August 15, 2011 a Participation Plan that identifies and describes the “Public for inclusive public participation and thereby recipient’s policies/procedures ensures access to the transportation planning process for low-income and MBTA included a section in its titled minority populations.” Title VI Report in which it described its outreach Outreach and Involvement Activities” “Public efforts to minority and low-income populations, however, these efforts did not meet the requirements of FTA Circular 4702.1A.IV.9. Specifically, MBTA lacked a clear strategy for including minority and low-income populations early and continuously in the planning process. In addition, MBTA did not include sufficient documentation confirming outreach to minority and low-income populations per the Circular. During the Review, MBTA stated that it was developing a revised plan for inclusive public participation in response to FTA’s conditional approval of its and indicated that it would be Title VI Report submitted to the FTA by the August 15, 2011 deadline. During the Review, the outreach efforts described in Title VI Report MBTA’s were discussed. It was shown practice of conducting outreach to that MBTA’s minority and low-income communities on a project by project basis led to inconsistencies and lacked a clear understanding of procedure(s) for MBTA’s outreach to these communities. A list of outreach efforts to minority MBTA’s and low-income communities by project included: Legal notices associated with the development of its Program for Mass placed in the El Mundo and La Semana newspapers. Transportation Flyers translated into Spanish and Portuguese for community workshops and public meetings associated with the South Coast Rail Project.
August 15, 2011 a “Public Participation Plan that identifies and describes the recipient’s policies/procedures for inclusive public participation and thereby ensures access to the transportation planning process for low-income and minority populations.” MBTA included a section in its Title VI Report titled “Public Outreach and Involvement Activities” in which it described its outreach efforts to minority and low-income populations, however, these efforts did not meet the requirements of FTA Circular 4702.1A.IV.9. Specifically, MBTA lacked a clear strategy for including minority and low-income populations early and continuously in the planning process. In addition, MBTA did not include sufficient documentation confirming outreach to minority and low-income populations per the Circular. During the Review, MBTA stated that it was developing a revised plan for inclusive public participation in response to FTA’s conditional approval of its Title VI Report and indicated that it would be submitted to the FTA by the August 15, 2011 deadline. During the Review, the outreach efforts described in MBTA’s Title VI Report were discussed. It was shown that MBTA’s practice of conducting outreach to minority and low-income communities on a project by project basis led to inconsistencies and lacked a clear understanding of MBTA’s procedure(s) for outreach to these communities. A list of MBTA’s outreach efforts to minority and low-income communities by project included: Legal notices associated with the development of its Program for Mass Transportation placed in the El Mundo and La Semana newspapers. Flyers translated into Spanish and Portuguese for community workshops and public meetings associated with the South Coast Rail Project.