NJTPA Update Blog

Newsroom > NJTPA News > NJTPA Update Blog > 2018 > April 2018 > NJTPA, Rutgers Voorhees Transportation Center Receive National Award for Public Outreach Print

NJTPA, Rutgers Voorhees Transportation Center Receive National Award for Public Outreach





The American Planning Association (APA) has honored the NJTPA and the Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers University with a Silver National Planning Achievement Award for Public Outreach for our innovate public outreach effort for our long-range plan, Plan 2045: Connecting North Jersey.

Each year APA recognizes outstanding planning efforts and planning leadership with its National Planning Excellence and Achievements Awards.

“The award recipients this year demonstrate the importance of engaging all community members and improving access and opportunity for all,” W. Shedrick Coleman, AIA, 2018 Awards Jury chair, said in a news release. “These recipients serve as national models for other communities.”

The NJTPA worked with the Voorhees Transportation Center to research outreach activities at planning organizations around the world and develop best practices. More than 400 public engagement activities have been compiled into a database tool, Engage! A Public Involvement Resource, which is available to the public.
 
The NJTPA used some of the more innovative engagement activities to gather public input for Plan 2045, a federally-mandated long-range transportation plan that sets a vision for development of the transportation system and guides investments over the next 25 years.

This specialized outreach included Set the Table, a dinner party program that engaged millennials; NJTPA On Air, a pop-up radio booth that allowed children to share their vision for the future of transportation (shown above); and workshops at ESL classes and with low-income residents.

These specialized outreach efforts, coupled with traditional public meetings, an online survey and tabling at community events, allowed nearly 3,000 people to provide input as part of the Plan 2045 outreach.
[April 3, 2018]
Posted: 4/3/2018 12:00:00 AM by Global Administrator | with 0 comments