Lakewood: 'Snackable' bites key to informing residents - #lakewoodnews

For longtime Lakewood resident Kelly McCready, embracing variety is the key to communication with his city.

"I can only encourage them to use every possible way to reach people," he said. "You can't communicate with the community too much."

The city is listening.

Lakewood's leadership and city departments are looking for new ways to use familiar mediums to inform, educate and solicit input from its residents.

"Every department is doing different things," said Allison Scheck, marketing and community relations in the city's Administration and Community Relations department. "Our new council is really interested in getting a lot of resident feedback, and we're taking that very seriously."

Many members of the city council elected in November campaigned on more transparency and increased citizen engagement, and the city has been examining a variety of ways to meet these goals.

"How we spread information depends on the issue and time frame," said Kit Lammers, Lakewood's communication manager. "During the Federal Center Neighborhood discussions we had more than 400 residents who filled out an online survey for us by hosting an open house and sending out mailers."

Topics such as the stormwater utility fee and community projects also draw a lot of interest from residents, but not everyone has the time to attend public meetings, Scheck said. So when the city recently started investigating improvements to the Link Recreation Center, community resources took a different tack.

"It generally tends to be older people who attend public meetings, but we really wanted feedback from everyone we could get for the project," Scheck said. "We recorded the presentation on the project we would make at the public meeting and put it online. We ended up with more than 1,000 views on YouTube."

By simply making the information available to anyone with a computer, tablet or mobile device, the project received 180 comments, which is more than the 30 or so average.

"We'll definitely be doing this again," Scheck said. "Mixing public meetings, mailers, phone calls and social media gives us more building blocks to use."

Changing demographics also need to be considered in matters of communication. The number of senior residents in Lakewood is one of the top in Jefferson County, and that demographic is growing. At the same time, the city is drawing in more millennial families. Millennials is the name for the generation born between 1980 and the late 1990s.

The city has been hosting surveys and focus groups to learn from residents how they receive information, what works best and what can be improved.

"We're developing a relationship with residents," Lammers said. "It's been an honest question-and-answer process, and we've all been learning along the way."

Methods like mailers and brochures at recreation centers are still good ways to remind people about upcoming events, but digital use is increasing.

"Many older adults are primarily using emails," Scheck said. "We're also seeing fewer people with desktop computers --; instead they're using mobile devices like phones or tablets."

With all the information people receive on a daily basis, it's important that what the city supplies be what Scheck calls "snackable" --; something quickly read and easily accessed.

"In particular, millennials are bombarded by so many messages a day," Scheck said. "We're trying different ways to reach the rooted millennials in our community."

The city does use social media like Facebook and Twitter, but Nextdoor.com has been one of the most popular ways for neighbors to communicate.

The website allows residents to join and connect with neighbors, share information and discuss issues concerning other residents. It is not city owned or operated, Lammers added, but the city can post information there.

"I don't really use Facebook or anything, but I like Nextdoor.com because it gives me a sense of what's going on in the neighborhood," McCready said. "I appreciate Lakewood is using it as a way to get information out."

Residents have also taken to the "Request Lakewood" feature on the city's homepage, which allows residents to ask any question and have staff follow up.

Often, information doesn't sink in with just one exposure, so McCready hopes the city uses all its tools to reinforce information and share it with new people.

Scheck agreed.

"It's all about inclusivity," he said. "Our job is to get as many people as possible informed."

from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/Lakewood-Snackable-bites-key-to-informing-residents,212559