New Models for Neighborhood Engagement

Knight School of Communication
New Models for Neighborhood Engagement
Innovation in Charlotte
Dr. Eric Freedman, Dean
Jennifer Hull, Director of Community Programs
Jayme Keefer, Knight Scholar Student

Knight School Neighborhood Workshop

Knight School Neighborhood Workshop
Central Questions
 How do cities communicate to their residents?
 How do neighborhood residents communicate with each
other?
 Should a neighborhood develop a public or private
communication network, or a hybrid model?
 What are the existing resources (tools and information
channels) neighborhoods can use?

How do cities communicate?
 City website
 Citizen engagment management tools: civic apps, push
notifications (SMS) (EverBridge)
 Third party products: harness mobile and desktop devices
for social networking, city improvement and community
building (PublicStuff)
 Data driven decision making can transform a government
agency into a nimble customer service organization.

How do neighborhoods communicate?
 Neighborhood websites
 Newsletters (print or electronic)
 Email lists
 Physical spaces and places
 Third party products

Public, private or hybrid communication?
 Are you looking to communicate beyond your
neighborhood to promote your work and link with others
locally, regionally and nationally?
 Are you looking to host a private “conversation” among
residents?
 Do you need both public and private channels of
information?
 Do you need fixed or open communication paths?

Communication strategies
 Define who you are – mission and goals
 Know who you are – create a basic fact sheet
 Involve community leaders
 Encourage feedback

What are the existing resources?

Breakout Sessions
 What are your goals for neighborhood communication?
Report your top two goals.
 What tools have you used? What has worked best? What
hasn’t worked?

Knight School Community Leaders
Workshop
 How do we define community?
 How does information flow throughout Charlotte?
 What are the gaps in the information infrastructure?
 How do we build reciprocal relationships?

The Workshop Template
Community
 Who is your community?
 Where is your community?
 How do you translate that community into an audience?
 How do you establish trust in your community as a civic
entity?
 What sub-communities would be useful to assess?

Local Ecosystem
 How does information flow in the city?
 What is the level of local coverage on issues that are
central to your agency?
 How do people get information about your agency?
 What information models have you used in other
municipalities? What is unique about Charlotte, its
community, and its information systems?

Actions
 What one action might make a difference?
 Who needs to take action?
 What does progress look like?
 What opportunities exist for people to express themselves
and voice their concerns and their needs?
 What does the actual physical network look like? Where
are the dead zones?

Collaborations
 Change is not the result of a single civic endeavor.
 Change occurs through pockets of activity that emerge and
take root over time.
 We need to develop many and varied touch-points for
people who are stepping into and making their way through
public life.

Initiatives
 Community Survey
 Community Leaders Workshop
 Neighborhood Communication Workshops
 Digital Citizen Trainers (Student Trainers)
 Digitalcharlotte.org

Data
 Digital Media Literacy Index and Survey Data
http://digitalcharlotte.org/the-digital-media-literacy-index/

New Models for Neighborhood Engagement

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