The Challenge
As MCE continues to provide renewable energy to 4 counties across the Bay Area, a primary challenge has been bridging the gap between being a utility provider and being recognized as a deeply rooted community partner. While MCE’s mission is built on local control and clean energy, the organization also has ongoing collaborations with the grassroots advocates and local businesses that define the social and environmental fabric of MCE’s member cities, gathered through MCE’s Community Power Coalition.
Our Approach
To address this, MCE hosted the 2025 Community Power Symposium, a collaborative event that centered the voices of the Community Power Coalition, on November 14, 2025. This coalition is a strategic assembly of social, racial and environmental justice organizations dedicated to equitable energy futures.
Our approach focused on high-impact storytelling and relationship-building, including:
- Partnering directly with local businesses and advocates across all member cities to ensure the symposium reflected the unique needs of each community.
- Deploying a Tripepi Smith video crew to capture real-time collaboration between MCE staff and coalition members, moving the narrative from theoretical partnership to visible action.
- Conducting short-form interviews with members of the Community Power Coalition’s organizations to capture their lived experiences and perspectives on MCE’s role and collaboration in the Bay Area.
- Editing the captured footage into a cohesive narrative that portrays MCE not just as an energy provider, but as a key stakeholder and ally in the regional movement for environmental sustainability.
The Results
The symposium successfully brought together a wide array of community leaders, fostering a unified space for dialogue and strategic planning. By prioritizing the voices of the Community Power Coalition, MCE solidified its reputation as a transparent and dedicated community partner. The two resulting social media videos achieved the following results across MCE’s platforms (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky):
- 239 engagements
- 1632 impressions
- 14.6% engagement rate
- 79 engagements
- 1060 impressions
- 7.5% engagement rate
