Community engagement, or establishing and maintaining an honest, intentional, and ongoing relationship with a target audience, is not always easy. Every community is different, which means every community engagement effort requires strategic thinking and a custom plan. Over the past three decades, Elmore has supported clients in managing complex issues with clarity and sensitivity to audiences connected by geographic location or special interest. As engaged representatives of our clients, we work with key stakeholders to unite the goals of an organization with the needs of the community.

So what does a high-performing community outreach effort look like? At a high level, Elmore employs the following process:

• Look at the big picture. Determine the need to inform, educate or solicit feedback from specific publics about a topic, project, or campaign, and consider how the situation may be sensitive or potentially divisive due to disparate points of view.
• Dig a little deeper to:
  • • fully grasp the situation at hand;
    • conduct research and identify stakeholders and target audiences; and
    • develop a plan and timeline for outreach.
• Craft messaging tailored to specific audiences, anticipating concerns and questions (especially the hard ones) the public might raise.
• Implement the plan to communicate regularly with key stakeholders, often other governmental agencies and partner organizations who have a vested interest or involvement in the project, to ensure everyone remains informed and utilizes consistent messaging.
• Most importantly, train organizational leaders to answer questions authentically, clearly, and with empathy.

While every community engagement campaign is unique, all require thoughtful consideration of audiences, viewpoints, messaging, timing, and troubleshooting. Elmore is honored to be our clients’ trusted partner throughout the process; working together to clearly communicate with, earn, and keep the trust of everyone involved.

Work Example: Harris County Engineering Department 2022 Bond Propositions Public Meetings

Elmore partnered with two communications firms to assist the Harris County Engineering Department (HCED) in a public engagement campaign for the 2022 Harris County Bond Propositions, where Elmore was primarily responsible for developing the messaging. We crafted a key messages document to ensure consistency across communications channels and created training materials with best practices to help county staff respond to community questions. Other responsibilities included drafting the press release announcing the public meetings, writing the script for the virtual meetings, and preparing our client in advance of radio and television interviews, including the Houston Newsmakers segment on KPRC-TV. The input received from residents will be used to help prioritize public safety facilities, roadway infrastructure and greenspace projects.

Work Example: Harris County Flood Control District

While some community engagement projects have tight timelines, others are in the works for years. For instance, Harris County Flood Control District hired us more than a year ago to begin preparing a community outreach campaign to educate reporters, elected officials, and the public on an additional new concept for flood mitigation. The Flood Control District is considering adding deep underground stormwater tunnels to the existing stormwater management system. We spent many months with engineers learning and breaking down the technical concepts to develop educational materials lay audiences could understand. These communications tools were then used to educate reporters and elected officials on the concept of these underground stormwater conveyance channels and to articulate their benefits. Elmore facilitated a virtual public meeting with more than 600 people in attendance, and presentations to stakeholders continue as the Flood Control District pursues the final phase of the study process. We continue our community engagement plan with a tunnel specific website launching soon and will keep the conversation with Harris County residents ongoing through online channels for the next several years.

Work Example: Hemwick Place Asphalt Roadway Reconstruction Project

Consider the award-winning community engagement campaign Elmore completed for Harris County Engineering Department (HCED) in Spring 2021. HCED would lead the Hemwick Place Asphalt Roadway Reconstruction project, repaving approximately two miles of roadway from the service road of Highway 290 into the Hemwick Place neighborhood, all in the path of 84 homes.

Elmore was hired to facilitate a virtual public meeting about the project with the goal of providing impacted residents with more information on the upcoming roadway reconstruction, giving them an opportunity to ask questions about the improvements, and articulating Harris County Precinct 3’s ongoing commitment to improving area neighborhoods.

