Communication – �鶹��Ƶ

Reframing White Pine Center for Healing Campaign

Ada Inman — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:13:33 +0000

Issues related to body image and eating disorders may have grabbed headlines but have not been recognized as medical disorders that require and benefit from treatment. The White Pine Center for Healing in Erie, PA is one of the only organizations that provide outreach and programing to help people who are experiencing these issues and associated trauma. Through education and treatment as well as a successful outreach and prevention program, White Pines has had great local success, and the organization is poised to expand both services and reach.

Sustainable Communities Collaborative Contact Info
University Faculty Contact
Tara Wyckoff
Associate Teaching Professor
tmd119@psu.edu
814-865-8007

Selna Mongini STEAM Park: Visual Communication Opportunities, Strategies, & Design Elements

Ada Inman — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 19:12:24 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale is a historic mining community in the Verde Valley, a region in central Arizona. As the region and state are facing challenges around water quantity and quality, municipalities, nongovernmental organizations, and other critical stakeholders are collaborating to develop short- and long-term solutions. To advance these efforts, the Town of Clarkdale is interested in leveraging the revitalization of a neighborhood park, Selna Mongini Park, to incorporate visual communication elements that emphasize science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) with a focus on water in the region. Technical communication students worked with the Town to explore strategies, opportunities, and best practices for visually communicating STEAM concepts focused around water to youth and adult audiences in an outdoor park setting, then design and propose visual communication elements with an emphasis on awareness-building and inspiring action.

Visualizing Water Sustainability in the Clarkdale Community

Ada Inman — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 19:09:32 +0000

The Town of Clarkdale, a historic mining community in the Verde Valley in central Arizona, is dedicated to providing and ensuring a sustainable water supply for its residents now and into the future. As water is an increasingly complex topic in the region and state, the Town is interested in improving communication efforts around the current state of the local water system. Improved communications will help to educate residents on the water supply as well as local and regional decision-making around the future of water resources. To advance these efforts, the Town of Clarkdale collaborated with graduate Technical Communication students to explore new opportunities to visually communicate critical elements of the Town’s water system, including: 1) geology and health of the aquifer, 2) physical health of the system and its operations, and 3) conservation efforts, including strategies for reducing water consumption. Students will develop and create Water Visualization Portfolios of these critical elements by using key communication mediums, including a flyer “report card”, infographics, and videos and social media, depending on alignment with content.

AI in Government: Ethics

Ada Inman — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 18:53:16 +0000

The City of Chandler, located in the southeastern Phoenix Metropolitan Area, is a thriving community of innovation seeking to plan a sustainable future for its residents, businesses, and visitors. With an interest in emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the City is exploring opportunities to leverage AI to improve municipal operations and governance. To advance these efforts, undergraduate Technical Communication students collaborated with the City of Chandler through the ASU Project Cities program to identify risks and opportunities around the use of AI in government, explore AI policies, processes, and procedures designed and implemented locally and globally, and synthesize literature on citizen perspective on AI in government. These findings will be shared with leadership and staff to help inform current and future decision-making around AI throughout the City of Chandler.

Recycle Right & Natural Gas Safety Messaging Evaluation

Ada Inman — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 18:35:42 +0000

As a city of over 500,000 residents, the City of Mesa is dedicated to fostering a safe and sustainable future for all by offering high quality services from all municipal departments, including the Solid Waste Department and Energy Resources Department. Both departments interface frequently with Mesa citizens via a variety of communication media to advance departmental goals. The Solid Waste Department shares goals and strategies around how to “Recycle Right” via a municipal website accessible to residents and businesses, as well as print tags shared directly with homeowners on recycling containers. The Energy Resources Department shares customer safety information with affected publics, including those who live or work near natural gas pipelines, via customer letters and surveys. To evaluate the effectiveness of existing “Recycle Right” and natural gas safety messaging, the City of Mesa collaborated with graduate students studying User Experience to identify and recruit target audiences and develop messaging evaluation interview protocols, then interview key individuals to gather user experience data. Students then analyzed collected data to develop and propose strategies for improving future messaging around recycling and natural gas safety throughout the City of Mesa.

Using a Culture-Centered Approach to Explore the Potential Impacts of Guaranteed Income on Black Women’s Health in San Diego

Ada Inman — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:25:27 +0000

In collaboration with the San Diego State University Sage Project, undergraduate student researchers contributed to the Black Women’s Resilience Project (BWRP) by conducting a qualitative research study in their Politics of Health Communication course (COMM 422). The goal of this study was to identify the connections between the guaranteed income (GI) initiative and health among Black community members in San Diego, addressing community perceptions about the benefits and barriers of accessing subsidized programs. The interview protocol was created to highlight the three key components of the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) to health communication: culture, structure, and agency, which are used to explain the contributors of structural and health inequities among marginalized communities. Students interviewed key informants and community members who shared their personal experiences and perspectives to identify what changes may need to be made to increase awareness and utilization of GI. Using qualitative data analysis methods, the key findings revealed four stigmas and challenges associated with using cash assistance and having intersecting identities, including racial, socioeconomic, and gender backgrounds. First, communal perceptions of cash assistance depicted recipients being viewed as irresponsible or incapable of providing for themselves and their families. Second, social pressures for Black men and women may deter them from seeking assistance from subsidized programs in order to preserve their image as breadwinners, caretakers, and independent earners. Third, participants viewed subsidized programs as a “systemic trap,” often facing tensions to stay below limited income expectations in order to begin or maintain eligibility as a recipient of aid. Fourth, participants shared the inconvenient, discouraging, and intrusive nature of the application process, leaving questions about whether the time committed to completion would be worth their efforts and energy. Based on the themes identified in the findings, this report offers three recommendations that contribute to improving and expanding community engagement. Participants recommended prioritizing face-to-face communication with community members at places for gathering, increasing social media presence about the program, and the inclusion of testimonies from actual GI recipients in promotional materials.

