COMMUNITY groups have benefited from a day of free media training.

Participants from organisations, including Victim Support, Young Volunteer Challenge and Durham Society for the Blind, attended the event in the Dolphin Centre, Darlington.

Those who took part were given tips on how to write press releases and deal with the media to get the best publicity for their groups.

Representatives from The Northern Echo and Radio Cleveland dropped in to answer questions.

The event was organised by Alan Strickland, from Vibrant Futures, a non profit-making group which organises community projects.

He said the feedback from the event had been positive, adding: "I think it went really well.

"There were lots of people there from different organisations who were in charge of press for their group, but none of them had any experience of dealing with the media.

"A lot of them were scared of the media and not confident in approaching them.

"I think media skills are really important, but training tends to be expensive, and because this was free it attracted more people."