Partners for Rural Traffic Safety Action Kit

As a Community Partner Team leader in the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety process, it is your responsibility to recruit, organize, train and nurture the other Community Partner Team members. According to rural community team leaders involved in the pilot projects, the cooperation, support and participation of the Community Partner Team is the essential ingredient in the success of the project. Although the team leader carries out critical tasks, the project requires broad-based participation and ownership by all Community Partner Team sector leaders, so be certain you take time to recruit the right people for each role.

New ideas and concepts, as with new consumer products, are either accepted or rejected by the community. The process of accepting a new product or idea follows a logical sequence. The theory behind this acceptance is called the AIDA (Attention/Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action) Model. Throughout this chapter this theory is referenced in tandem with the initial activities of the Community Partner Team leader. Those activities involve two key functions: raising community awareness about the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety process and forming the Community Partner Team to guide and coordinate the entire process.

The first step in organizing and recruiting the Community Partner Team is to approach leaders from the identified community sectors. Interviews with sector leaders can convince these leaders to participate in the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety effort. Sector leaders and community groups may not accept or buy into the new idea if they do not understand the importance of the process.

During the first two phases of the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety pilot project, six key community sectors were identified as critical to the success of the project. The composition of the group should include representatives from these sectors:

Your community may add other sectors if needed because the composition of Community Partner Teams should reflect the community at large. At a minimum, however, these six core sectors should be represented.

... the cooperation, support and participation of the Community Partner Team is the most important determinant in project success.

Campaign ideas and activities related to these six sectors, and those invited to the community visioning meetings, are discussed in Chapter 6. Each sector can include more than one representative. For example, you may want to involve different leaders from a high school and an elementary school. You also may want to include a representative from the retail trade and one from industry. In the general community sector, you should have at least two Community Partner Team members: one should represent parents of children who should be in car seats (this issue is critical and calls for someone who can focus on getting vehicle air bag and child safety seat information to parents); the other person should focus on media relations and providing outreach to the public by distributing brochures and other informational materials at post offices, libraries, city government offices, etc.

Recruiting and selecting your team will require thought, research about your community, and a motivational strategy to get people on board. Everybody you ask to participate will require a slightly different approach, depending on his or her perspective; the “What’s in it for ME?” viewpoint. The following model will help you maneuver through Step 2 of the Partners’ process.

AIDA is an acronym for Attention/ Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. A basic marketing tool, the AIDA Model (described in detail on page 18) consists of four separate cognitive phases a person must go through to accept a new idea or purchase a new product. In the case of the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety campaign, citizens must accept the idea of direct community involvement in traffic safety.

Everyone, whether or not they realize it, assesses new ideas, products and activities using this model. The stages are well defined and easily fit into tools the team leader should use in recruiting Community Partner Team sector leaders, as well as gaining community support for the effort.

A Attention/Awareness—If people do not know a product exists, how can they buy it? The same principle holds true for the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety campaign. The team leader must bring the program to the community’s attention, increasing public awareness of what the campaign is all about. Group presentations, press releases, radio interviews and one-on-one communications are techniques team leaders can use to raise awareness.

I Interest—If someone is selling new cars and a consumer does not need a new car, the salesperson is wasting his or her time with that consumer. The same principle applies here. The flow from Awareness to Action (purchase) is interrupted if there’s a lack of interest on the part of the “buyer.” To generate interest in the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety program, you must explain to the group or individual why the process is important to them; in other words, why they need to participate in the campaign. Some of the reasons why they need to participate are detailed later in this chapter.

D Desire—Once you have identified a reason for the audience to be interested, you need to create desire. This desire is derived from the positive benefits the individual will accrue by participating in the campaign. These benefits include the opportunity to become more involved in their community, display civic commitment and pride, learn about traffic safety and improve the community for themselves and their loved ones. On the other hand, desire to participate also can be motivated through a negative: describing what might occur if they choose not to participate. For example, without their participation, their views and concerns will not be incorporated into the campaign, or more people may die as a result of vehicle crashes if the community does not take action.

A Action—The Partners for Rural Traffic Safety process needs direct participation to be successful. This is what Community Partner Team leaders are selling- participation. In fact, the cooperation, support and participation of the Community Partner Team is the single most important factor in the overall success of the project.

