Advocacy Advance Rapid Response Grant

Final Report
The Advocacy Advance Final Grant Final Report is due by Friday, February 1, 2013 via email to Brighid@AdvocacyAdvance.org. Your subject line must state: [Organization] Rapid Response Grant Final Report. Thank you for your cooperation!

1. Organization Overview
Date: Organization Name: Website: Address: City, State, Zip: 70 Pacific Street Cambridge, MA 02139 February 15, 2013 LivableStreets Alliance www.LivableStreets.info

Grant Campaign Title: Grant Amount: Application Date:

Remove McGrath Neighborhoods Not Highways $1,000 May 23, 2012 Amount of Money Won / Preserved: Completion Date: $ TBD On-going

Primary Contact: E-mail: Jackie Douglas Jackie@livablestreets.info

Title: Phone:

Executive Director 617.621.1746

2. Project Results
In 1-2 pages total, please respond to the following questions:

(A) What were the results of your campaign and how has it made a difference for cycling and/or walking in your community? The long-term results are not complete yet. To date, as a result of the campaign we increased political pressure to elevate the need for a safe bicycle, pedestrian, and transit corridor, when otherwise, the outdated elevated highway would have just been repaired as is with no improvements for people and no public awareness. One major win was that the State decided to hire additional consultants to do analysis for bicycle and pedestrian improvements! In the short-term, we won: 1. Mobilized 200 people to attend a public meeting on May 31, which resulted in political pressure to acknowledge the changes we were advocating for; 2. Trained and deployed 25 Street Ambassadors to talk to citizens and businesses about the campaign, how to get involved, and collect 1,500 signed postcards with personal stories addressed to Massachusetts Transportation Secretary and Somerville Mayor Curtatone; 3. Met regularly with key stakeholders; including city and state agencies, legislators, and abutting businesses and residences to galvanize support, build consensus, and increase political pressure; 4. Created a website, Facebook group, and Twitter hash tag, and communicated regularly with our members and citizens; and 5. Won local and national press. We changed the dialogue about how the State should be spending $11 million in funds. Over the course of the next 3-9 months, we will have a lot more updates to share as more decisions will be made. In just the next three weeks, we will: 1. Host an internal LivableStreets strategy meeting to discuss next steps. 2. Review potential design alternatives for interim improvements with the LivableStreets Advocacy Committee. 3. Meet with the City of Somerville to discuss the interim improvements and strategize next steps. 4. Prepare for another public meeting to happen this spring (date TBD).

(B) What was the amount of funding won/preserved as a result of your campaign? Exact amount is pending Currently, the State will be making a decision this spring on how much funding will be used for improvements and plan for removing the overpass.

(C) What lessons were learned and can be shared with others?

Timing, stamina, internal government partnerships, external grassroots support, and engineering analysis are critical. 1. Timing. The time is now to be advocating for change because it is on the City and States radar and there is funding to be spent. 2. Stamina. It is critical to stay on top of a project day in and day out, month after month, to ultimately see change. Only a portion of the work we do is high visibility and public (i.e. getting ready for a public meeting), but it is critical to have dedicated staff and volunteers who can stay on top of the project even when its not in the news every day. 3. Internal government partnerships. Having strong relationships with people in government, as well as consulting firms, has been critical to understanding the opportunities and challenges to seeing change, and winning support needed, as well as having credibility to advocate. 4. External grassroots support. We cant do it alone. For this campaign, it was critical to show that that there was public support. 5. Engineering analysis. This campaign was another example of the importance of being able to talk about a big vision, discuss policies, and also have technical expertise among our volunteers to analyze engineering plans in order to find opportunities for change. (D) How does your campaign serve as a model for other organizations? Please list ways that your organization is willing to share your results with Advocacy Advance (e.g. provide documents/templates for the Alliance Resource Library, produce a report, share your final product, propose a Mutual Aid Call) Our campaign serves as a model for: 1. Campaign strategies and tactics for grassroots outreach and support. For example, our postcard campaign, action e-lerts, information session we hosted before the public meeting, and StreetTalk events. 2. Utilizing volunteers. Lessons learned on recruiting, training, and engaging volunteers to win campaigns. Our Street Ambassadors, and Advocacy Committee members who represent us State Advisory Working Groups, are critical to success. 3. Building partnerships and consensus. With whom and how. 4. Winning press. Process for building relationships and winning press at the right time. (E) Please specify and detail how much of the grant funds were used for lobbying and what kind of lobbying activities were conducted. Though legislators were a stakeholder and part of discussions, none of the grant funds was used for direct lobbying activities.

3. Actual Budget
INCOME EXPENSES

Advocacy Advance Grant request:

$ 1,000

Personnel: Professional services:

$ 1,500 in-kind (i.e. graphic design, engineering work) $ 500 in-kind (i.e. volunteers, event venue space) $ 2,000*

Funding from other sources:

$ 1,000

Supplies and materials: Other:

Total Project Income:

$2,000*

Total Project Expenses:

* This budget only reflects a portion of a much greater Neighborhoods Not Highways Campaign budget

3. Attachments
Please attach to the final report: (A) Copy of IRS determination letter (B) Any PR-related materials applicable to the grant, including photos and links Links: -

Campaign website: http://www.livablestreets.info/project/remove-mcgrath Facebook page with relevant links: http://www.facebook.com/removemcgrath LivableStreets StreetFilm: http://vimeo.com/37448189 Boston Globe article: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/08/22/ somerville-boston-mull-future-overpasses/AJM4G6FkiiNOCqb7YaEZZK/story.html National Congress for New Urbanism article: http://www.cnu.org/cnu-news/2012/08/ 2012-freeways-without-futures-revisited Greater Somerville news video: http://greatersomerville.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/ steven-nutter-tom-bertulis-livable-streets-alliance-5-29-12-2/ Video from May 31 public meeting: http://blip.tv/somervillecommunityaccess/mccarthyoverpass-meeting-5-31-12-6194881 Somerville Patch blog post: http://somerville.patch.com/blog_posts/lets-work-together-toremove-mcgrath Photos: (1) Various: http://www.facebook.com/removemcgrath/photos_stream, (2)StreetTalk: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49752072@N04/sets/72157630328443976/ (3) May 31: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49752072@N04/sets/72157629997041536/