Community Relations
Whether you need to avoid NIMBY opposition to a controversial real estate project or build citizen support for it, GCA can help shift opinion and mobilize the action you need.
OUTREACH PLANS
Stirring up the wrong community stakeholders for the wrong reasons can result in more problems than you started with. Based on psychosocial research, GCA’s community outreach plans lay out a clear plan of action for targeted, effective outreach. Our outreach plans describe the likely causes of NIMBY opposition, identify persuasive messages and concessions, and detail the activities you need to turn pro-project attitudes into pro-project action.
OUTREACH IMPLEMENTATION
GCA provides the implementation tools it takes to minimize community opposition and mobilize support, including recruitment scripts, patch-through phone banks, letter-writing drives, neighborhood coffees, and coalition management. Depending on your needs, GCA can guide your team of professionals through the entitlement process or serve as the project’s on-the-ground representative.
SUPPORTER DEVELOPMENT
It usually isn’t enough to keep a cap on community opposition; you need visible, pro-project action that makes politicians sit up and take notice. GCA identifies potential endorsers, creates citizen coalitions, recruits witnesses, and mobilizes advocates to take action in support of your project. When you need a real groundswell of support — witnesses, petitions, endorsements, rallies, front-door protests — you need GCA.
HOSTILE AUDIENCE TRAINING
Winning political and community support isn’t about holding hands and singing camp songs. It’s about strategic expertise, and GCA can give your team the tools and techniques they need to manage public affairs challenges. GCA provides clients with customized communications training on handling hostile audiences, increasing credibility, selecting persuasion strategies, making sequential requests for support, and identifying, recruiting and mobilizing pro-project action.