| Title VI and
Environmental Justice Planning Project San Antonio-Bexar County
Metropolitan Planning Organization
Project Summary
The Title VI and Environmental Justice
Project is an 18-month effort to research, identify, test, evaluate
and document effective outreach strategies that encourage
participation of community residents who historically have not been
involved in the development of transportation projects.
Public participation in the
transportation planning process is critical to the acceptance and
quality of transportation improvements. The Metropolitan Planning
Organization’s (MPO) shared decision process determines which projects
and studies will receive funds and when, making it critical for
citizens of Bexar County to understand which improvements to their
streets and transportation modes are being considered, and how to
impact that process. Low-income, minority groups have typically not
participated, and the goal of this project is to change that scenario.
The Consulting Team is directing a
four-phase process to enhance participation by low-income, minority
communities.
1. Preparatory Research:
Research to identify the groups and organizations that should be
contacted as well as the strategies that have been used effectively to
increase participation in other areas. (January - March 2001)
2. Dialogue and Scenario
Building: Meeting with the member organizations of the MPO to
understand thoroughly the role, mission and purpose of each agency and
identify outreach strategies used in the past. Meeting with the
project’s Study Oversight Committee (SOC) to explore a process for
reaching historically under-served residents and how best to document
this study. The study’s purpose, goals, objectives and strategies will
also be reviewed and refined. At this stage the consulting team will
conduct a series of dialogue sessions with members of environmental
justice groups, transportation planners, neighborhood associations,
media representatives and others as identified jointly with the Study
Oversight Committee. These sessions will be used to build scenarios
that will help identify the “mental models” of the various
participants in order to develop strategies that will encourage
participation and outreach. (April-August 2001)
3. Project Implementation: Based
on the scenarios identified by the dialogue groups, meetings will be
held with community organizations and individuals who represent
historically under-served populations as well as media outlets to
establish relationships between them and the MPO and to test some of
the scenarios with them. The outcome of these meetings will be a menu
of strategies that can be applied during the FY 2003-2005
Transportation Improvements Plan (TIP) development process and
evaluated for effectiveness in reaching the target population.
(September 2001 – February 2002)
4. Development of an Interactive
CD-ROM Guidance Manual: The Project will produce a CD-ROM documenting
the process and serving as a guide for others who wish to reach
historically under-served populations. (February 2002 – June 2002)
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