Design the Future Communications Assessment

Washington County’s communications and outreach function provides an important link between the County organization and the community we serve. This system of service supports organizational values such as centering equity, ensuring transparency, supporting public trust and facilitating access to County services. The organization‐wide communications function also faces challenges such as heightened and dynamic community and Board expectations, supporting and incorporating multiple leaders and other stakeholders in order to provide a unified voice to the community, new and changing technological tools for engaging in communications work and a c onstrained resource environment. The County’s communications function has evolved over time, but not in a consistent manner across the organization. Under the current arrangement, some communications resources are centralized in the County Administrative Office, other communications resources exist in a decentralized manner in department offices. This approach, which has not been evaluated systematically in decades, offers both strengths and opportunities for improvement. To support this expansion of our communications capability, Washington County is seeking a consultant(s) to assist the organization with assessing the organization’s current structure and support for its communications function and to recommend improvements using a “ O ne Washington County ” approach that envisions a county organization unified around better serving the public . The project is considered part of the suite of projects underway to improve and modernize systems of service as part of Washington County’s internally focused Design the Future initiative .