As the new year approaches, a surge in local government technology investments is expected. Those seeking to advance ongoing efforts for digital transformation are focusing on enhancing transparency and building trust among residents. With trust in government at a drastic low, it is more important than ever to prioritize its rebuilding..
The following outlook for 2024 highlights key areas of modernization set to take center stage in local government technology investments. These areas exemplify building trust through the streamlining of resident communication in the face of escalating climate change impacts, doubling down on combatting misinformation, and keeping residents engaged in their local communities amid the shift to a more remote/hybrid world.
Rapid, Reliable Response Investments to Become a Priority
In our communities, we continue to see an influx of natural disasters and other emergencies. This is why we are also seeing an increasing desire for local governments to enhance emergency and mass communication practices. Specifically, local governments are looking to maximize their reach by simultaneously transmitting multi-lingual emergency messages across multiple channels, including voice, SMS, text, mobile apps, social media, and email.
In addition, local governments are looking to improve two-way communication with residents during and after disasters. This would allow for better management of services and response. At CivicPlus, we see this as critical for request management, with residents able to directly report problems and hear back from their local governments about their concerns.
Moving into 2024, local governments should prioritize technology investments in reliable and responsive two-way communications infrastructure. This includes technologies that are accessible, multi-lingual, and multi-channel to ensure the broadest reach across varying population demographics. Providing this level of communication will inspire confidence within communities – proving to residents that their local governments are prepared to rapidly receive and respond to the public during the most critical times.
Limiting Misinformation Will Be Key In 2024
With the spread of AI, we anticipate misinformation, especially heading into elections, to be a large concern for many constituents. However, there are several ways local governments can help residents detect real information from misinformation so they can make factually based, informed decisions. Local governments can serve as a single point of truth for residents by:
- Educating residents about misinformation and how to identify it: This can be done through efforts like public awareness campaigns, school programs, and community events.
- Providing residents with access to fact-checking resources: Consider creating a dedicated website or social media page where residents can submit links to articles or social media posts for fact-checking.
- Promoting local news and media organizations: Local news organizations are often more reliable sources of information than social media. Local governments can promote local news organizations by sharing their articles on social media, hosting press conferences, and offering financial support.
- Supporting fact-checking organizations: Fact-checking organizations play a vital role in combating misinformation. Local governments can support fact-checking organizations by providing financial support, partnering with them on educational initiatives, and advocating for their work.
- Working with social media platforms to reduce the spread of misinformation: Local governments can work directly with social media platforms to develop policies and practices to reduce the spread of misinformation. Examples include advocating for platforms to remove false or misleading content, and for users to easily identify and report misinformation.
Local governments also have an opportunity to serve as the sole source of reliable, accessible, and relevant information for their residents by working to strengthen resident trust. This can be accomplished by:
- Investing in a comprehensive communications strategy: This strategy should identify the diverse ways residents get their information, outline targeted messaging and outreach plans for each channel, and feature a plan for monitoring and responding to misinformation and disinformation.
- Making it easy for residents to find the information they need: This means having a well-designed and easy-to-navigate website, as well as a strong presence on social media and other online platforms, with information available in multiple languages and formats.
- Being transparent and accountable: Local governments should be upfront about decisions and actions while providing regular updates to residents on prominent issues. When mistakes are made, local governments need to be quick to acknowledge them and take steps to correct them.
- Engaging with residents regularly: Key components here are holding regular public meetings and town hall events to hear from residents and answer their questions and making it easy for residents to reach out directly through email, phone, and social media.
- Partnering with other organizations in the community: Local governments can also work with libraries, schools, and other non-profit organizations to reach more people and provide them with necessary information.
By educating and supporting residents, providing access to fact-checking resources, and partnering with the right organizations, local governments can help ensure community members are able to make informed decisions based on accurate information.
Leveraging Parks and Recreation Departments to Keep Residents Engaged
The world continues to move towards a remote/hybrid model – making engaging residents a key challenge for local governments. However, to attract and engage with residents, governments need to understand their ever-changing needs and expectations.
All too often we see municipalities offering the same programming for the last 10-plus years, and resident engagement dwindling as a result. Parks and recreation departments are great resources for keeping residents engaged, but to do so successfully, they must leverage data beyond pure recreation. By collecting meaningful data related to the entire community, especially data about residents who have yet to participate in anything offered by the department, a real, measurable difference can be made.
While most parks and recreation departments have since returned to pre-pandemic operations, many will continue to face challenges in keeping up with technological evolution. One of the biggest roadblocks for parks and recreation departments is remaining fully staffed. They are now competing against other businesses like never before to hire and retain talent – and without enough staff, it is impossible to meet goals and fulfill resident needs.
To conquer these challenges, parks and recreation departments will need to not only find the right solutions to solve their modern problems (e.g., community engagement, accessibility, too many technology vendors, and disconnected platforms), but also make sure they’re partnering with vendors who understand the digital transformation needs of local governments and can guide them through implementation.
2024: The Year for Clear, Strategic Priorities
Local governments’ strategic priorities will be driven by several micro- and macroeconomic factors, including the rise of climate disaster events, the upcoming U.S. elections, and the growing use of AI. However, leading with a resident-first approach in 2024 and beyond is the path to digital transformation. The technology investments local governments make in the coming year will modernize the civic experience – but more importantly, increase resident trust and satisfaction.
The author, Emily Harnish, is Chief Marketing Officer at CivicPlus.