Following Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, Harris County Commissioners Court called a bond election to provide the opportunity for Harris County residents to vote on what could be $2.5 billion in bonds for flood risk reduction projects throughout Harris County.

In an effort to provide more information about the bond program to Harris County residents, Hollaway was selected to support the Harris County Flood Control District through rapid planning and facilitation of 23 Community Engagement Meetings in each of Harris County’s 23 watersheds. Community engagement meetings were delivered between June 5 and August 1, 2018, with nearly 4,000 registered attendees and more than 2,400 public comments.

With only a few weeks to prepare, Hollaway led the delivery of a comprehensive community engagement program to inform Harris County voters and residents about the proposed $2.5B bond, and this included:

• Development of a consistent branding identity for the bond program
• Venue coordination for 23 public engagement events
• Graphic design and copywriting for informational handouts, meeting exhibits, meeting presentations, and the Flood Control District’s website
• Facilitation, setup, and teardown for each of the 23 large-scale public meetings
• Delivery of graphically designed watershed-specific public comment summaries and an executive summary before Harris County Commissioners Court on August 14, 2018

Following the final Community Engagement Meeting, Hollaway rapidly synthesized and reviewed more than 2,400 public comments to:

• Identify common themes reflected across public comments
• Tabulate public comments into the identified themes
• Utilize the tabulation of themes to determine the common themes reflected in each water
• Develop watershed-specific public comment summaries, identifying the common themes reflected and specific areas of concern or support