EPA12/0949
Love Food Hate Waste
Developing a successful
education project
Successful education projects
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Are well planned
Start with identifying the problem you are addressing
Don’t try to fit the “tool” to the project
Drive behaviour change
Involve stakeholders and participants from the start
Support and strengthen existing community networks and
help create new ones
• Respond to the diverse needs of a community
• Motivate and encourage community ownership
Project planning considerations
Focus on the issue
• All projects should focus on food waste avoidance, not recycling
Project objectives
• These need to be measurable and achievable within the ten
month timeframe
• Aim for no more than four objectives in dot point form
Links to other
programs/
projects/groups
• Don’t re-invent the wheel
• Consider tapping into existing initiatives in your community or
think about how you can adapt what others have done to suit your
community
The target audience
• Identify the best target audience for your project
• How can you most effectively work with this audience?
Managing risks
• Identify the potential risks and consider the degree of risk – minor,
major, disaster
• What are the strategies you will have in place to guard against
and manage these risks and what is your Plan B if these strategies
don’t work?
Project planning considerations
Lasting links
• Include longevity in your project design
• Make lasting links with other projects
• Have you created a Love Food Hate Waste legacy with your
community?
Work together
• Have you created something that can be used again in the future?
• What partners and networks could you work with to help give the
project a life after the grant has ended and extend your reach during the
project?
Value
• Involve them early
• What is going to achieve the biggest ‘bang for buck’ given the
resources you have?
• Consider staff, financial inputs, other resources, time frames, existing
commitments. You may have a great idea but it might not be feasible
within the current timeframe, budget and/or resources
• Could you adapt this idea so that it could be built upon later?
Promotion
• How will you promote the project and its achievements during and at
the end of the project?
Tips for monitoring and evaluation
Length of project
Be realistic about what you can measure in ten months. Factor in time
for monitoring during the project and evaluation at the end
EPA support
Talk to us, and be open about the challenges your project is facing. If
things aren’t going to plan we can work together to look at options to
guide your project
Follow up with
participants
If you are engaging with your community and aiming for behaviour
change, consider how you will ask if you can catch up with them down
the track to evaluate your project’s impact. A simple tick a box on an
evaluation form can provide you with permission to contact them later
Evaluation
Benchmark participant attitudes, knowledge and behaviour to help
you measure success. Options include pre and post event surveys
and records of food waste volumes.
Tips and tricks for an excellent project
Keep it simple
This makes your project easier to understand
Use different engagement
options
People are drawn to things for different reasons. Some come to see
a celebrity others want a prize
Create buzz and make it fun
Make your project something people want to be part of
Use incentives
Give people a reason to change their behaviour
Show the benefits
Tell and show people what they can gain
Make it accessible
Offer activities at different times, dates locations, online, face to face
Use social proof
Show that other people are already doing it
Engage group dynamics
People follow what other people do
Use labels
People like being able to name things
Pledges
Allow people to make a commitment
Be active
Show people what they can do and get them to do it, don’t just offer
information
Online resources
Does Your Project Make A Difference?
www.environment.nsw.gov.au/community/projecteval.htm
Guide to using research in sustainability programs
www.environment.nsw.gov.au/education/researchguide.htm
What we need is…A community education project
www.environment.nsw.gov.au/community/edproject/index.htm