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Feb. 5, 2024 |  By: Mark Moran - Public News Service

IA group offers successful messaging as national blueprint

progress iowa map

By Mark Moran - Public News Service

An Iowa advocacy group has won a high-profile award from the Analyst Institute, which measures how well a group's message reaches citizens.

Progress Iowa says it is meticulous about its research and how the group shares what it learns. An ad about revitalized housing in Ottumwa won an award.

Another example is the website 'AtWorkIowa.com.'

It provides granular detail on how the $13.5 million in federal infrastructure money has been spent in Iowa, down to the smallest projects in the tiniest towns.

Progress Iowa Executive Director Matt Sinovic said the website is a blueprint for how other communities could share information.

"We worked with local messengers," said Sinovic, "to really provide a clearer picture about the impact of Biden administration policies on peoples' day-to-day lives, and the research we used proved that it worked."

Critics of progressive and liberal politics, and of the current administration, attack efforts like these as just raw politics.

Sinovic said Progress Iowa teaches other organizations about effective ways to use social media.

It also launched a crowd-sourcing website, called 'IowaVoices.org,' where people can report their communities' successes at the grassroots, local level.

Sinovic said 'IowaVoices.org' marks the next step in Progress Iowa's research campaign, by asking Iowans to describe whether the infrastructure money is making a difference in their communities.

"Our focus was on local messengers," said Sinovic. "We wanted to communicate our values, and share the impact that these Biden administration have been having, by encouraging people to use their own voice to tell their own story in their communities."

Sinovic offers a 10% increase in President Joe Biden's approval rating in the state as evidence of the effectiveness of Progress Iowa's messaging.