What will residents actually use?
Why well-intended services go unused, and a framework for what you offer.
Why services go unused
When residents don't use a service (e.g., attend an event) or take a desired action (e.g., prepare for an emergency), the reflex is to do more outreach.
Sometimes that's right, but often uptake was harder, costlier, or more confusing than it looked.
A framework for understanding what we offer residents
One way to see why offerings often fail to engage residents is to look at how much work residents have to do to benefit from them. In general, the more work that residents are asked to do, the more difficult it is for them to engage, and the less valuable that offering will be.
Information
Information is the easiest for cities and counties to provide, but requires the most effort for residents to act on.
- Preparedness checklists
- Social media posts that tell residents what they should do to prepare for or recover from emergencies
Resource
Resources could be workshops, websites, or programs that require residents to attend or sort through options or complete an application by themselves.
- A workshop residents need to attend
- A website residents sort through on their own
- A program application residents complete by themselves
Service
Services are programs where we do something with the resident rather than telling them about it.
- A financial counseling appointment
- A scanning station at a community center where staff help people digitize their documents
- Screening someone for benefits they might be eligible for
Assistance
Assistance is when we take work off of residents' shoulders.
- Completing applications together
- Ordering and paying for replacement documents
- Preparing and filing their taxes
Select a rung on the chart to compare.
This is not an argument that everything should be assistance.
Assistance is usually the hardest to scale, and information can be useful when it tells residents something they don't already know and is actionable. This framework is a case for understanding what we're offering residents, and for pushing offerings beyond raw information.
We increase the value to residents – and thereby increase engagement – by finding out what would be useful to residents and attempting to reduce the amount of work they have to do to participate or act on something. This could be moving up one rung: e.g., instead of providing a list of resources, honing in on a particular resource that will help them, or when possible, even helping to complete an application.
Each rung also has a range inside it. Information can mean a general preparedness checklist, or it can mean telling a resident exactly how to take an action. Both are information, but one takes work off of the resident's plate by telling them exactly how to do something. Often the highest-leverage move available is making information sharper – which facts matter, to whom, at what moment, in what words.
For anything you build, ask what the resident walks away with and how much work it saved them.
The further along you can get them, the greater the value.
Where resident engagement comes in
Creating offerings that take work off of residents' shoulders – whether that's sharper messaging or hands-on assistance – requires understanding what's actually in someone's way. Why haven't they completed an application, created a financial go-bag, or made an appointment? What are people already doing that works? None of this is knowable without learning from residents.
Instead of building something and then finding out whether it works, the strategies outlined in Part 2 help us create things in a way that makes them more likely to succeed.
Outreach
How we disseminate information.
Resident engagement
How we get it: how we learn what residents need, what's in their way, and what would actually help.