Voices From The Neighborhood

First, we requested that our community meeting be the final one of the year across all sites. The state agreed.

Then, we mapped out our outreach strategy. Instead of making thousands of generic flyers, we printed 1,500 special golden-colored ones—the Golden Tickets.

We listed everyone who had ever attended one of our meetings. We hosted over ten meetings a month with different factions—some with police and residents, others with faith-based and community partners. Each of those meetings had at least one or two engaged residents.

Instead of handing out stacks of flyers, we asked each person directly, “How many people do you know who would actually come?” The standard answer? Five. So, we only gave them five flyers. If they needed more, they could come back. But they had to hand them to people who were likely to attend personally.

Boss decided we needed an incentive. Every attendee would receive a raffle ticket for a chance to win prizes—tablets, microwaves, keurigs, even an ice cream machine. Our local grocery store donated $25 and $50 gift cards.

But we kept the prizes secret. We didn’t want people showing up just for a giveaway.

Then came the transportation problem. Our downtown area of our city had a trolley system, so I pitched an idea: “Let’s set up trolley pickups at six specific locations.” We were just outside of the downtown. 

With the help of an Air Force recruiter (don’t ask how), we got our trolley.

We created a PowerPoint in both English and Spanish. A local restaurant even prepared 400 grab-and-go meal bags—each with a turkey or ham sandwich, an apple, a cookie, and a drink—so no one had to go home and cook after the event.

Everything was in place.