As part of a national BJA-funded initiative, NCPI designed and implemented an educational, messaging, and community engagement campaign called My Voice. Our Community. The focus of the campaign is this simple message: We all have a role to play in reducing the violence that traumatizes our communities.
To support the nationwide delivery of the message, NCPI created a community campaign guide and a toolkit of customizable resources for local leaders and public safety professionals.
In partnership with the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, Mayor’s Office of Community Engagement and the Knoxville Police Department, NCPI piloted the My Voice. Our Community. campaign, which serves as a model to be used by other communities.
Summary
Over a period of several months, Knoxville incorporated My Voice. Our Community. as a messaging tool that unifies the city’s various violence prevention and reduction resources and efforts.
By using a combination of paid and organic, grassroots and grasstops strategies, Knoxville planned for the My Voice. Our Community. message to be in front of community members multiple times, in multiple places, in multiple formats to generate a growing interest and engagement in the campaign.
Customized campaign materials
Using the templates and digital materials provided by NCPI, Knoxville created its own, local versions of the My Voice. Our Community. PSA video, partnering with several community members to share and record their stories.
The city added a newly developed section of its website focused on violence reduction resources, information on existing programs, and inspiration on how to get involved. They also created stickers, tote bags and t-shirts to distribute throughout the community, and to support National Violence Prevention Week activities.
Various community groups throughout the city embraced the campaign in their own ways, incorporating the messaging into their existing work. For instance, the Mayor’s Youth Council used it in a social media challenge.
Empowering Community Engagement
My Voice. Our Community. empowers community leaders in Knoxville and across the nation to:
Inspire Action … by showing what others are doing to impact their community.
Involve Community Members … by providing them with support to contribute in personal and meaningful ways.
Strengthen Community Connections … by encouraging collaborative partnerships to increase safety and decrease violence.
It is designed for public safety professionals, nonprofit leaders, business owners, faith-based leaders, community organizers, local media personalities, and engaged youth.
Messaging backed by research
NCPI conducted extensive research at the beginning of this initiative to uncover what motivates people to become involved in violence reduction, what concerns they have about violence in their communities, and what messaging and strategies would likely be effective.
The research spanned two years and leveraged a variety of tools including the development of a national advisory board, the dissemination of a nationwide public safety poll among key constituencies, and in-depth market research on target audience behaviors and preferences.
A lot of important findings were made during the research, but the key takeaway was that people across the nation—regardless of socioeconomic background, race, gender, ethnicity, etc.— are affected by a trifecta of underinformed viewpoints, ideological defensiveness, and emotional fatigue which combine to create a pervasive public mindset of “cynical resignation.”
This mindset can cause people to misinterpret positive messages or reject them outright, making it very difficult for public safety initiatives to break through. As such, any campaign that seeks to reach people about these issues must:
- come from trusted voices within the community;
- not over promise on what is possible; and
- not ask people to do too much—only what is within their individual capacity.
My Voice. Our Community. has been designed with this understanding in mind and was specifically created to provide community leaders and public safety professionals with tools that can help them break through the cynical resignation and effectively reach people in their communities.
