Communications and Information Technology Departments Wins Results for America’s Sharman Stein Award for Storytelling Changemakers
Award Honors the Memory of Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities’ Founding Director of Communications
WASHINGTON, DC – Results for America (RFA) announced today that the Communications and Information Technology Departments in the City of Corona, California, have received the seventh annual Sharman Stein Award for Storytelling Changemakers. The award, which honors the memory of What Works Cities’ founding Director of Communications Sharman Stein, recognizes a local government team that cultivates trust and collaboration between government and residents through excellence in communications.
Stein devoted her career to promoting storytelling that drives positive change in local communities. She spent decades working as a journalist for newspapers across the United States and later led communications for U.S. city agencies and nonprofits in New York City. At What Works Cities, she helped city leaders embrace data and evidence to make better decisions, and encouraged them to engage with residents to solve problems. Stein passed away from ovarian cancer in May 2018. Corona was Sharman’s last site visit to a city government.
“Sharman changed the way I think about government,” said Chief Information Officer Chris McMasters. “She was wonderful, inspiring and courageous. We had many conversations about government, and they always ended with her encouraging us to tell our story and use that to help our community. This award is the culmination of seven years of working to better listen to and understand our residents.”
Former WWC Senior Communications Manager Kristin Taylor, Chris McMasters and Sharman Stein in front of Corona’s water treatment facility during a WWC site visit in 2018. Corona was Sharman’s last site visit.
The City of Corona received the Sharman Stein Award for increasing resident engagement through data-driven personalization and integrating new technology. Their communications efforts include tailored resident outreach, improved digital surveys and AI tools to increase engagement and complete the feedback loop.
The award is a recognition of innovation as well as a reflection of the values Sharman championed throughout her life.
“Sharman was more than an expert communicator, she was a leader who radiated empathy, grace and humor. She touched every city she worked with, including Corona,” said Michele Jolin, CEO and Co-founder of Results for America. “It is no surprise that Corona has continued to strive toward the ideal that Sharman spent her career working toward: Building collaborative governments that serve all residents.”
A city of about 160,000, Corona’s communications strategy was born from a desire to reach the many residents who don’t share feedback in person at city council meetings. To expand its reach, the communications team partnered with information technology (IT) and user experience (UX) professionals to launch, monitor and improve digital engagement.
Highlights of Corona’s communications efforts include:
- Launched customer journeys to personalize the resident experience. Corona used demographic data and preference profiles to tailor outreach about events, classes and services to residents. This approach allows the city to promote relevant opportunities to those most likely to be interested, such as specific dining, music and parking options at community events.
- Boosted resident feedback by integrating new technology into community engagement. To increase resident feedback beyond traditional city council meetings, the City used digital tools like Qualtrics’ Community Pulse, QR codes, email outreach, and web surveys to gather feedback from 2,500 residents about a downtown revitalization project. Corona is also one of the first cities in the United States to use AI sentiment analysis, which judges how residents feel about city initiatives based on public social media posts.
- Launched user-friendly, multimedia websites to share city projects. The City developed dynamic and engaging websites to explain city projects and gather feedback from residents. There are web stories of the downtown revitalization, Trails Master Plan and homelessness strategy.
- Incorporated DXA (Digital Experience Analytics) into City websites to understand citizen engagement, diagnose friction in digital citizen interaction, and provide intervention to keep people in the digital feedback loop. The analytics helped in not only site design but also in creating better outcomes related to digital government interaction.
Last year the award was presented to the City of Dallas, Texas. All previous winners can be found here.
“Sharman changed the way I think about government. She was wonderful, inspiring and courageous. We had many conversations about government, and they always ended with her encouraging us to tell our story and use that to help our community."
Chief Information Officer Chris McMastersAbout Results for America:
Results for America is helping decision-makers at all levels of government harness evidence and data to make progress on our greatest challenges. Our mission is to make investing in what works the “new normal,” so that when policymakers make decisions, they start by seeking the best evidence and data available, then use what they find to get better results.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies What Works Cities:
The What Works Cities Certification program, launched in 2017 by Bloomberg Philanthropies and led by Results for America, is the first-of-its-kind standard of excellence for data-informed, well-managed local government. What Works Cities Certification recognizes and celebrates local governments for their exceptional use of data to inform policy decisions, allocate funding, improve services, evaluate the effectiveness of programs and engage residents.
Media Contacts:
Cheryl Burnett, Results for America, [email protected]
Nicole McDaniel, City of Corona, [email protected]