Montpelier outlines new strategic communications plan, pushes accessibility and subscription growth

The City of Montpelier presented an updated strategic communications plan to the City Council on July 23 that places priority on three primary outreach channels, accessibility improvements and stronger crisis communications training. The plan matters because the city’s communications staff has reduced capacity and the new plan aims to focus limited resources on the highest‑impact tools while improving accessibility for residents with disabilities and increasing direct opt‑in subscriptions. Evelyn Primm, communications coordinator, told the council she condensed prior goals into three: fortify communication channels, improve accessibility and community engagement, and strengthen crisis communications capacity. "The strategic communications plan vision is the City of Montpelier creates public value by effectively communicating information with the community in an efficient, engaging, and responsive manner," Primm said. Primm emphasized measurable subscriber targets and platform prioritization. She reported roughly 27,000 Facebook followers across city‑affiliated pages, about 8,600 Montpelier Front Porch Forum subscribers, nearly 13,000 VT Alert subscribers in the Montpelier group and about 6,000 Notify Me subscriptions. She recommended using the city's website as an information archive, growing the Notify Me subscriptions, and improving non‑visual access (screen‑reader text and alt text) for city plan documents. The council discussed outreach partnerships: Councilor Adrian suggested using Montpelier High School community‑based learning placements to support communications tasks; several councilors supported expanding neighborhood coordinator lists and linking Notify Me with local neighborhood networks. Primm said the communications staff is testing site accessibility software and has corrected missing alt text on two elements in the recently awarded city plan's online map. Primm also outlined a crisis communications training schedule for a Crisis Communications Response Team and said the team will work to bring members up to an Incident Command System (ICS) 200 level for higher‑stakes alerting (VT Alert). She noted technical work with a volunteer resident to improve backend systems and promised to publish the final plan on the city website. Ending: Staff will publish the final strategic communications plan, pursue subscriber growth and accessibility improvements, and coordinate with neighborhood and school partners on limited, high‑impact projects.