Kent County Pandemic Response Report: One Year Out

Kent County Pandemic Response

The
Challenge

As Kent County’s PR partner, Truscott Rossman provides a broad range of strategic communications services to the County administration, Board of Commissioners, and communications team. In 2020 – 2021, we were called on to assist with an unprecedented flow of information to the community during the pandemic. The full breadth of vital County services – including the health department, sheriff, prosecutor, courts, public works, parks, veterans, community action, clerk, and elections – had to adapt and, in many cases, ramp up services in response to the crisis.

Partnerships were key to the success of the County’s response and included collaborations with other local units of government, area hospitals, community service organizations, faith leaders, collaboratives representing communities of color, schools and universities, businesses, local chambers and more. As the County approached the pandemic’s one-year mark, it sought a way to chronicle this collective response – to take inventory, record, and report on it – not simply to honor the work, but to learn from it.

The
Response

The County called on Truscott Rossman to assist in planning, drafting, and overseeing development of a 34-page report to the community documenting the County’s COVID-19 response. The report also inventoried collaborations with hundreds of partners that elevated the impact of the County’s response or made the work possible. Dozens of people were consulted in researching and compiling the information to ensure that the report would serve as a complete and accurate record.

The
Results

Kent County’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: One Year Out was released through the County’s 80,000-member email list and to the media on the first anniversary of the onset of the pandemic in the community. It chronicles a year of crisis and community collaboration, thanks community partners and serves as a lasting tribute to the collective actions of the Board of Commissioners and the nearly 1,800 people in 25 departments, offices and agencies that comprise Kent County government.