Public Education & Involvement

SAE Communications can help your agency inform and educate your audiences, whether they are citizens, business owners, employees, other government officials or visitors. Equally importantly, we will help you find ways to “listen” to these stakeholders.

Unique STRATA™ Planning Process

SAE Communications uses a proprietary strategic planning tool that has proven successful for public agencies and the private sector:

• Identify and analyze specific target audiences/stakeholders
• Ascertain what those audiences currently believe about your agency or product
• Determine how best to change those beliefs
• Sift through materials and messages to focus on measurable solutions

The real value of this tool is that it is used with key members of the agency's stakeholders–those with special or significant knowledge. The SAE Communications team has proven time and again that they can draw ideas from these individuals and gain consensus about strategies and messaging.

Public Education Clients/Case Studies

Developed strategic communications plan; conducted media relations/key message delivery training for staff.

Serve as ongoing media relations/key message delivery trainers for League staff; provide strategic counsel for numerous League programs.

Both SAE Principals have served as crisis communications and media training instructors for CSTI. Further, the CSTI Crisis Communications Course is based on an emergency services training program designed and conducted by Benninghoven while with Anaheim.

Served as project managers for City's Y2K communications effort; serve as ongoing key message delivery trainers for Council Members and senior staff.

City of Newark elected and appointed officials recognized the need to establish a full-time public information and marketing function within the municipal organization. One of SAE Communications' principals was selected to serve in the new position, subsequently carrying out a seven-year effort which resulted in launching an award-winning economic development marketing program, restructuring public communications, enhancing government affairs and lobbying efforts, implementing state-of-the-art crisis communications programs, and embracing new technologies to better connect residents and business operators with the city.

Even cities with a full-time public information professional can gain from additional media relations training for key officials. SAE Communications was asked by the City of Mountain View to develop a workshop which highlighted basic strategies for working with reporters, examined message development, and outlined media coverage trends. The session also included on-camera video training that illustrated the elements covered in the workshop.