Communications support from the OJEN provincial office

OJEN is happy to offer its in-house communications services to profile local committees and promote their activities as appropriate.  A variety of communications supports are available through OJEN’s communications team. Feel free to contact the team at regions@ojen.ca.   

Please keep in mind that our communications team consists of 2 staff members who work part-time in this capacity, and are responsible for producing all of OJEN’s communications materials. For this reason, it is a good idea to plan early and discuss any promotional assistance you may require with the communications team. Extra time will be needed for any communications support you may need during Access to Justice Week, Law Week and the OBA-OJEN Competitive Mock Trial tournaments season in April/May. 

The kinds of communications support we offer:

OJEN’s Regional Roundup

The OJEN provincial office maintains regular communication with local committees through the Regional Roundup electronic newsletter sent to committee members quarterly.  The Regional Roundup keeps committees informed of OJEN news, including: new project funding received for province-wide initiatives, interesting justice education activities generated by various local committees, calls for nominations for OJEN awards and other information relevant to committee members.

Important: To ensure all committee members receive the newsletter and OJEN’s records are up to date, committees are asked to provide the provincial office with a members list including names, email addresses and the organization they represent at the beginning of each school year.  When members leave or join the committee, please forward the changes to the OJEN office.

Please note that these bulk emails may be captured by organizational spam filters.  Committee members who do not receive the Regional Roundup may need to change the security settings on their email accounts to admit emails from OJEN.

Other OJEN newsletters

OJEN produces three other electronic newsletters that are distributed to different stakeholder groups: 

• Teacher’s Newsflash: (published twice per month) for educators
• Dialogue: (published 10 times per year) for a broad cross-section of OJEN stakeholders, but primarily the justice sector
• Regional Roundup: (published 5-6 times per year) for local committee members.

Committees are encouraged to coordinate with the communications team to form a communications plan for their projects. We are happy to include information about local activities in appropriate newsletters. 

OJEN committee web pages

Each local committee has its own page on the OJEN website. Contact information, information about local initiatives, announcements of upcoming projects (including registration forms, when required), and photos of local activities are displayed on committee pages.  Committee members are encouraged to keep their pages updated by providing OJEN’s communications team with information and photos about the programs and activities throughout the year. Committee pages are a useful platform for promoting your justice education programs.   

Use this form or email regions@ojen.ca to outline the information that should appear on the website or in other OJEN communications vehicles. We will be happy to provide the necessary support to make your region’s web page beautiful and functional!

You can access the committee pages on the main OJEN website. For examples of updated OJEN committee pages, check out the Waterloo and Kingston committee pages.        

Social Media

OJEN maintains X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Local OJEN committees are encouraged to promote their justice education events on these platforms by emailing us at regions@ojen.ca. OJEN’s communications team will follow up to ensure that we have the information we need to promote your event. 

Local OJEN committees with social media accounts are encouraged to follow the main OJEN accounts and to share their handles with OJEN’s office.  This facilitates cross promotion of local and province-wide activities. OJEN’s communications team is available to support local committees in developing social media campaigns to promote their activities. 

News releases          

OJEN’s communications team is available to assist in drafting news releases on official OJEN letterhead for events that are of significant news interest. Committees are responsible for distributing news releases to their local media outlets. 

Graphic design

Promotional materials for local OJEN events must adhere to OJEN’s branding requirements, and in many cases, display logos of program funders.  OJEN’s communications team is available to assist with the design of materials that local committees can use to promote OJEN activities. Flyer templates may be available for certain programs – please reach out to the OJEN communications team to learn more.

An important note about OJEN branding: OJEN adheres to established branding guidelines and asks that local committees exercise care when designing their own print or online materials.  OJEN’s logo should only be used with approval from the communications team.  Whenever feasible, let OJEN’s communications team work with your committee to design materials that will be used at local OJEN events.   

Online Event Registration   

Some justice education activities require participants to pre-register.  OJEN offers committees support in setting up and operating online registration forms for their justice education events.  Contact the OJEN office to discuss setting up a registration form early in your event planning process.                                        

Media releases   

A picture is worth a thousand words; it brings a story to life and adds an element of interest words alone cannot achieve.  If possible, have someone at your justice education event take photos that can be posted on your web page or included in news stories and reports about your event.  When photographing youth, always have them sign a media release.  Media releases are usually included with OJEN’s online registration form.  If you are not using OJEN’s online registration system, please contact the communications team at regions@ojen.ca to receive a media release template.

Additional contact information for the communications team

In addition to the regions@ojen.ca email address, you can also contact the OJEN communications team by emailing: 

• Nadine Demoe, Communication Manager, ndemoe@ojen.ca
• Raras Azzahra, Digital Communications Associate, razzahra@ojen.ca