Imagine being asked to trust a government program that's been storing chemical weapons near your home for decades. That's what communities in 10 Kentucky counties were asked to do. The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) was built on a difficult premise: residents near chemical weapons storage sites need to be informed, prepared, and ready to respond — year after year — even when nothing happens.
Maintaining that level of community readiness over the years requires something traditional public information programs rarely achieve: durable, genuine trust. The program was entering its final phase — stockpile destruction at the Blue Grass Army Depot — and the communications work had to hold through the finish line. That meant maintaining access and trust across a population that included residents with limited English proficiency and complex access and functional needs.
TLR supported CSEPP's public information and community engagement work across 10 Kentucky counties over multiple years. Our work ran through three tracks simultaneously: ongoing public affairs content for program communications, formal reporting for Congressional oversight, and accessibility work to ensure materials reached every resident — not just those with internet access and English fluency.
Three Reports to Congress were produced during this engagement — formal documentation of program performance submitted to federal oversight. These aren't routine outputs. They require a command of program history, performance data, and policy context that only comes from sustained engagement.
As the program moved toward closeout, TLR supported the transition documentation for the Kentucky Public Information Network (KY-PIN) and the communication work needed to keep communities informed through final stockpile destruction — the most significant milestone in the program's history.
Communities living near the Blue Grass Army Depot stayed informed and engaged throughout the program — not because they were legally required to, but because the communications infrastructure was designed around their actual needs. When final stockpile destruction occurred, it wasn't a surprise. The people who needed to know, knew.
Three Reports to Congress documented the program's performance for federal oversight. The KY-PIN transition preserved Kentucky's preparedness network infrastructure past the CSEPP closeout. TLR's work ensured the end of the program was as well-managed as its duration — and that the communities who had lived with this risk the longest weren't left behind at the finish line.