By Tamie McGowen
Assistant Deputy Director of Public Affairs
I’m excited to share that Caltrans won a top national award this last week from AASHTO’s Subcommittee on Transportation Communications – known as TransComm. Caltrans earned an Excel Award for “best campaign without a consultant” for the department’s communications and promotions effort surrounding the Clean California Statewide Dump Day event held earlier this year on April 23.
Caltrans held the statewide event at 30 locations throughout California in celebration of Earth Day. This was the first event of its kind for the department and required a coordinated effort, both internally with various Caltrans divisions and districts throughout the state to ensure a successful event, and externally with state and local partners to ensure maximum participation from Californians.
Caltrans conducted outreach to cities, counties, waste management companies, elected officials, and more to find locations to host this event and foster partnerships to get more public turnout. Not all events looked alike, some were focused on collecting old tires, others focused on large household items and appliances. Through careful coordination with local partners, Caltrans made sure to create events that met the needs of the communities they intended to serve. Promotion included social media posts and local news coverage to encourage Californians to come out and participate in the statewide event. Following the event, a press release was sent out and a video was created to communicate the success of the event and the amount of litter and debris collected. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/digNyWr5ppY
Caltrans used this event as a platform to educate participants and the public about the importance of properly securing all cargo loads and disposing of trash in receptacles and the impacts litter has on their communities.
AASHTO sponsors the annual skills awards competition to facilitate the sharing of best practices and to recognize outstanding communications efforts from state DOTs nationwide.