By Chase Macpherson | Wed, October 30, 24
Last year, NEEP launched a new initiative to support clean transportation planning in the Northeast with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This project highlights the connections between clean transportation, community-level decarbonization, and regional greenhouse gas reduction goals. It centers community engagement and community decision-making, so equitable and accessible engagement strategies are crucial for the project’s success.
The project, Community-Driven Transportation Plans for the Northeast, supports partners in four target communities in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont to assess community transportation needs, identify a high-priority action item for each area, and support the development of community-led implementation plans for these action items. The four target communities in this project are the Champlain Valley in Vermont; the Upper Valley in Vermont and New Hampshire; Bridgeport, CT; and Winsted, CT, and NEEP is working with local project partners including nonprofits, regional planning commissions, and clean cities coalitions in each of the four communities.
Community Engagement (and Compensation) is Key
Community engagement is essential for achieving the project goals of centering historically marginalized groups, fostering community buy-in around a priority action item, and supporting the development of a community-led implementation plan for transportation decarbonization.
The project is a 30-month planning effort to engage members of historically disadvantaged communities, educate them on electric and alternative fuel vehicles, collect and interpret community input, provide technical assistance, create workforce development opportunities, build consensus, and complete detailed plans about how the community can implement their high priority action item.
The project does not include any funds for implementing these plans, buying electric vehicles (EVs), or installing EV charging equipment. During the project, the partners will work with each community to identify needs, resources, incentives, and more that the community can leverage to implement their high priority action item. A key highlight of the project is a community compensation plan that allows NEEP to compensate community-based organizations and individuals from historically marginalized communities for their time and expertise to participate more readily and fully in the process. The project relies on participation and leadership from these communities and requires a budget to pay people for their time and contributions. Historically, many community engagement efforts have relied on standardized opportunities for comment with little room for community influence and decision making. When community engagement is not done thoughtfully, it can erode trust and be an extractive process.
The staff managing these projects are all paid for their work. Why should we expect community members and CBOs to work for free?
In April, NEEP engaged in multiple planning meetings and conducted research to develop a compensation plan that defines how these funds would be distributed. Through this process, NEEP determined that participants should receive digital or physical gift cards of $30-50 for completing a survey or $150 for attending a 60-90-minute listening session or community forum. Additionally, CBOs can invoice NEEP for time and expenses for specific tasks supporting events or conducting outreach to project stakeholders.
Gathering Feedback
In July, project partners began administering surveys and holding listening sessions to gather community input on local transportation needs and awareness or impressions of EVs. A series of questions cover topics related to travel habits, limitations, and awareness/impressions of electric vehicles. Surveys are administered in public places like shopping centers, at transportation-related events, or on-site at nonprofits such as the charitable food cupboard on campus at UVM. In addition to surveys, partners used listening sessions as opportunities for deeper conversation with community members and worked with local community-based organizations (CBOs) to hold these events in familiar spaces. The CBOs have included Burroughs Community Center in Bridgeport, CT, Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) in the Old North End Community Center, in Burlington, VT, a parent-child center in Burlington called The Family Room, and more.
Lessons Learned
This month, I joined a listening session in Newport, NH hosted by Vital Communities and UVLSRPC. There were around 40 participants, and moderators worked with breakout groups of 8-10 people. Residents shared frustration with poor road and sidewalk conditions, the need for better street lighting, gaps in public transportation service, and mixed feelings (both interest in and hesitation) about EVs. The main concerns participants expressed about EVs were related to battery safety and upfront costs.
Through these engagements, NEEP and its project partners have gained valuable insights on how to make these events as accessible as possible. For one, some community members do not have an email address and are unable to receive digital payments, so it is important to have physical gift cards available as well. Some people also need help activating gift cards, which requires one-on-one assistance from project staff. We found that listening sessions with interpreters are a much more successful way to engage non-English speakers than surveys. At events in Burlington with AALV, participants spoke Swahili, French, and more.
Next Steps
NEEP and its partners also gained valuable feedback that will feed into the community plans. By the end of the year, our goal is to have each community identify one high priority action item and to begin to develop an implementation plan for that priority item. In subsequent phases of this project, partners will work with communities to refine plans, explore funding and financing options, identify important intermediary steps toward implementation, offer workforce training opportunities, and more. This project will end in March 2026, with each of the four target communities having a detailed, actionable implementation plan to advance local transportation decarbonization.