Link21 is a passenger rail program that aims to improve travel by train across the 21-county Northern California Megaregion by creating a network of train service that is faster, more connected, equitable, and accessible. At the core of Link21 is a new train crossing between Oakland and San Francisco, which will improve the rider experience, the environment, and our quality of life for generations to come.
Since 2022, the Civic Edge team has been leading community engagement for San Francisco residents and travelers for Link21, a program focused on connecting the regional passenger rail networks with benefits extending beyond the immediate Bay Area.
For the Link21 Program, the Civic Edge team developed multiple regional engagement strategies to increase buy-in from the public and to get Link21 on the Bay Area’s radar. As the primary engagement consultants representing Link21 in San Francisco, our team worked on the community engagement strategy from the ground up, having the freedom to incorporate unique approaches for outreach that would maximize local awareness of the program and collect meaningful input towards it.
The Civic Edge team collaborated with other regional consultant partners to deliver robust outreach strategies that were later implemented into Link21 as engagement action plans. We played key roles in the engagement strategy for multiple areas in Link21 Engagement, including San Francisco-specific outreach, youth and student involvement, and planning around public affairs. Innovative approaches and establishing lasting community relationships are top of mind for each outreach and engagement effort Civic Edge has led for Link21, from designing new outreach materials to developing unique interactive activities for community events.
Our breadth of outreach work for Link21 has included developing key messaging, creating exhaustive key audience databases, grassroots tabling at community events or transit stations, college campus outreach and student engagement, widespread postering and promotional outreach for Link21 events, planning and facilitation of CBO co-creation workshops, conducting key community leader interviews, providing presentations to neighborhood groups, planning and implementing the San Francisco Megaregional Open House and other Link21 events, developing the Link21 internship program, and more.