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Outreach Summary

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OUTREACH SUMMARY 

The development of the Trenton250 Vision Element was an ambitious outreach effort designed to create consensus around a community-driven vision and plan. The vision statement and guiding principles set the direction for the City and guide the development of the Trenton250 Master Plan, as well as city policies, programs, and projects. 

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APPROACH AND RESULTS 

The City used a multifaceted methodology that joined traditional outreach approaches with innovative online tools and creative public engagements. The outreach process re-established a relationship with a core group of dedicated citizens and managed to connect with people who have not typically been involved in civic engagement. As a result of this approach and articulating a city-wide vision first, there is now a vast swath of the Trenton community aware of, excited by, and engaged with the Trenton250 Master Plan. Moreover, there is consensus around a single vision statement and a set of guiding principles.

INITIAL OUTREACH 

The Planning Staff’s initial outreach was a Listening Tour, in which the staff visited a number of community stakeholder groups and government agencies to present a draft Master Plan Framework. Participants provided feedback on what topics the community wanted to cover in the master plan.  As a result of the Listening Tour, the final Master Plan Framework was amended to include Public Health, Public Safety, Education, Technology and an Intergovernmental Plan.

PHASE I: VISIONING

 

Youth Summit

One of the project highlights was a 200 person Youth Summit at a local high school. Younger residents are least likely to attend public meetings, and bringing the public process to them was essential for getting their input. As a result of this process, more than 20 visions were submitted, and five students were nominated to join the Master Plan Steering Committee.

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Project Website

The Trenton250 visioning effort also included a custom, mobile-phone-compatible, multilingual website that hosted multiple quick, low-investment opportunities to participate. The website was utilized more than 10,000 times between April 2014 and December 2016 and was complemented by an aggressive social media campaign on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. That effort produced over 3,300 Facebook friends and more than 50 visions submitted via a Twitter hashtag. The images below show the project website launch party.

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Multi-Lingual Latino Engagement

To ensure the process was open to everyone, Trenton250’s visioning efforts had multiple engagements accessible to the rapidly growing Latino community. First, the website is available in Spanish. Second, all printed materials (such as posters, flyers, and brochures) were available in both English and Spanish. Most importantly, Trenton250 teamed up with a local non-profit, El Centro, to host a Spanish-speaking public meeting.

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“Going to the People” @ Art All Night

Beyond these efforts, the Trenton250 team hosted an interactive visioning art installation at Art All Night (one of the largest and well-attended arts event in Trenton and the region), participated in radio interviews, deployed custom “I Hope Trenton Will Be...” marking chalkboards, and held nine stakeholder and public meetings.

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Print and Non-Traditional Media

Nine newspaper articles were published about the master plan, there were 3,000 visits to project website pages dedicated to education, and the City distributed more than 3,500 informational brochures in both English and Spanish. The outreach efforts also produced over 300 visions, 80 goals, and thousands of votes on user submissions. From this, 30 different categories of visions were identified (e.g. education and safety). Participants cast half of all their “votes” for visions in the top 5 categories, and 80% of participants cast “votes” for one of the top 10 vision categories. This consensus help establish community accord around a core set of guiding principles.

Awards

In January 2015, Trenton250's Visioning Phase received the President's Award for Community Engagement from the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association.

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PHASE II: WRITING THE REPORTS

Building upon the extensive outreach conducted in the Visioning Phase of Trenton250, the Trenton250 team continued with a multifaceted strategy for Phase II of the plan incorporating, community events, social media and web-based strategies, as well as community meetings.

Approach

The goal of Phase II public outreach was to ensure that the community was aware of and able to easily participate with the Trenton250 Master Plan development at all stages of the process. Through 12 public meetings and 4 public commenting opportunities, the City received feedback from the community at every major milestone of the plan production.

Four Wards, One Conversation

In April 2015, the City conducted The Four Wards, One Conversation Community Open House. Through a series of interactive stations, the Trenton250 Team asked community members “What opportunities are there to make Trenton a Premier Economic and Cultural Center Build on Arts, Industry, and Education?”  In this stage, the team collected information on the different ways residents and stakeholders wanted to realize the Vision and Guiding Principles. Participants were able to make notes on maps, respond to questions posted on boards, and provide input on the what they saw as the major issues and opportunities facing their communities.

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Issues and Opportunities Report

Based on this feedback and consultant analysis, a draft Issues and Opportunities Report was released via an editable Google Word Document for public comment in October 2015. Posting the report as an online editable google document allowed stakeholders provide real-time feedback on what they see as issues and opportunities in Trenton. Equally important, the interactive nature of the document allowed participants to review the feedback of and interact with fellow community members. Additionally, staff hosted an Open Door Session, where individuals could walk in and speak to Trenton250 Representatives on a one-on-on basis to ask questions about, make comments on, or discuss the report.

Goals Tour

Building on the information received in the Issues and Opportunities Report, the Trenton250 team conducted a Goals Vetting Tour from February 2016 through June 2016 to present draft goals and receive feedback from the community. During these presentations, the team presented the Preliminary Goals, the Vision Map, and the Approach Map and participants were able to work in small groups with City staff to make comments or suggestions. This tour included meetings with the Planning Board, Zoning Board, Civic Associations, Stakeholders, various community groups, and the public. The materials were also available on the Plan’s website along with a weekly information table in City Hall’s atrium to garner feedback. The Team presented at over 20 meetings with an approximate exposure to 250 individuals in person during the tour without counting the passive information table in the Atrium and website feedback. 

Public Comments on Draft Reports

The final stage of public outreach within Phase II included two rounds of public comments. The first round in July 2016 coincided with the release of “Report Briefs.” Then in December 2016, a final draft of the complete plan was released for a 30 day public comment period.
The briefs introduced draft goals and strategies associated with each topic reports. The intent was to release initiative level recommendations early, so that participants had a chance to recommend changes before too much time and effort was invested. This early brief allowed residents an opportunity to suggest new initiatives or actions, or provide input on those recommended. Many of the comments were directly incorporated into the final Plan. Equally important, participants were able to give the Trenton250 Team more information about the various recommendations. As a result, the Reports not only reflected the ideas of the public but the public made the ideas of the Trenton250 Team stronger.
A first full draft of the Report was also released for public comment. These reports were more robust and included a complete set of actions, district plans, and detailed maps. These drafts allowed residents to have a complete plan on which to comment.
Over the course of the two public comment periods, staff received over 430 pages of comments from over 60 respondents that included residents, organizations, and governmental entities. Staff was also able to talk directly with many stakeholders and residents about their specific concerns.

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Vision & Guiding Principles

Read more about the community-driven vision for Trenton and find out how this was translated into actionable goals, initiatives, and actions.

http://trenton250.org/vision-guiding-principles
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