Participants in the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety project should conduct a 30-day campaign of traffic safety educational and law enforcement activities as part of their community project. However, you may conduct additional activities before or after this campaign period as fits your community’s needs.

Below is a sample 30-day campaign schedule to provide you with ideas and a starting point.

You may want to kick off the campaign with a community event to inform residents of the project and create greater awareness of what you are doing. Additionally, issuing a media release to local newspapers and radio about one week prior to the start of the campaign is a good way to create awareness and promote the project.

Public relations is an important tool for increasing the visibility of your efforts in promoting seat belt usage, proper installation and use of infant and child safety seats, the need for strong enforcement of related state laws and other vehicle occupant safety issues within your community as preventive health care measures. Higher visibility of such projects is known to play a key role in their success.

The methods outlined in this section will help to create a greater awareness of your Community Partner Team’s efforts in the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety project. Additionally, increased awareness of your project helps to promote the national project itself and its sponsors, the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), thereby ensuring the future of the project so that other communities can participate to help address this national health and safety concern.

This section will discuss many aspects of public relations, including:

• media relations (print and radio);
• special events promotion and coverage;
• promotion of activities; and
• creating a memorable image for your community’s campaign.

The news media include newspapers, other printed periodicals (such as magazines), and the broadcast news (radio and television). The most likely instances of “hard news” for your community’s project will be the announcement that your community participating in the national Partners for Rural Traffic Safety project. However, the number of “feature news” story angles are endless, including first-person accounts of local residents who survived vehicle crashes because they were wearing seat belts, local events promoting seat belt usage and the like. Once you have announced your community’s participation in the program locally, continuing media attention and coverage will depend largely on how you “sell” the project and its events and activities to local and regional media.

One way to ensure hard news coverage of your project from newspapers and television stations is to alert them to events and activities that have visual appeal, such as a community awareness day featuring many activities with expected good community resident attendance, or events that involve visual elements such as appearances by “Vince and Larry©,” NHTSA’s crash test dummies, or law enforcement devices such as the “Convincer” or roll-over machine that demonstrates the effectiveness of safety restraints in vehicles (contact your state law enforcement office about scheduling these demonstration devices).

Additionally, news releases on speaking engagements, special activities and promotions, and related events will generate event calendar items and possible articles or features.

Other alternatives to traditional newspaper, radio or television news stories will also help to convey your message and promote your community’s project. Such alternatives include the following.

• Editorial Coverage. Editorials discussing the project and related traffic safety issues, as well as presenting traffic safety statistics and facts nationally and from your area.
• Radio Talk Shows. If you local radio station(s) feature talk shows on local and area events and issues, approach the show’s program manager about your community’s projects and discuss possible ideas for a segment on the talk show.
• Letters to the Editor. Almost all newspapers include a letters to the editor section. However, this news medium is often overlooked when promoting and event or project. Have Community Partner Team members or other volunteers involved with your project write letters to the editor about the project and about traffic safety issues in general to create a greater public awareness about the problems related to traffic safety and your project’s efforts to resolve them. Be sure to include related statistics and facts to make your case and reinforce the need for your community’s project.
• News Releases. News releases announcing your community’s selection to participate in the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety project and announcing the kick-off of your local campaign are key elements in creating public awareness. Sample news releases are included at the end of this section. Don’t be disappointed if your news releases are not printed exactly as issued. Most editors will use news releases as a basis to develop their own article. Remember, the goal of a news release is to get coverage in the print and broadcast media, not to get the release printed verbatim. Often, an editor or reporter will expand upon the material included in a news release. That’s why it is so important to have a contact person included on any news release that you issue. The contact person serves as the connection between the news media representatives and your community’s project to provide additional information to the news representative as needed.
• Media Advisories. This approach works best when promoting a specific event or activity of your community’s project. They typically are briefer than a news release and provide basic facts on events and activities—the who, what, when, and where of an event. Media advisories usually are issued just prior to the event or activity they promote. It is a good idea to follow up such advisories with a phone call to answer any questions or seek coverage of the event or activity.

In addition to these traditional news media outlets, there are a number of other less traditional outlets that can serve well to promote your project. These include:

• religious organization newsletters;
• school and school-group newsletters, such as the Future Farmers of America, the 4-H club, etc.;
• local business and industry newsletters;
• local civic organization and club newsletters; and
• advertiser or “shopper” newspapers.

When submitting articles to the editors of these publications, be sure to tailor the article to the particular group or organization that prints the publication. How does the project affect that group? Who within the group is participating in the project? Who should be participating?

One of the most effective ways to get the news media to cover your project is through the coverage of special events. These provide the news media with a “hook” for the coverage as well as possible photographic opportunities.

If your Community Partner Team is planning a special event to kick off the 30-day campaign, this event presents a prime opportunity for news coverage. As you plan your event, think ahead about possible elements of the event that may provide good photograph opportunities. Additionally, pinpoint some of the activities of the day that may be considered by the news media to be worthy of coverage; for instance, if your community’s mayor issues a proclamation declaring your 30-day campaign to be “Rural Traffic Safety Week” in your community (see sample mayoral proclamation in this project kit). This activity not only provides a hook for news coverage (Rural Traffic Safety Week), but also prevents a photographic opportunity (the mayor presenting the proclamation to your Community Partner Team).

Points to highlight during special events could include seat belt and child safety seat events, events representing the health issues tied to usage of occupant safety restraints, and the importance of law enforcement to support reduction of injuries and other health related issues.

Once you have scheduled the special events to occur during your campaign, you will want to prepare and issue media advisories (see above) to distribute to key newspaper, radio and television media outlets.

To help convey a consistent message and create a consistent image for your project, you may want to select one or two people to serve as spokespeople for the project. These spokespeople would be listed on all news media release and advisories as the contact for additional information. By doing so, you can ensure that these spokespeople are kept informed of all key events of the project so that they can deliver the same message to each news representative that inquires about the community’s rural traffic safety project.

The person or persons you select to serve as spokespeople for your project should be selected early on in the project and should be people who are readily available by telephone during the day and evening for media calls. Additionally, these people should be available to serve throughout the duration of your community’s 30-day campaign as well as for two to three weeks immediately prior to the campaign when you will begin promoting it.

Once these spokespeople have been established, all volunteers should be instructed to direct any news media questions regarding the campaign to those spokespeople. One logical choice for such a spokesperson is your Community Partner Team leader or another member of the team. These people will have the most extensive background and information regarding the Partners for Rural Traffic Safety project and your community’s participation in it.

In addition to appointing spokespeople to your community’s project for dealing with the news media, you may want to appoint a group of people to coordinate all news media efforts on behalf of the project. This presents a prime opportunity to involve others in your community, thereby helping to establish community buy-in to the project. Additionally, it takes some of the load off of the Community Partner Team members.