Public Outreach

[Reva Fabrikant <Revafab@home.com>]

Good Morning,

This is my first message so here's the introduction. I am from the Los Angeles area and worked as an Environmental Engineer/ Public Outreach Professional with the City of LA for about 15 years. Currently I work as a freelance Public Relations Consultant. I love this forum; as it provides a way to feel the Environmental/Communications pulse of our Country. What a great way to learn about EPA's interests and directon and that of the people who live here. I truly feel that it's my responsibility as a professional in this field to participate and share what I can. 

Thank you EPA for providing this opportunity.

Now for today's discussion-OUTREACH

IDENTIFY THE PUBLIC- I believe this needs to be narrowed down a bit and we need to focus on identifying the target audiences for a particular project or purpose. That in itself is a daunting challenge! We had a hard enough time doing that for specific environmental programs in the LA area-let alone trying to cover the whole Country!

 The closer EPA can get to local communities, the better and more accurate the communications. Local professionals and government know their public much better than anyone else. I suggest that EPA form a network throughout the country of local 'Outreach' professionals and let these local professionals identify the target audiences using guidelines provided by EPA. By local I mean get down to the City level or even smaller, work with local public relations associations, and other interested groups to develop this list of contacts. Members of EPA's network could them be contacted when there is an issue that affects their community and their help is needed. These professionals could then submit proposals to EPA on how they would communicate with their public to support EPA's needs. A local, regional, statewide team could be developed so that all could share ideas and problems. 

PUBLIC - NOTIFY EPA OF INTEREST- This could be done through the local professional who is working on a particular EPA project. The local professional would communicate with EPA, and this professional would set up the best way for their communities to notify them of interest in a topic or project.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE- Again, this must be taken down to the local level. The professional network could do that. EJ in the City of LA is very different then EJ in Willamantic, Conn. It is impossible for EPA to keep up with these varied and important issues throughout the Country. Therefore, they need the ongoing support of local communities, public and private professionals.