PHP is starting a grassroots local engagement initiative to raise awareness about the Purple Heart Project, and we need your help. The concept is simple, but powerful - we want to empower our PHP supporters to engage within their local communities to spread the PHP story and be the face of PHP.
What Does Local Engagement Look Like? Here are some examples:
Giving a short presentation about PHP to your local Veterans organization (i.e. American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), etc.)
Giving a short presentation about PHP to your local service organizations (Lions club, Eagles club, Kiwanis club, chamber of commerce, etc.)
Setting up a PHP booth at a local event and handing out PHP literature and telling folks about PHP (i.e. woodworking show, farmers markets, street fairs, craft fairs, etc.)
If you live near a military base seeking out opportunities at base events to set up a PHP booth.
Post PHP flyers and business cards on local bulletin boards and at local businesses.
Talk to local media (newspaper, radio, television) and request they do a story on PHP.
What is the Goal? The goal is two-fold: 1) find more combat wounded Veterans who would like to apply for a PHP scholarship and 2) by telling the PHP story, attract more supporters to the program.
As an example, a friend of mine who works with a Veterans service charity gave a 15-minute presentation about what their organization does for Veterans at his local American Legion Post. He did not ask for donations, but before he left that night the organization donated $4000 to their non-profit. They can now say they are supported by this organization which helps to attract other organizations to support their non-profit.
Who are PHP Ambassadors? PHP ambassadors are any PHP supporter who wants to volunteer their time to enage folks and organizations within their local community (county wide) and tell the PHP story. In short be the face of PHP within your local community.
What are PHP Local Engaement Teams. A local engagement team is one or more PHP Ambassadors working and coordinating together as a team to conduct engagement in the same local area. We want to test this concept by initially creating two to five local engagement teams.
What Support Does PHP Headquarters Provide? PHP headquarters provides all the supplies needed for ambassadors and teams to conduct local engagement. Examples are - PHP literature (flyers, business cards, trifold etc…), the equipment to set up a booth (branded table cloth, canopy, banners, funding for any booth fees, etc.), slides with talking points and a script to use when giving presentations, and PHP hats and shirts for the volunteers to wear.
How do You Volunteer to Become a PHP Ambassador? If you would like to volunteer to become a PHP Ambassador and help us test this concept please email Luther at Luther.Shealy@ThePurpleHeartProject.org or call / text me at (253) 381-4113. Even better, is if you can organize several PHP supporters in your local area to become PHP Ambassadors and you form a local engagement team, again...contact me.