Promoting positive communication between local governments and constituents about housing initiatives

Ada Inman — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 21:55:40 +0000

Outagamie County in Wisconsin has a pressing need for more diverse housing types due to the underproduction of housing and future population growth. NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) is hindering the progress of new developments. NIMBYism is caused by various factors such as fear of change and distrust in new potential community members. YIMBYism (Yes In My Backyard) advocates for residential developments and can combat NIMBYism if
utilized correctly. This can be achieved by creating positive social norms that emphasize YIMBY ideals and residential development. This toolkit aims to provide methods for two-way deliberation between community members and government ocials to promote these YIMBY ideals and establish positive social norms.

UniverCity Year Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

Contamination Communication Strategies

Ada Inman — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:58:36 +0000

The Town of Gilbert is a fast-growing community in the East Valley of the Phoenix Metro Area with a population of over 270,000 residents who are eager to have a positive impact on their community. The Public Works Department Solid Waste & Recycling and Environmental Compliance Divisions are interested in exploring new, innovative communication strategies to more effectively connect solid and hazardous waste to stormwater pollution prevention. Hazardous waste impacts both Divisions as it contaminates solid waste trucks that pick up waste in Town-provided bins, costing the Town additional funds and resources to mitigate contamination. Additionally, improperly disposed hazardous waste often includes liquids or heavy metals that may leach out of waste bins, trucks, or landfills during rain events, which carries the materials into waterways untreated. To address communication challenges around these issues, graduate students studying technical communication collaborated with the Solid Waste & Recycling Services and Environmental Compliance teams to propose content and formats for communicating these messages to a variety of resident audiences, as well as propose methods to effectively distribute this information throughout the Town of Gilbert.

Invasive Species Communication Campaigns

Ada Inman — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:38:07 +0000

Apache Junction is a thriving community east of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. With a rich history and variety of natural attractions, the community serves as the gateway to the Superstition Wilderness. The community attracts residents and visitors alike to enjoy close proximity to parks, hiking trails, and camping areas, providing ample outdoor recreation and tourism opportunities. In recent years, invasive plant species, such as stinknet and buffelgrass, have begun growing abundantly in these recreation areas. Invasive species threaten community ecosystems by choking out local plants and diverting resources from wildlife. Additionally, invasives threaten residents and visitors to Apache Junction by increasing fire hazards, as invasive species burn at hotter temperatures and spread faster than their native counterparts. This is a critical challenge to address as Arizona’s fire season has become longer and more dangerous than in previous years. As the City contends with this growing challenge, the City’s Parks and Recreation Department has expressed interest in developing messaging related to the harmful effects of buffelgrass and prompting residents and visitors to mitigate the spread and safely remove buffelgrass.

Students from Nicole Lee’s CMN 520 Communication Campaigns course collaborated with Apache Junction’s Parks and Recreation Department to develop research-informed messaging about the importance of invasive species removal and management. Drawing on behavioral theories and communication best practices, the students developed three campaigns targeting various audiences on the education and removal of buffelgrass. The students were guided by two goals in their campaigns:

Develop communication campaigns to inform Apache Junction audiences including: residents, park and public land users, and potential volunteers on what invasive species look like, how to stop the spread of invasive species, and how to safely remove them.
Develop communication campaign strategies to recruit volunteers to engage in regular invasive species removal activities, such as removal, monitoring, and further community outreach.

Based on a review of successful community campaigns, the students identified several key messages and strategies for their target audiences. Key messaging includes emphasizing the safety hazard that buffelgrass poses to community members, mobilizing a feeling of community “togetherness” to target the issue, and the benefits of buffelgrass removal for homeowners. Through cohesive communications with Apache Junction residents, visitors, and public space users, the City can effectively educate community members about buffelgrass removal and the effects of invasive species on the ecosystem.

Extreme Heat Communication

Victor Manzanilla — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:35 +0000

Extreme heat is an increasingly complex challenge for cities to consider in its public safety and awareness programming. With the recent launch of the nation’s first Office of Heat Response and Mitigation within the City of Phoenix, additional cities are considering how to integrate heat safety into their public communications and public safety strategies. Currently, the City of Peoria is partnering with the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) to host cooling centers and hydration stations as part of the Heat Relief Regional Network. Peoria’s Office of Emergency Management enlisted the assistance of technical communication undergraduate and graduate students to research and identify areas in need of heat preparedness, as well as inform communication strategies for the City of Peoria to inform residents about extreme heat safety and the City’s existing responses to mitigate extreme heat.