In the lead up to the General Election the single most useful thing you can do is to shout about what you do. Make your work and projects more visible to Candidates, MPs, the council and voters. It will also benefit your organisation at the same time by increasing local recognition of your work, drawing in potential collaborators, volunteers and investors.  

We need to build a wave of good news about projects that engage and benefit people and deliver carbon savings and energy transformation at scale. CEE will collect, curate, channel and amplify your messaging to make sure that the key people hear it. 

So please do lots of social media, always with pictures or a film. Tag CEE - @Comm1nrg, also @CoopParty, local politicians, use #EmpowerCommunityEnergy which is the hashtag building momentum towards. “The best time to post on Twitter for higher engagement is in the morning (8 AM to 10 AM) and evening (6 PM to 9 PM) on weekdays and early afternoon to evening (11 AM to 5 PM) on weekends.”  

For more advice on social media, see our toolkit here.

Get local media  coverage, blog, make a very short film (especially with Parliamentary Candidates). Organise or attend events, open days or site visits, especially during Community Energy Fortnight (and Great Big Green Week). If these demonstrate partnerships with local authorities and/or support from politicians even better. 

Tell/show positive stories of local people benefiting from your work. The message that #CommunityEnergy is win, win, win win! and worth the support and collaboration of governments, national and local, cannot be heard too often. 

Please tell CEE when you get media coverage.

Encourage others, including your members and supporters, to get involved
If your organisation has a social media presence, use that to tell people what your organisation could achieve with more supportive policies, both nationally and locally. Use the hashtag #EmpowerCommunityEnergy. Ask your members to write to their local candidates calling for better support for the sector. Tell your members about any engagements you have with local politicians and ask them to amplify your message. Produce leaflets about what you do, why it’s important and what more you could deliver with the right policy support.

Attend or help to organise an event
For ideas and tips, visit our make a plan page.