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Self-Help Builder News December 2012 Volume 5, Issue #4 >
RCAC launches new self-help marketing videos
By Bruce Newman, RCAC home options manager
RCAC created two new videos to help grantees increase their success in finding qualified participants for the USDA Rural Development Mutual Self-Help Housing program. Each video is unique but both explore common themes about the impact the self-help housing program has had on participants’ lives. One video is in English, and the other is in Spanish with English subtitles.
RCAC’s multimedia specialist, Jeremy Raff, produced the videos. To get a good cross section of the self-help landscape, he visited the build sites of five grantees in four states. Raff felt that it would be more compelling to see how people’s everyday lives had been changed than to create a how-to video that delved into the nuts and bolts of the program. The videos are documentaries, and the residents used their own words to describe their lives before and after moving into the new homes and communities.
The videos can be used in a multitude of ways to help organizations reach out to future builders. Here are just a few examples:
- Provide links to the videos on your website
- Post them to your Facebook page
- Show them on laptops at housing fairs or similar events where potential builders may be present
- Send them to your local television station or cable station, and offer to be interviewed on a show that highlights local events
- Use them as outreach to realtors who may have clients that cannot otherwise qualify for a home
- Show the videos at meetings with larger local employers who would benefit from employees in stable, affordable housing
If you would like help to embed or add links to the videos on your websites or other media Sharon Wills, RCAC’s communications supervisor would be happy to work with you. You can reach her at (916) 447-9832 ext. 1005 or by email at swills@rcac.org.