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Meeting residents where they are also means using low-tech methods for community engagement
By
Vanessa Ellingham
November 8, 2024
4 minutes
Online engagement tools enable you to reach a large number of community members in an instant. But not everyone is so simple to reach. Here, we meet four local governments using low- and no-tech engagement methods like WhatsApp, SMS, in-person visits, and the good old telephone to ensure the underheard voices in their community get a chance to have their say.
Table of contents
Keeping local realities front-of-mind in Chile
“If we want to talk about good participation and good citizen engagement, we have to shift towards the context and the local realities, right?” That’s Nicole Markwick, Co-Coordinator of Citizen Engagement for the Municipality of Viña del Mar in Chile*, speaking on our podcast, Public Square: Conversations in Democracy.
In this coastal city, the hills separate the neighbourhoods, making it tricky to move between them, while ensuring that each neighbourhood has its own distinct identity. “One place people get their information is from the local corner store,” explains Nicole, “if they go there and see a poster from a neighbourhood group, for example. So the information transfer is very local.”
Nicole and her team use this offline engagement method to reach the people who rarely leave their neighbourhood, partnering with local groups to ensure communication is delivered with a neighbourhoods touch.
As for digital communication: “The availability of relatively cheap mobile data means that people are on their phones. Phones are a really key element of connectivity in this country, much more than computers, for example. People use WhatsApp way more than they’ll use their email in general.”
For this reason, the engagement team prioritises SMS and WhatsApp.
“We’re not necessarily sending our information only via email and assuming they’re going to get it that way,” explains Nicole. “We’re working a lot through text as well, through WhatsApp – we’re also sending videos and graphics that way.”
“Different tools reach different folks.”
Nicole Markwick, Co-Coordinator of Citizen Engagement, Viña del Mar
Have you added a low-tech engagement method like SMS or WhatsApp to your toolbox? It’s worth testing how different groups of people engage once you give them the option.
*This was Nicole’s role at the time she was interviewed. She has since moved on to a new opportunity.
Offering seniors a listening ear in California
When the City of Benicia, CA set out to engage residents on an industrial safety ordinance, they knew they would need to find creative ways to engage different groups in their community on such a complex topic.
Della Olm, Management Analyst & Fire PIO made sure that, alongside online engagement methods, seniors were offered an accessible way to have their say: the trusty telephone. Della included her direct phone number on every piece of communications her office sent out, so she would always be reachable to people who may not be so comfortable with other technologies.
“Seniors are comfortable speaking on the phone, which is an important engagement tool.”
Della Olm, Management Analyst & Fire PIO, Benicia
Humanising government by showing a friendly face in NYC
And on the east coast, in New York City, the Mayor’s Public Engagement Unit uses a set of low-tech engagement methods to let residents know about social support services they’re eligible for, but may not be aware of. But then they take their engagement one step further.
“We don’t think it’s enough to say ‘hey we sent a mailer out, or we made a robo call’,” says Director of the Mayor’s Public Engagement Unit, Adrienne Lever. “If we truly want to reach people who need these services then we need to be much more aggressive, and that often means showing up at their doorstep, which is what our team is often doing.”
Of course, the in-person interaction itself isn’t aggressive. Members of the engagement team use targeted data to identify people who would benefit from the service they’re promoting, such as a recent rent freeze, and then show up on their doorstep to have a friendly chat about it. If the person shows interest in applying for a service, the engagement team can then support them personally with wading through any bureaucracy they may find challenging.
Additionally, Adrienne’s team uses peer-to-peer text messages to create a two-way dialogue with residents. “These tools help us reach people at scale, but maintain the personal touch,” she explains.
The Danish capital of Copenhagen launched a Proposals drive, inviting residents to submit their ideas on the future of their city.
Project Manager for the engagement project, Aja Faurschou Enghoff, says one challenge was ensuring that the Proposals process didn’t become yet another way for the same voices to be heard yet again – largely older people who have more time to engage, and tend to have a better understanding of how to do so.
“We already reach the vocal minority. So in order to reach other segments of society, we ran workshops on how to do Copenhagen Proposals with a bunch of students.”
Aja Faurschou Enghoff, Project Manager, Copenhagen Municipality
The minimum age for submitting a proposal in Copenhagen is 15, so for those still under the age limit, the workshop facilitators submitted proposals on their behalf, ensuring their voices would be heard.
Including young voices had an additional benefit: “They developed really great proposals, then they told their parents about it, and it spread from there.” Having had a positive engagement experience, the teens became vocal advocates for the project, engaging another demographic in the process.
Vanessa Ellingham is a communications professional with experience in grassroots community organizing, particularly with migrant communities. In 2016 she was part of a team that won the UNAOC Intercultural Innovation Award for this work.
Vanessa's passionate about writing and weaving stories bringing together migration, community, and belonging. Currently you can find her in Berlin, playing around with Alt Text as Poetry.
Vanessa Ellingham is a communications professional with experience in grassroots community organizing, particularly with migrant communities. In 2016 she was part of a team that won the UNAOC Intercultural Innovation Award for this work.
Vanessa's passionate about writing and weaving stories bringing together migration, community, and belonging. Currently you can find her in Berlin, playing around with Alt Text as Poetry.
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