Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/04/2014

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Strategies to Improve Communities Educate Education and outreach are essential elements for strengthening and extending the work of local governments. They can take many forms, including marketing and public relations; community education and advocacy; collaborations, alliances, and partnerships; networking and more. Outreach is the mechanism for building a base of support. Increased networking and greater outreach mean access to more people. Without effective outreach efforts, organizations may limit their access to resources and fail to establish a positive image or reputation within the community.8 Public outreach is more than just broadcasting to residents. Good outreach should target diverse audiences: • Community -based organizations such as schools, faith communities and community associations • Business associations for possible partnerships, volunteers, donations and media access • Volunteer groups • Local media Public Outreach and Education Public outreach can be more than getting the word out. It can educate your audiences about broader issues like the need for water conservation or decreased use of motorized vehicles in your community. The advances of technology have increased government's ability significantly to communicate with residents in cost-efficient, time sensitive manners. Most local governments now have web pages useful for educating residents and visitors. Some web pages also allow interaction such as ability to pay bills, ask questions, and communicate with other public officials and residents about community issues. Many cities provide 3ii platforms where residents can report problems in their neighborhoods. Some local governments have established their own Facebook pages and communicate with citizens regularly using Twitter and YouTube (see Ankeny case study). Online Town Meetings also are becoming more commonplace (see Fort Collins case study). For more information on social media use in local governing, see ICMA's Social Media Playbook e Building Capacity in Nonprofit Organizations. Edited by Carol J. De Vita and Cory Fleming. Copyright © April 2001. The Urban Institute. http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/building_capacity.pdf. http://icma.org/en/Page/100423/Social Media Loca I Government Plavbook. For examples of using technology for civic engagement, see: http://knightfoundation.org/features/civictech/ Key Strategies in Public 0utreach9 • Have a strategic communication plan in place • Develop one or more core messages • Identify appropriate audiences • Identify and train staff members to talk with media and the general public • Target key media for regular outreach • Have some combination of web, printed, and video materials to inform the media and the public • Develop events that will showcase your community and its goals to the media and the public • Work with stakeholders and partners on joint education and outreach efforts A Case Study in the use of Social Media Ankeny, Iowa The City of Ankeny, Iowa is one of the fastest - growing communities in the state of Iowa. Results from all administrations of The National Citizen Survey going back ten years describe a community that is consistently revered by its fifty some thousand residents. Residents give the city ratings that exceed those of other communities for quality of life, quality of service delivery, housing costs, land use planning, safety and just about every other important community characteristic. In Ankeny, more residents are visiting the city website and more here than elsewhere across the U.S. believe that public information services are top notch. One of the few characteristics of the community that was not considered exemplary compared to ratings from residents in other places was "value of services for the taxes paid to Ankeny." As much as it was a strong rating, unlike other ratings, this one was not above those given in comparison communities. Furthermore, the rating for opportunities to attend cultural activities was lower than elsewhere Finally, the number of residents having interaction with the city continued a decade long slide. 9 www.coloradotrust.org/attachments/0000/3848/Organizational Ca pacityAssessmentTool.pdf © 2014, National Research Center, Inc. Page 15