3.4. Develop the Outreach Strategy

The outreach strategy is the guiding plan for how you will engage participants, stakeholders and the public. Thinking about the outreach strategy early and adjusting it throughout the planning process based on lessons learned positions you for success.

A public relations or public information official (PIO) can be a valuable partner. They help to generate messages, work with the media, and share public information throughout the mitigation planning process. If you have a PIO or other communications staff, invite them to help develop and/or implement your outreach strategy.

Use the following steps to create your outreach strategy.

Hold a brainstorming session with the planning team at the project kickoff meeting. Use this time to identify stakeholders and consider which outreach methods will work best for the planning area. Identify existing meetings and pre-established community events that may have a connection to hazard mitigation. These may help you determine the type of outreach and when it will occur. If you are developing a plan, look at the stakeholders and outreach activities from the previous planning process. Note any needed changes and incorporate them into the outreach strategy.

This step helps you document what you what your outreach to do, and when you plan to do it. Consider the following to determine your outreach goals:

• What input do you need from stakeholders?
• What input do you want from the public?
• How can stakeholders and the public contribute to the capability review, risk assessment and mitigation strategy?

As the project kicks off, the planning team may set a schedule of tasks and meetings to complete the new plan or update. Use this schedule to identify key times to inform and seek input from stakeholders and the public. For example, a good time to invite public involvement is after the risk assessment is done and before the planning team starts to form the mitigation strategy. Involving the public at this stage gives you a chance to:

• Educate the public on the risk assessment findings and get their reactions (did this align with their expectations or do those results come as a surprise?).
• Get input on any data inaccuracies.
• Learn their ideas and priorities for mitigation actions.

This step answers the question, “What are the best ways to reach out to stakeholders and the public?” Outreach methods should meet the unique needs of a community. For instance, if the planning area has a high number of Spanish speakers, develop outreach materials in Spanish. Use targeted methods to get stakeholder input. The planning needs, schedule and budget may guide these methods, too.

No matter which methods you choose, make sure to use stakeholders’ time in a meaningful and productive way. Be clear about where they can help and why their voice matters. Form a plan to gather input and then use it in the planning process. Give chances to review throughout the process. Set meeting dates, outreach methods and other activities early on.

If a disaster event recently affected your community, the public may have a keen interest in hazards and mitigation. Use this interest to engage community members in finding ways to prepare for future events. People may not join a public meeting on hazard mitigation if a hazard event has not recently affected their community. Targeted engagement can help encourage participation among those who may be unlikely to join. The planning team can find out what types of public involvement have worked well in your community before. Reaching out to people is better than asking them to come to you. For example, setting up a booth at a popular community event or getting on the agenda of a scheduled meeting could reach more people than a meeting that only discusses hazard mitigation.

Using a wide range of informational materials and methods can help you reach out to the public during the planning process. These can include news media, social media, fliers, surveys and websites. Think about sharing messages on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Activities that involve the public should be designed to increase public awareness by presenting information (one-way communication). They should also seek input to inform the plan’s content (two-way communication).

The table below provides examples of how communities have successfully used different types of outreach methods in mitigation planning. This table references information from the International Association of Public Participation.