Utilizing purposeful outreach and thoughtful messaging, and through the planning and facilitating of the successful online public meeting, Elmore guided our client to earn the trust (and ultimately, cooperation) of the 84 impacted households. Genuine communication had been established between Harris County and these residents, providing a positive experience for all parties involved in an otherwise inconvenient situation. This work won Elmore Best of Show at the Houston-area International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) awards, and a regional award of merit from the IABC Southern Region, in 2022.

Healthy relationships are built on a foundation of trust and accountability. Friendships and intimate relationships thrive when each person feels heard and held. Connections flourish when expectations are established and met over and over again.

We believe the same is true in our professional relationships with our clients and colleagues. We want these relationships to be long-term and prosperous, made possible by sincere connection and confidence in us. When you are seeking a consultant, and especially in the case of a communications adviser who must understand your business and how you want your business to show up in the world, you need them to be an extension of your team. To achieve this, it requires complete trust in that relationship. For us, that trust is earned, in large part, by our commitment to accountability.

Best-selling author and lecturer Bob Proctor famously said, “Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result.” We are kept accountable by account management best practices including bringing detailed agendas to our meetings, delivering consistently on action items, and developing recap reports comparing our results to the goals we outlined together in prior strategic planning sessions and the resulting framework plan. Regular check-ins allow us to apprise our clients of campaign progress and fine-tune our strategies based on our clients’ updates.

Active listening is another way we remain accountable in our relationships day-in and day-out. By taking the time to listen empathetically, repeat what has been said and provide opportunity for clarification, we ensure everyone leaves a conversation or meeting on the same page, with the same expectations. By asking the right questions, we gain the context needed to do our work effectively.

These accountability measures are a key part of our success and result in a deepened trust in the client-agency relationship. As you seek opinions and guidance on a sensitive matter; as you impart confidential information before it is made public; and as you trust communications consultants to act as your representatives in meetings or with media, you want to have the utmost confidence in your partner. The trust imparted to us is a signal that we have earned the confidence of our partners. The most important indicator of our clients’ faith in our expertise and guidance is when they embrace and follow our strategic communications recommendations, and together we build a partnership that lasts for many years.

Having mutual trust is paramount, and accountability is the conduit by which we nurture that trust to accomplish communications goals together. If you are one of our partners, we are honored to have the opportunity to serve as a trusted member of your team. If you are not, we would love the opportunity to earn your trust.

In our last e-newsletter, we mentioned the strategic planning session as the first tool we use when building a foundation of strategies and tactics to meet your communications milestones. Held on a semi-annual basis (or another agreed-upon interval), the session is used to identify your organization’s big picture goals and upcoming milestones. From that discussion our team goes on to create a tailored communications strategy to support both.

The benefits of the strategic planning process cannot be overstated. The session itself facilitates a dynamic conversation about your organization’s initiatives with members of your team and ours. Using interactive exercises, we drill down to how we can support those initiatives through communications strategies and tactics. It is a time to think big, let creativity flow, actively listen, and have a productive dialogue with everyone at the table.

The resulting strategic communications plan, which we develop in the weeks following the meeting then refine and finalize with your team, provides a roadmap for all of us to reference as we set forth to accomplish the shared communications goals. This is the guiding document which outlines your communications objectives and exactly by what means we will accomplish them. We are methodical and intentional about our craft and believe deeply in the importance of committing our plan to paper. The plan outlines a “flexible framework,” meaning it serves as our guide and keeps us all focused on shared objectives but also allows for flexibility and nimbleness if your circumstances or priorities change. In our regular weekly or biweekly client/agency team meetings, the document is regularly referenced.

Importantly, the plan outlines benchmarks against which our success can be measured and evaluated. At the next scheduled planning session, in most cases, six months later, we showcase our results against the goals, strategies and tactics outlined in the document. This accountability gives you assurance that we are being good stewards of your resources (time, money, trust, expectations) and an excellent communications partner.

No matter which of our services you need to help get you to your goals, the first step is always to engage in the strategic planning process with us. We promise it’s painless and has an incredible ROI.