World Vitiligo Day presents an opportunity to raise awareness, sign petitions, educate the public, officials, community members, and to support those suffering from this psychologically devastating health condition. This WVD toolkit has the information and tools you need to contribute to the international initiative.

Your checklist

Please make sure you have received from the organizers printed materials or ready-for-print pdf files:

• Sample Media Release and/or Newsletter
• World Vitiligo Day wall posters
• Petition leaflets
• Vitiligo Q&A

and also

• Web badges
• Dedicated web site and Facebook page addresses.

Planning is critical to the success of any outreach effort. Use these tips a guide to plan a successful WVD promotion event.

1. Planning:
   • Contact the VR Foundation or your local vitiligo support group several months ahead of time to request up-to-date information and materials.
   • Meet with those who will be valuable in your event coordination, such as local businesses, local government agencies, key opinion leaders, healthcare organizations, and media partners.
   • Recruit volunteers, speakers, and community liaisons.
   • Develop new or adapt existing materials to distribute at the event. Be sure to get them mailed to you, printed and/or copied in advance.
   • Conduct a run-through a few days before June 25.
2. Promoting:
   • Develop a media outreach plan. Start by creating a local media list, including local access television, radio, newspaper, and community calendars.
   • Send out a Media Release on around June 20-21.
   • Post event announcements on your web site, Facebook, blog, Twitter and other social media pages. Encourage your partners, friends, contacts to post similar announcements.
   • Post wall posters throughout the community: on bulletin boards at local community centers, places of worship, the library, post office, local schools, recreation centers, clinics, pharmacies, stores, and businesses.
   • Make signs to direct participants and reporters to your place of action on June 25.
3. Engaging on June 25, the World Vitiligo Day:
   • Make sure you have plenty of petition leaflets to sign.
   • Set up tables and chairs, i.e. in your local community center.
   • Create a sign-in sheet for members of the media.
   • Ask people to sign leaflets with petition.
   • Don’t forget the refreshments!
   • Collect signed petitions, then either make photo copies and mail them to VR Foundation, or go to 25June.org and fill out the form on behalf of each participant.
4. Tracking Media Coverage:
   • Follow up with reporters who signed in on WVD, and who responded to your online media releases.
   • Do a basic free search for news articles based on your specific search terms and a date range. Some tracking services, such as Google Alert, will send automatic e-mail alerts to notify you when your event and/or keywords are mentioned.
   • Consider using paid media tracking, which typically captures a wider range of media stories than free Internet search tools: both print and online, including archived pages, all forms of social media, video and image-sharing sites, forums, opinion sites, and Twitter.
   • Be sure to share media coverage with your community partners, stakeholders, and all those who helped you plan and promote your event. Post a summary of media coverage on your organization’s web site. No matter the size or success of your event, remember that your efforts are key to educating the public about on this neglected disease.

Last but not least, share your feedback and results with us here at www.25june.org.

You can contact us at info@vrfoundation.org or send us a tweet @vrfoundation.