Community Engagement
MSD understands the intrinsic value of engaging community partners. As a result, we have updated our comprehensive Communication Plan to help educate employees, customers, stakeholders, and the media learn about the operations and initiatives of MSD.
In addition, as part of MSD’s commitment to involve community leaders and stakeholders in Project Groundwork, MSD established an Advisory Committee in 2009 to assist in the development of integrated wet weather reduction strategies and projects that link our efforts to other community goals such as community revitalization and economic recovery.
The committee advises MSD on its Community of the Future vision, and assists MSD in aligning Project Groundwork initiatives with other regionally significant efforts such as Agenda 360, the upcoming City of Cincinnati’s Comprehensive Plan Update, and new federal and state partnerships to develop more sustainable, livable communities.
Members of the committee are drawn from over 30 local, state, and federal governmental organizations as well as environmental advocacy groups, academia, and business interests. Overall, these members help MSD represent triple bottom line concerns relating to social, environmental and economic quality and impacts.
MSD engages our stakeholders through a variety of ways, including the annual “MSD In Your Community” breakfast, local community meetings, focus groups, as well as through our Web site and printed materials. In July 2010, we conducted an extensive survey to help us understand the community’s perspective on the number and quality of these interactions and how well informed people are about our utility. The survey involved 209 people who participated in 20 focus groups that took place in a diversity of neighborhoods in MSD’s service area.
We learned that most people understand MSD’s mission and scope of removing and treating wastewater, as well as maintaining the sewer systems. About half also understood that MSD’s work helps to maintain the quality of the rivers, creeks, and streams in our region. Surprisingly, a sizable percentage of survey respondents (between 30 and 40 percent) believe that MSD purifies and provides drinking water; however, this work is performed by Cincinnati WaterWorks, a drinking water utility.
With respect to the quality of interactions with MSD, about half of our survey respondents described their experience as positive or neutral. About 10 percent had very positive experiences and about 4 percent had negative experiences.
Results of the 2010 MSD Stakeholder Survey
Note: Click image for larger view.
As the figure above shows, more than half the survey respondents indicated that MSD is providing an adequate number and quality of community engagement opportunities. However, in the area of providing frequent enough, clear, and transparent communications, almost half of the people we interviewed saw room for improvement. Specifically, homeowners want more information about water recycling, conservation, and sewer maintenance. Our first step in addressing this gap is to develop a detailed stakeholder communication plan as part of our Comprehensive Communication Plan. Future stakeholder surveys will tell us if our efforts are filling that gap.