It starts with a community that wants to take full advantage of its assets and gain a better understanding of what it needs to do to assure its competitive position in today’s global economy. Communities across the country are not only competing for new jobs with communities in the same state, but also other states and indeed other countries.
We work closely with community leaders to develop a visioning process that will provide a real blueprint for change and growth. The process starts with key leader interviews to get the “lay of the land,” and continues with a confidential, in-depth survey which covers all segments of a community’s “well being:” quality of life, health care, transportation, governance, economic development, etc.
We also benchmark our client community with other communities with similar demographic footprints so that our clients can see how their community stacks up against the competition. The process concludes with an active, “hands-on” goal setting session. This session produces real goals which when implemented will provide meaningful results for the community.
More importantly, we provide a real sense of equity in the process for each and every community leader that participates! Our job is to facilitate the process and bring out the best of everyone who participates. In the end, the real winner is the community and its citizens.
Our Hardin County (KY) Community Visioning Project is one example of how we worked with one of Kentucky’s largest and fastest growing counties to develop a comprehensive visioning project which resulted in the development of 24 strategic goals for the community to implement over the next 15 years – goals which included the development of a new four year state university, a change in local alcoholic beverage laws, a change in governance, etc. This project included follow-up work which addressed the implementation of the goals.
Learn more about some of our projects by clicking on the links below under Related Projects and also read, see and hear some of what the media has been reporting on about our efforts in this area by clicking on the links below under Related News.