Training and Education

I-95 Corridor Coalition Interactive Virtual Training for Emergency Responders

Challenge:  The I-95 Corridor Coalition is an alliance of transportation agencies and their partners from Maine to Florida. I-95 CC is developing an interactive virtual training program to teach emergency responders from all disciplines to better coordinate operations at crash scenes. In order to ensure that the multidisciplinary training software would be embraced by its intended audience, I-95 CC recognized that stakeholders needed to be involved in the development of the training program.

Solution:  Manifest helped recruit project Steering Committee members from the law enforcement, fire, EMS, and towing communities, and worked with them to define multidisciplinary training objectives and training scenarios. We wrote a read-ahead training handbook, and worked with programmers from the University of Maryland to ensure that the software development stayed in sync with the learning objectives.

FHWA Office of Safety Self-Training Workbook and Slide Tutorial

Challenge:  THE FHWA Safety Program wanted to provide staff at headquarters, field offices and the research division with tools and resources to improve the effectiveness and coordination of their roadway infrastructure safety marketing and outreach programs.

Solution:  Manifest developed a self-training workbook that guides staff through the process of planning marketing, communications, and outreach projects and programs. Part  1 of the workbook includes three modules:

1. Steps for Implementing a Highway Safety Product
2. Steps for Promoting Increased Support for Highway Safety Programs
3. Steps for Developing Roadway User Awareness and Education Programs.

Part 2 of the workbook provides a wealth of guidance and information about topics relevant to planning highway safety marketing, communications and outreach plans and programs. Manifest also developed a slide tutorial to accompany the workbook.

FHWA Office of Planning Training Video for Outreach Professionals

Challenge:  Federal regulations require transportation planning organizations to gather public input to transportation plans, and make it clear that efforts should be made to reach out to "nontraditional" audiences that do not typically attend public hearings. Outreach professionals need information about effective techniques for reaching out to audiences such as non-English speakers, the elderly, the handicapped, and residents of poor inner city neighborhoods, so that their transportation needs can be taken into account in transportation plans.

Solution:  We produced a training video for outreach professionals who work for transportation and planning agencies, based on an innovative outreach program conducted by the National Capital Region's Transportation Planning Board. The highly successful video was later incorporated into a training course provided through the FHWA's National Highway Institute.

FHWA Office of Technology Assessment Symposium on Elevating Public Awareness of Transportation Issues

Challenge:  Traditionally, public communications activities of transportation agencies tend to concentrate heavily on responding to news media following crashes, natural disasters, and other disruptions. Proactive activities intended to project positive messages about the transportation agency, or to elevate public awareness of transportation issues, are relatively rare.

A further challenge to communications professionals working in the surface transportation industry is that they rarely have an opportunity to network with peers. The professional isolation is somewhat compounded by stovepiped sub-disciplines, including:

• Public information / public affairs professionals;
• Public involvement / public outreach / community relations professionals;
• Technology transfer / implementation/ deployment professionals.

While these sub-disciplines share many of the same concerns and can learn from one another, they seldom cross paths.

Solution:  Getting Our Message Out: Elevating Public Awareness of Transportation Issues was a two-day symposium where 300 transportation communicators came together to consider how to work together to be more proactive in communication and project common positive messages to customers. We worked with a Steering Committee consisting of communications professionals from 16 sponsor organizations to plan the program, coordinate speaker arrangements, market the symposium, and document results.