The Opportunity:
The E3 Cluster is a group of six neighborhood non-profit organizations that are collaborating to provide environmental education opportunities to the Encinitas community.
The cluster partners identified a need to engage the community for input on proposed traffic calming recommendations. This project would also establish community outreach between the E3 Cluster and Saxony Road and Quail Gardens Drive residents and businesses.
The Solution:
We developed a community outreach program that included six main features:
- Brand development including logo and tagline
- Website and social media strategy
- Outreach strategy
- Two workshops for direct community involvement
- One informational meeting to share the results
- Media relations
The E3 Cluster was relatively new. It had a name but no logo or web presence. We created a visual identity, tagline and online presence that brought the organization to life, made it recognizable to the community and gave residents multiple platforms to engage with it.
Our community outreach plan included branded print collateral such as flyers, banners and mailers to promote the meetings and build the Cluster’s brand. The two workshops engaged Saxony Road and Quail Gardens Drive residents who voiced their preferences for the traffic calming, which we shared at the informational meeting a month later.
To give the project staying power, we built and maintained a detailed stakeholder database that tracked all outreach and enabled future direct communications with interested neighbors.
The Results:
- Over 130 residents participated in the community survey and gave the preliminary traffic calming plan positive feedback
- More than 90 people attended the first two workshops and about 40 people were present at the following informational meeting
- Over 250 people liked the E3 Facebook page
- Stories on the project ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Seaside Courier, Encinitas Advocate and Coast News
- The City of Encinitas participated in and supported the process and agreed to evaluate the E3 Cluster’s final traffic calming plan