The following tools can help Community Partner Team leaders apply the AIDA Model when recruiting Community Partner Team members.

The team leader needs to think about the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety process and traffic safety as it relates to each of the identified sectors of the community. The team leader should be able to answer the following questions:

The team leader begins to build the Community Partner Team by meeting with community sector leaders to identify individuals willing to serve on the team. A worksheet and interview guide, included in the Tools section of this chapter, will aid team leaders in this task. Please note that some parts of the guide should be completed before the team leader sets the date and time for the interview, to prepare team leaders in advance of the interview with community leaders.

In the interview guide you will be asked to list names of people willing to do what is necessary to complete the assessments and lead a Community Partner Team. It is fine if sector leaders choose to nominate themselves for this role, if they understand the workload and are willing to commit to the task. The Partners for Rural Traffic Safety program will also accept those on the Community Partner Team who are not readily identified community leaders, but whom the existing leader feels has potential to become a leader.

From the Community Partner Team leader’s perspective, building the team requires a targeted approach to recruitment and a commitment to direct those volunteers once they are on board. The Community Partner Team represents the front-line of community representation and participation. They are the workhorses of the process; thus, it is imperative that team members represent a broad cross-section of the community: by age, income, race, geographic location and gender.

Before approaching a potential volunteer to join a Community Partner Team, recognize what each volunteer is expected to contribute to the team. For instance, becoming a Community Partner Team member carries with it certain responsibilities, such as gathering input from their constituents in their sector and communicating that feedback to other team members. Team members should actively seek input by conducting qualitative assessments. This involves speaking with people and personally inviting them to attend the Community Visioning Meeting. Team members also must take part, and identify others who can help, in activities during the 30-day campaign. Some suggestions for each of the sectors are included in the list of potential invitees to the Community Visioning Meeting in the Tools section in Chapter 6.

Representing a sector confers other responsibilities as well. The team member must attend Community Partner Team meetings and activities. While this sounds simple enough, its importance cannot be overstated. Attendance at meetings is crucial to the success of the project because poorly attended meetings cause team members in attendance to reconsider why they joined the team in the first place. Poor attendance also leads to delays in carrying out the campaign because the team tends to backtrack when some members are absent, to allow absent members to catch up.

Why would anyone want to volunteer for a Community Partner Team? The motivations for those who volunteer are as varied as the individuals themselves. Being successful in organizations or previous community service campaigns provides an individual with a sense of accomplishment and achievement. The Community Partner Team deals with a part of the community—traffic safety—that is an essential part of everyday life with tasks and activities that require performance objectives. Another motivation for participating in a Community Partner Team is to give someone the opportunity to influence the outcome of the campaign. This sense of power can be a motivating factor, depending on who else is part of the Team.

Nearly all of the team leaders during the pilot phases indicated that recruitment was easier once a few influential people committed to the Community Partner Team. People like to be affiliated with winners and with those who are committed to getting things accomplished. Learning new skills that can enhance the volunteers’ other marketable job skills also can motivate volunteers, as well as receiving recognition for their efforts. Finally, people can be motivated by altruism and a sense of civic duty—doing something simply because it is in the public interest.

The Community Partner Team leader should treat team members as co-workers, not as free help. Team members should be given suitable and worthwhile assignments, receive proper training and ample orientation when assigned tasks, including the role of the task in the overall process. Team members should not be asked to work under inadequate working and meeting conditions, should not be put in situations where their time is wasted, and should receive a prompt response to queries and phone calls.

Most importantly, volunteers should be recognized for their contributions to the campaign, and to the community at large. They should be thanked and rewarded for their efforts at every possible opportunity—whether it is through a personal note, during a telephone call, recognition in a newspaper article, or through another appropriate forum.

After speaking with potential Community Partner Team members and explaining the campaign and what is expected of them, the team leader should attempt to “close the deal” by asking volunteers to commit to the process by signing the Community Partner Team Member Agreement, provided in the Tools section of this chapter. Although the agreement is non-binding, it does increase the commitment of volunteers, making it more likely they will follow the process to the end. Once signed, the team leader should provide a copy of the signed agreement to the new Community Partner Team member.