January 2020 C&D Minutes
Topic: Engaging with the Public
Location: Thatcher Woods Pavilion, River Forest, IL
SUMMARY:
Updates:
Location: Thatcher Woods Pavilion, River Forest, IL
SUMMARY:
Updates:
- Goal of coffee hours is maintaining connections; we would like to host NCH2 Coffee Hours every other month
- If you are interested in hosting or have ideas for future topics, contact Barb Kreski at [email protected]
- March meeting @ Gateway Outdoors (300 W. Adams), "100% Participation"
- Every attendee shares some kind of success or accomplishment with the group
- May meeting not yet scheduled
- July 23rd in Naperville at Conservation Foundation, topic TBD
- Sept meeting not yet scheduled
- Hopefully another symposium in November!
- Think about what success story you want to share at the next coffee hour
- Reach out to Barb with ideas for discussion topics or if you are interested in hosting future coffee & discussion.
- 50th anniversary of Earth Day coming up, think of ways to honor this anniversary
- Topic is a direct result of conversations within collaborative
- How do we make sure that everyone knows that the outdoors is here for all as a resource?
- New goal from Sierra Club: "Outdoors for All"
- How do we get this message out at a grassroots level?
- Cook County Preserves has great messaging, Carl presents on their strategy
- Three main focuses: Audience, Goal, Message
- Who do you want to talk to?
- What do you want that audience to do? To change? To understand? What will they be receptive to?
- What is the message that will accomplish these goals?
- Cook County is multi-faceted and complicated
- 70K acres, 350+ miles of marked trails, 6 nature centers, 1400+ programs annually, numerous recreation assets and programs, Botanic Garden, Brookfield Zoo etc. etc.
- How do we communicate all of these options effectively?
- Audience
- Visitors
- People who are pre-disposed to like what we offer
- Environmentalists, people with young kids, people interested in different recreation options
- Residents who don’t know all FP offer
- Decision-makers
- Goal
- Understand all that is available
- Reframe Forest Preserves
- Get people to recognize the importance and depth of resources
- Get people into the Forest Preserves
- Move from recognizing to actively participating
- Value the FP
- Message House
- Forest Preserves developed a message house through surveys and consultation with staff
- Beginning with a statement, followed by a breakdown of key messages, foundation narrative (the story behind the resources), and foundation proof points (the actual resources available)
- This language is used throughout communications, website, etc.
- Audience Question: What is your photo/video strategy?
- Photos occasionally taken by hired professional photographers, Communications staff in charge of taking photos during evens as well
- Calendar Contest, people apply with beautiful photos to get put in the Forest Preserves calendar
- Visual storytelling is powerful, Cook County Forest Preserves is focusing on getting more photographs this year
- Audience Question: Have you analyzed areas, like the Southwest/Southeast sides where people aren't receiving this messaging to find ways to engage them more?
- Emphasis on engaging all people with nature
- Recently cold-called different organizations to distribute information more widely, ended up increasing distribution by 1500
- Building Community of Support
- Goes beyond communications department, multiple departments have to coordinate for effective messaging
- Communication Avenues
- Media outreach, marketing/advertising, website, calendar, quarterly brochure, social media, forest way, rack cards/maps/etc., signs
- Messaging:
- Main four messages (from Message House) of the CCFPD
- Create Your Own Adventure
- Emphasizing all the different things people can do to engage with the preserve
- Where Plants & Animals Thrive
- Emphasizing the ecological importance and conservation work
- Make Individuals and Communities Healthier
- Emphasizing the health benefits of engaging with nature
- The Forest Preserves are for Everyone
- Emphasizing the multiple ways to engage across Cook County, acknowledging economic and racial disparities and work to improve in these areas
- Create Your Own Adventure
- Each message has special points that are emphasized, all connects back to Message House strategy (see slides for specifics)
- Main four messages (from Message House) of the CCFPD
- Audience Question: How do you gage the impact of these messages?
- Social media analysis
- Utilizing Facebook and Google analytics
- Social media analysis
- Deeper analysis still needed
- Audience Question: Latinx/African Americans feeling "uncomfortable" in green spaces and preserves isn't necessarily because of staff, but so-called "real environmentalists" who may pass judgements on those who aren't as prepared, or don't have all the gear or know-how. Have you ever discussed reaching out to those hardcore environmentalists and site stewards about being more welcoming or having extra gear for folks? How do we turn it back on us to be more prepared to create more inviting spaces?
- Suggestion to have volunteer stewardship training to try and educate on this issue
- Debra brings up how this question/comment relates to the last coffee hour
- It's not necessarily the communication coming from the FP, it's about taking this information and applying it when we create events, when we go back to our offices or our homes
- Appreciates the framing of the messaging strategy, but who was at the table to talk about the messaging?
- Idiosyncratic things might still send the message that this activity isn't for certain groups
- How are we, as those interested and involved, doing what we say we want to do to engage new groups?
- For example, language like "Feel free" could read differently to people who feel more policed in public spaces. How does this come across?
- Need to be asking are we really ready for diversity, and what do we need to do to get ready?
- FP staff brings up that they highlight certain demographics to raise awareness that we cannot keep doing what we are doing
- Doing one Spanish flier isn't enough, there are many other touch points that have to happen
- FP does continuous engagement, created equity/diversity/inclusion committee that looked at areas of economic disadvantage to see what communities were getting outreach thru brochures
- Found new organizations throughout the city and offered resources, ended up distributing 1500 more materials to communities in the South West and South East sides of Chicago
- Takes time, took a team of people cold-calling different organizations
- Debra reminds the group that language is important: a lot of the language is about bringing different people to us, but what about them?
- How interested are we in the people themselves?
- Where are we starting from? We need to change our messaging to reflect a genuine care of the groups we want to engage
- "What are your goals? How can what we do help feed into those goals?"
- Being sure that our approach doesn't start with our agenda
- First step needs to be opening up the door to see what the goals are and where natural connections happen, making authentic relationships
- Audience Question: How do we go about finding more information about our audience, specifically for small organizations?
- Carl suggests stopping to think about the groups you are trying to work with, and then talking to people who are members of the community/demographic you want to engage with
- Making ourselves accessible, open, and welcoming is challenging but so vital
- There are folks who are very knowledgeable about environmental topics, but they may not be familiar with the particular environment/landscape of Chicago
- How do we, when we see a person of color or an event happening, how do WE be more welcoming and ok with different kinds of engagement?
- Environmentalists have to change our behavior to make spaces more welcoming
- We need people in nature as badly as we need nature