Outreach Method	Outreach Purpose	Example Supporting Activities
Community Events	Inform	Host a booth at a fair or other event where the community will gather. Use the booth to teach residents about preparing for natural hazards. Share materials on related topics with visitors. Consider games, giveaways or other incentives as ways to engage at the event.
Interviews	Consult	Host a series of structured discussions. They could be telephone or face-to-face interviews with leaders and representatives from each of the county’s communities, school districts, and the public. This could help to identify hazards of concern and potential mitigation measures.
News Media	Inform	Work with local media outlets, including television, radio and print media partners. They can prepare stories that promote broad public involvement.
Public Meetings	Inform	Through a participating jurisdiction’s Corporate Communications and Marketing Office, email newsletters soliciting input on draft plan documents and public meeting attendance. Distribution lists could include government agencies, businesses and civic organizations.
	Involve	Send public meeting details to all city and county employees. Also, post them to the community’s online public events calendar. Add them to live tickers that scroll across the bottom of the local government access television channel as well.
		Share live coverage of public input meetings and let residents share their questions or comments by email.
Presentations to Governing Bodies	Inform	Share the status of the plan with the board of county commissioners or similar governing body. These meetings should be public, and an announcement of the plan agenda item should be included in the announcement of the public meeting.
Questionnaires/ Surveys	Consult	Use a survey to get information from people who could not attend the public meetings. Post the survey to your community’s social media account(s). Ask local officials to give out copies of the survey. Have copies available for residents at municipal offices. Those offices can also post an electronic version on their websites.
		Where applicable, create questionnaires/surveys in multiple languages.
Roundtables/ Forums	Collaborate	Sponsor a public forum to get ideas from residents on how to reduce the risk of natural hazards. This could be the main event for teaching the public. It is also a chance to let the public add to the plan’s action items. The resulting ideas may inform the jurisdiction’s planning team about risks, strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.
Social Media	Inform/Involve	Make a mitigation plan Facebook page, Twitter account, or Instagram account. The page or account can include small video clips of community leaders talking about the need for mitigation planning. The page or account can also link to your questionnaire/survey.
		Use the page or account to hold raffles or giveaways. This will help to support participation. For example, you may post that “All those who participate and share feedback through this page or account will be entered into a drawing.”
Area-Specific Meetings	Involve	Host small, area-specific meetings twice each year. You can hold them at public libraries and other public venues. These meetings give you a chance to share reading materials. They can educate residents on actions they can take to mitigate natural hazards, save lives and prevent property damage. These meetings can also gather input on making the mitigation process more effective.
Website	Involve/Consult	You can use a website to promote the mitigation plan by sharing:
		•  What hazard mitigation planning is.
		•  A list of who is involved in the local planning process.
		•  How the plan update process works.
		•  Information about future stakeholder meetings and chances for public involvement.
		You can share contact information for questions or comments. Downloads available from the site could include copies of the existing plan, the plan update, public notices, and press releases.

Think about the community’s values and priorities. Consider how they line up with reducing the impacts of future hazards and disasters. Then, set talking points for discussions with a range of audiences. Form messages that appeal to them. For example, if a gold-medal trout stream or historic downtown is key to a community’s identity and economy, frame mitigation messages to highlight these assets and the need for their long-term protection.

Gather and assess feedback from outreach activities, then work it into the planning team’s decision-making process and the final plan. During the outreach process, clearly explain to stakeholders and the public how the planning team will use their feedback to inform the plan. Set a process for:

• Organizing and assessing the comments received.
• Incorporating comments into the development of the plan itself.
• Recording the comments in the final plan.

Keep in mind that collecting public feedback is not enough; you must use public input to inform the plan. For example, use public workshops to brainstorm mitigation actions and goals.

The public must have an opportunity to review and comment on the final draft plan before it is adopted. There are many ways that you can do this:

• Include the plan as a topic of discussion at an existing meeting.
• Share the plan on a website and promote it across social media accounts.
• Hold a meeting where the public can review the plan.
• Bring the plan to community events where you know people are gathering.

Mitigation plans are usually not small documents. Allow at least 4 weeks for review and comment. Don’t forget to include time in the schedule to revise the plan based on the comments. Provide guidance on the type of comments and feedback that you want. For instance, getting the public’s take on community assets and how mitigation actions are prioritized in the plan is very useful.

Tell the public when a draft is ready for review. You can do this through a press release in the local newspaper and on the community’s website and social media accounts. The press release should explain how the public can share comments. Some jurisdictions have policies regarding the public review of documents before they are adopted, and these should be followed for final comments on the mitigation plan.