As a leader in community engagement and transparency, the City of San Antonio has been recognized with the Champion of Community Trust Award for its outstanding efforts in fostering meaningful connections with residents. This case study explores how the City of San Antonio leveraged innovative engagement strategies to build trust, strengthen relationships, and create a more inclusive dialogue with its community.
Community Profile
San Antonio, Texas, is a vibrant and diverse city with a population of over 1.5 million residents.
The city’s population is predominantly Hispanic, with 64% of residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino, and a diverse mix of other ethnic groups. San Antonio also has a young, dynamic population, with 24% of residents under the age of 18 and 13% over 65 years old.
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Population Under the Age of 18
The Challenge: Strengthening Community Trust Through Inclusive Engagement
The San Antonio team recognized the need for a more structured, data-driven, and multimodal approach to community engagement. Historically, traditional engagement methods—such as in-person meetings—limited participation, particularly among working families, seniors, and other underrepresented groups. The challenge was clear: How could they create a fair, easy-to-access engagement model that would build lasting trust?
How PublicInput Was Used
To tackle these challenges, the city turned to PublicInput’s community engagement platform for a solution. Here’s how they used it to improve engagement.
Deployed a Multimodal Engagement Approach: They reached over 145,000 residents through various channels – online surveys, public meetings (both virtual and in-person), interactive project websites, and email communications.
Hosted Extensive Public Meetings: The city organized more than 2,600 public meetings, connecting with over 71,000 attendees.
Supported Community Engagement for All Ages
To ensure that residents of all ages had access to civic participation, San Antonio used PublicInput to support initiatives like the City/County Commission on Elderly Affairs and the Head Start Policy Council. Through PublicInput, residents could easily access meeting details,review materials, understand each group’s purpose, and sign up to participate – making civic engagement more accessible for seniors, parents, and the broader community.
Engaged in Visionary Planning and Community Communication: When planning a new sports and entertainment district, San Antonio used PublicInput project sites as a one-stop shop where residents could explore plans, watch videos, find answers to common questions, download important documents, and subscribe to stay updated on progress.
The Results: Strengthening Community Trust Through Inclusive Engagement
By leveraging PublicInput, the City of San Antonio was able to:
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- Broader Community Participation – They reached thousands of residents from different backgrounds by offering multiple ways to get involved, both online and in person.
- Build Data-Driven Trust – By centralizing and analyzing community feedback, San Antonio ensured resident voices were not only heard but also used to directly shape policies and decisions, fostering trust in the process.
- Increased Transparency – Regular, easy-to-understand updates and information showed residents how their input was being used.
- Fairer Access to Engagement – They removed obstacles that kept some groups from participating, giving more people a voice in city planning.
- Community-Aligned Vision – Better communication helped ensure future plans reflected what residents actually wanted
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By prioritizing accessibility, responsiveness, and transparency, San Antonio set a new standard for inclusive public engagement—proving that trust is built through action, not just intention.
Take the Next Steps Towards Strengthening Community Trust
Register for the Upcoming Webinar
Join us on March 26 for a special session celebrating all of our award winners, featuring community engagement best practice insights from Herocrats author Allison Bell.
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