AS PART of our Pride of East Lancashire Awards campaign we are taking a daily look at different issues surrounding each accolade, starting with the first, which is for community groups.

A big problem is that of publicity. If ideas cannot be marketed, potential beneficiaries may lose out.

DONNA McKENZIE looks at a group which has faced such problems...

TALIA Theatre, founded in 1997, helps the unemployed back into work and uses drama to tackle youth problems such as under-age drinking.

It was set up with the intention of developing dynamic theatre which would communicate across language and cultural barriers.

The theatre group's 2003 production, 7 Assilion Place, focused on the issues surrounding asylum seekers.

And the company, based in Darwen Library Theatre, now works extensively within the community to tackle social problems in the poorer wards of Blackburn and Darwen. Work has been highly successful but because the company is so small it struggles to find time and manpower to promote what it does.

Chloe Whitehead, who established the company with James Beale, said: "It has been quite problematic and a lot of that is to do with being so small. It is a problem many smaller community groups have to contend with.

"On the community work side, we have only one full-time member of staff who does not have time to do marketing because they are doing the programmes. We have not had the opportunity to tell people what we are doing because we are busy actually doing it.

"We have to rely a lot on word of mouth.

"With the Lab Project, a two week initiative to help adults back into work, we go into job centres but that is difficult because we are targeting Single Regeneration Budget areas and their lives change so quickly that it is very hard to get commitment from them." The group now hopes to focus on marketing its services as funding has been secured for the Lab Project for a year. Money for the In Focus Project, which works with year 9 pupils who are on verge of exclusion and aims to make them aware of their actions and the consequences, has also been obtained.

The group now plans to appoint a marketing person but many other groups continue to struggle.

Chloe said: "The job is tough but it is also fantastic when you work with people over a period and see the turn around in them. There is more job satisfaction than in any other job."

Thisislancashire's special Pride of East Lancashire section...