When preventable behavior starts damaging the community's infrastructure, it's probably time for public works to step in. That could mean teaming up with stakeholders on an outreach campaign to stop it. But too often, the behavior just doesn't stop because the message didn’t address the underlying causes of the problematic behavior.

We put a premium on strong communication here at Public Works Radio, so this week on the official voice of the American Public Works Association (APWA), we're exploring what comes next when traditional, awareness-based outreach falls short.

We landed on community-based social marketing. An approach that uses research on why people actually behave the way they do, including social influences, community norms, and a whole host of other things, and then gets incorporated into designing outreach that's much more likely to change the behavior, not just raise awareness.

As we learn in this week's conversation, calling it marketing might be misleading because it's actually a framework composed of several essential steps, and it has been applied to prominent areas like environmental protection, energy usage, and much more.

In this episode we hear from the following guests:

• Benjamin A. Lucha, ENV SP. Environmental Programs Manager for the City of Victorville, California.
• Jennifer Tabanico. President of Action Research, a community-based social marketing firm based in Oceanside, California.

Public Works Radio is hosted by Bailey Dickman, Senior Digital Marketing Specialist with APWA. Each episode dives into a wide range of topics designed to educate and inspire, making public works more visible to everyone—from the general public and elected officials to industry peers and the media. If you haven't already, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, rate and review the show, forward it to a friend, and drop us a note at podcast@apwa.org so we can hear your feedback directly!

More Show Notes and Resources

“Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing” Book: https://cbsm.com/book

About Action Research: https://actionresearch-inc.com/

City of Victorville Environmental Programs: https://www.victorvilleca.gov/Government/City-Departments/Environmental-Programs

Benjamin Lucha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-a-lucha-env-sp-a0327a5a/

Jennifer Tabanico on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifertabanico/