Lancaster, PA: How City Officials Prioritized Inclusion in COVID-19 Communications
Lancaster, a community of 60,000 residents, welcomed 500 people displaced from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Their arrival underscored the importance of inclusive communication, prompting the city to develop a linguistically and culturally responsive infrastructure that served it well in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic just three years later.
“We are a very collaborative city. When there’s a crisis, everyone gets united because we’re all impacted,” says Milzy Carrasco, Director of Neighborhood Engagement for the City of Lancaster.
This commitment to neighborhood outreach fostered creative, inclusive, and effective communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, built with continuous feedback from community members. Efforts included:
Social Media: City leaders broadcasted daily updates about public health efforts, including a “Live at Five” update from Lancaster’s mayor, followed by a “En Vivo a las Seis” update from Carrasco in Spanish.
Public Art: Lancaster selected local artists to create murals with positive messages about community solidarity and preparedness.
The murals were placed in strategic locations determined by a “vulnerability index” that identified concentrations of at-risk residents and potential information gaps.
Community PSAs: City leaders asked residents to submit short video clips answering the question: “Why do you stay home?” and used these submissions to create community-driven public service announcements that were shared on social media. Designed to give residents a chance to hear directly from their peers and neighbors, the PSAs included messages in multiple languages.
Community Mailers: The city produced a bilingual information mailer that included information about COVID-19, how to stop the spread, and how to access food, shelter, and mental health resources. The flyer was sent to every household in Lancaster, with extra copies sent to food banks, gas stations, and corner stores. Engaging neighborhood businesses was a critical strategy. City leaders knew that local shops often serve as information hubs for residents with limited internet access.
Lancaster’s culturally savvy staff understood the importance of communication that met local residents where they were.
“We thought about how campaigns happen in Latin America, with big speakers going through towns, so we thought, ‘we’re going to put a big speaker on a police patrol car that’s going to tell people in multiple languages to socially distance, stay home, stay calm,’” recalls Zayra Falu, who heads Lancaster’s Office of Language Services.
“It was a real bridge of cultures. Communication is not always horizontal or vertical, it’s all about the preferences of the people you’re serving.”
Check out more inclusive communication tips:
As local governments and organizations serve growing numbers of multilingual audiences, many are using communication strategies that promote trust, engagement, and access.
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