Attendees should leave your Coalition’s workshop with several takeaways, including a better understanding of electrification and how the current and future landscape will play a part in their community.

Other takeaways include:

• A directory of attendees (spreadsheet) including names, organizations, emails, and phone numbers
• Connections with local officials and important offices that can aid in the transition to EVs
• A digital workbook from the session including information covered during the presentation and spaces for individual notes and action items
• An understanding of available resources and funding on the federal, state and local level
• A connection to your Clean Cities Coalition for any future projects

Attendees will receive multiple benefits for attending a Ready for EVs workshop including the physical takeaways from the event.

These benefits can include:

• Dispelling common electric vehicle myths
• Becoming aware of the barriers and challenges to EV adoption in their own community
• Understanding what electric vehicles are and how they impact communities
• Discussing various kinds of electrified transportation methods (i.e. public transportation)
• Learning about electric vehicle charging options
• Understanding various fears and anxieties associated with the transition to EVs
• Meeting your local or state Clean Cities Coalition and understanding their role in the transition to electric vehicles

Your workshop should be open to any and all community members, regardless of the industry they are in, who are interested in furthering electrification in that specific community.

Note: You will want to invite people who have an interest in the specific community for which the workshop is being held. Do not invite attendees that are not interested in that specific community as they will not be able to contribute as much during the workshop. The idea of these workshops is that they can be repeated in communities all over your state but that the focus remains on what local people can do for an area.

Examples of who to invite:

Communities are made of up organizations and individuals who take on the many tasks of envisioning, building, and maintaining a place for many people to live, work, and flourish together. These workshops are open to community leaders of many types!

A ‘community’ as defined for this workshop series does not have to be one specific geographic location. However, if you choose one city, town, or county to focus on, that is often the easiest route to take.

A community can also be a portion of a city or county, such as “South Knoxville” or can be a segment of the population depending on the size of the community, such as “New York City taxi services.”

Consider a few things when choosing a community to host your workshop for:

• Consider what communities your Coalition is already working in
• Consider what communities your Coalition has not done much work in before
• Consider if you have any contacts in that community already or if you will be starting fresh
• Is the community disproportionately affected by air pollution or other has other environmental and energy justice needs?
• Is this a rural, suburban, or urban community?
  • Keep in mind the feelings towards EVs and electrification in general in that area. Is the community going to be upset by this workshop? Are you willing to deal with any backlash or negative feedback at this time?

On behalf of NFPA, East TN Clean Fuels, Virginia Clean Cities, and Central Florida Clean Cities, we want to thank your Clean Cities Coalition for wanting to host a ‘Ready for EVs’ workshop in your area! These virtual workshops will be a fantastic opportunity to bring a community with shared interests together to formulate an electrification plan for their community and discuss overcoming barriers to electrification.

A ‘Ready for EVs’ Workshop should look like this…

• Virtual group of people from a community with shared interests
• A facilitator from the Clean Cities Coalition
• One Subject Matter Expert (SME) from NFPA

The facilitator from the hosting Clean Cities Coalition will follow a “Facilitator’s Guide” throughout the workshop and the information will be aided by a slideshow presentation.

Workshop attendees will follow along during the session in a “Participant’s Guide” that they can either print off or type in on their own devices. Coalitions will need to encourage all participants to utilize the guide during the session in order for them to get everything they can from the session.

The workshop will last approximately two hours with a short break scheduled.

Expectations for Coalitions:

• Read through the Workshop Materials page and other provided materials
• Attempt to have at least 10 participants at the workshop
• Promote your workshop in the weeks leading up to it
• Facilitate the workshop the day of