Accomplishments

Supported, facilitated, produced, and/or designed at least 60 virtual and a few face-to-face community meetings for 17 different department projects. In support of those projects, launched 57 new www.SpeakUpAustin.org project pages and collectively experienced over 64,000 visits to project pages. Many projects included information in Arabic, Burmese, Korean, Urdu, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
Facilitated transparency, centering a diverse range of community voices, and closing the feedback loop with the community in support of the Reimagining Public Safety Initiative. Implemented the multimodal Reimagining Public Safety (RPS) strategic outreach plan, which included Community Conversations and input sharing tools hosted on six platforms in eight languages; two new RPS websites in English and Spanish; a multilingual budget engagement campaign; and prioritizing public input in the hiring of a new police Chief. Also implemented interactive digital dashboards, offering a comprehensive view of residents’ priorities for the future of public safety in Austin, as well as staff analysis of and progress toward advancing public safety reform recommendations from the City-Community RPS Task Force.
Expanded the iSpeak Program, the City’s solution to language access services, which helps Austinites access City services in the language of their preference. Program expansion included launching an external webpage and an internal employee Language Access Center webpage to equip City staff with resources such as iSpeak Austin materials, interpretation and translation vendor information, and best practice guides. Since September 2020, trained 298 City staff across 30 departments in support of the City’s Language Access Program.
Proactively promoted City related news stories by:
- Televising 64 news conferences, 42 of which were simulcasted in Spanish, covering COVID-19, Winter Storm Uri, and other major City news stories;
- Producing 42 episodes of CityView, the City of Austin’s weekly news program which included approximately 200 different stories; and
- Issuing 100 news releases – and facilitating news conferences – on a wide array of issues ranging from the City's homelessness response to the Civil Rights Office, Community Court, Budget, Council actions, Reimagining Public Safety, Police Chief hire, and Winter Storm Reports.
Gained approximately 35,000 social media followers and significantly increased the engagement rate across the City’s main accounts, resulting in a more informed and connected community.
Supported Austin Police Department’s (APDs) efforts to reach more diverse audiences. Expanded APD’s en Español Facebook page to include more Spanish-language content and offered more news conferences in Spanish. Assisted APD Recruiting in creating content to reach Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members, including having several officers with AAPI backgrounds attend events to share information about the Department's diversity.
Increased transparency by providing technical and media relations support to execute the Austin Police Department’s (APD) new 10-day critical incident video release policy. Starting in 2021, APD began providing body-worn camera video and dash cam footage with 10 business days of a critical incident, such as an officer-involved shooting.
Developed and implemented a comprehensive internal communications and change management strategy to increase City staff knowledge and buy-in critical to launching a new digital timekeeping system.

Awards

Received the 2021 Government Experience Project Award from the Center for Digital Government for strategic communication work with the Reimagining Public Safety initiative.
The Reimagining Public Safety initiative and strategic communications were recognized by Bloomberg's What Works Cities initiative, which honored the City of Austin as a 2021 Gold Certified City.
Received 14 TATOA (statewide government video programming) awards, including 1st place for Overall Excellence and the Virtual Zilker Tree Lighting.
Received 3 NATOA (national government video programming) awards, including Award of Excellence for the Mascots Unite PSA.
APA-Texas Chapter Awards, Our Future Long-Range Plan as a recipient of the Chapter’s 2021 Public Outreach Achievement Award – Gold