Alex Highley
GOPC Project Coordinator

Members of the 2017 Ohio Transportation Leadership Academy recently completed the third workshop of the Ohio Transportation Academy. Hosted by GOPC and Transportation for America (T4A), the workshop brought together public, private, and nonprofit leaders from Cincinnati, Delaware, Toledo, Lorain, Cleveland, and Akron. Participants met in Columbus to learn from speakers about tools and strategies for creating a successful local transportation campaign through convincing messaging and robust coalition-building.

The workshop began with a presentation by Erika Young of Smart Growth America on effectively communicating transportation goals with other key parties. Young emphasized the importance of understanding the audience by assessing the key constituencies that will hear and react to a transportation coalition's message. In her presentation, Young walked through the step-by-step process of determining the ultimate objectives, defining the audience, forming strategies, and then creating tactics that support each identified strategy.

In the afternoon session, Tom and Debra Shrout of Avvant Partners, LLC explained the crucial elements and steps of transportation coalition building, including tactics for citizen education, how to identify and recruit champions, and creating targeted messaging. The Shrouts shared with workshop participants many of the the lessons they learned through their work on ballot initiatives and campaigns seeking to boost transit in St. Louis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, and other cities around the country.

Thank you to all speakers and participants for another successful workshop!