During the entire month of February, Flaherty & Hood’s communication’s team of Julie Lew and Kelly Haff took on a multi-media strategy to lobbying by spearheading the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities (CGMC) “Advocacy Weeks.” While adapting to a mostly virtual legislative session, many parts of the lobbying team’s work has been forced to change this year. However, these changes have presented opportunities for the communications team to utilize new and innovative approaches.

Each week in February, the CGMC highlighted a different topic that impacts Greater Minnesota cities: Local Government Aid (LGA), child care, water infrastructure, and housing. The weeks included Zoom meetings between member cities and state legislators, webinars, and outreach through social media and traditional media.

Media & Communications Director Julie Liew successfully pushed out three guest columns illustrating the need for the Legislature to fully fund LGA, address the child care shortage, and create more opportunities to develop and building affordable workforce housing in Greater Minnesota. These columns were published by more than 20 news sources located across Minnesota, including the Star Tribune and MinnPost.

Communications Associate Kelly Haff created compelling videos depicting the child care crisis and the importance of paying LGA on time and in full featuring interviews with elected officials and city staff across the state. Together, the videos were viewed more than 200 times.

Their efforts made an impression at the Legislature and continue to make a big impact in pushing forward the CGMC’s legislative priorities. The media and social media efforts can be found shared to the CGMC’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. The videos and webinars can all be watched by visiting the CGMC’s YouTube page.