible with Government funding schemes for boosting local economies (including the UK Shared Prosperity Fund).. specifically where their aims are to cover activities that help support independent businesses, boost local economies, grow stronger communities & pride of place and future-proof high streets.

Key features:

  • Help in identifying key people to form and run your town’s independent Totally Locally group
  • If required mentoring in running your first Fiver Fest to promote awareness and launch your group & campaign. Read here to see the effect this has had.
  • Tailoring the initial Town Kit for your town then handover to the group to further edit in InDesign or Affinity Publisher
  • Group session for your organisation + key people from the volunteer group, explaining the Totally Locally concept, initial Q&A
  • Group session/chat for the town group, for any business owners/volunteers etc explaining the concept and how it works.. how to run the campaign
  • Up to 3 follow-up steering sessions for the group for general questions/advice etc
  • Copies of our book ‘The Economics of Being Nice’ which explains the history and methods of the campaign
  • Long-term support via our Facebook ‘doers’ group of 1,000 key individuals from around the world as well as 1 year’s email/chats/Zooms with us if needed
  • License for your organisation’s association with the campaign including their logo on the initial editable Town Kit campaign posters e.g. a timeline of your choice (aka ‘Supported by’ or ‘Funded by’)
  • “Totally Locally Certified Council/BID” accreditation (logo supplied)

The above features are about implementing the Town Kit as a basis for collaboration in your town. In additional to this we then see what can be built on this platform whilst working closely with you. We also include a day visit from us, to walk the town with your organisation and key businesses, and listen to what people have to say and hear any challenges they are having. This is followed by an evening session – full presentation of Totally Locally to local businesses, followed by Q&As and a discussion on your town specifically – what are the challenges, what could be done, what stops things from being done. We work with your group to create a people-led solution that includes everyone and can be run at a grassroots level. This is designed as something to build confidence in the groups and businesses, so that other ideas can be tackled in the same manner, and takes away the reliance on public funded bodies, BIDs & Councils to ‘do everything for them’.

Towns almost always have a unique problem, but most things can be sorted using a common methodology. These workshops often have a brand / community engagement / event / campaign (or a combination of all) as an outcome. This is done on the back of working with many town groups across the UK, and Australia.

This part of our package includes:

  • Town visit (additional expenses may be required for long distances) for one of the above group sessions, presentation and Q&A
  • We work with you to address specific issues your town has, benefitting from our years of knowledge supporting local economies and creating communities
  • In-person presentation of Totally Locally to you and your local traders including a Q&A session

If you want to know more, get in touch! This package is not limited to just the UK.