Raising Awareness and Public Engagement
This project will allow the Piedmont Triad to enhance our economic competitiveness by connecting housing with good jobs, quality schools and transportation. The plan will take 36 months to complete and will begin in the Spring of 2011.
Public engagement will be the key in creating a plan that is acceptable and beneficial for all citizens. There will be many opportunities for the public to give input on the plan throughout the duration. The outreach process will begin with this website and other social media outlets where the public can participate in discussions about the project.
We look forward to great involvement in this exciting planning process!
Where we are today…
The project kicked off on May 3, 2011. Since that time Raising Awareness and Public Engagement has been a strong focus of the project team. Below is a list of all the activities that have taken place.
37 Consortium Members
Over 100 persons involved in Work Group activities
Project Website (triadsustainability.org)
Views: 604 February, 872 March, 928 April, 1,939 May, 1,764 June
Piedmont Voice (piedmontvoice.org)
156 Participants [58% Male, avg. age 45.4], 280 Ideas, 76 Comments,
Facebook (facebook.com/triadsustainability)
156 Likes
Twitter (twitter.com/triadsustainability)
161 Followers
Email List
594 Contacts
13 Civic Forums
292 people attended across the region, 200+ ideas generated
“Grassroots” Outreach
Over 500 contacts
Realtor Smart Growth Workshop
with Forsyth Co. Realtor Assc. 35 persons attended
Local Design and Development Plans
Asheboro completed, more being planned
Photo contest
57 photos submitted by 23 photographers
Numerous civic and community presentations reaching 650 persons
As of July 12, 2012
Evaluation of Public Engagement Strategy
In the winter of 2012 a group of UNCG Master of Public Affairs students evaluated the public engagement strategies the project team was using. The evaluation includes a review of what other regions working on sustainable community plans are doing and several new strategies and recommendations. A sample of the recommendations are listed below.Click here to view the entire report.
● Use Piedmont Voice as the project name: this projects a brand and a catchy title that will get people in the door to dig in to the more jargon-filled activities
● Find a graphic design intern who can create web infographics and piggyback off of Mindmixer’s goals. Also, use all features of MindMixer, such as backend data collection.
● Continue to utilize MindMixer. This is a tool that has been successful for many communities and funding should be allocated to keep it alive throughout the entire planning process.