Keep SA Moving Teletown Hall Events
Target Audience: San Antonio voters — both riders and non-riders
Strategy Objective:The objective was to engage as many people as possible in an education effort and gather input and feedback on Keep SA Moving, VIA's plan to reallocate a portion of the local sales tax to fund transit improvements. The strategy was to use a telephone-townhall platform that also integrated a streaming video simulcast, using English, Spanish and American Sign Language to communicate with the events' audiences. The tele-town hall series comprised 13 hour-long events during 2020.
Situation Challenge: Only about 5% of San Antonio's population uses the VIA bus network. Ahead of a Nov. 3, 2020 election to reallocate an existing 1/8th-cent sales tax to VIA, it was imperative that VIA educate San Antonians, including those who don't use transit, about VIA services, the agency's efforts to ensure transit continuity for essential workers during a pandemic, and how the agency's plans for the future will address growing gridlock. VIA needed to engage large numbers of people during a global pandemic through a platform that would allow for two-way communication.
Results Impact: Over the course of the series, VIA placed 400,339 successful phone calls and accumulated 4,866 hours of engagement with 28,198 attendees, covering topics ranging from COVID response to social justice and equity, to economic development, and access to opportunity. Each event averaged 2,169 attendees who participated on telephones or computers. Additionally, the events were streamed to Facebook Live. Ultimately, voters passed VIA's sales tax initiative by more than 67%.
Why Submit: VIA adopted a unique platform that not only provided two-way communications with the residents who would ultimately decide whether to increase the agency's funding, but expanded its outreach efforts during a global pandemic. It was done securely at a scale that's not possible with many of the current streaming services and ultimately led to a successful election.