CREATING STRATEGIC ALLIANCES-The Vision Process’s in Minot, ND; Lakeland, FL; Wilkes, NC; Curacao, Netherlands Antilles and Union, NC are using best practices to establish Strategic Alliances, set Strategy Benchmarks and develop Action Steps for Key Strategies. These best practices have resulted from my research into the work of the 48 communities that we have worked with and a survey of literature on Community Strategic Planning. On December 14-15, 1999, Minot established five Strategic Alliances for five strategies; January 20, 2000, Lakeland had an education Summit for four education strategies; January 13, 2000, Wilkes begin the process to establish Strategic Alliances for six strategies. Curacao has already established one Strategic Alliance. On January 29-30, 2000, the Union County Commissioners and staff selected their strategies from the Community Vision and began the process of establishing Strategic Alliances. In these five communities, they are in a continuous process for individual strategies that selects a Strategic Alliance Chair, identifies and recruits all potential alliance members, sets Alliance Strategy Benchmarks and develops Action Steps. We have developed a detailed step-by-step approach to the process.

CONYERS, GA-Partners for Tomorrow is providing the leadership and staff for Vision driven Strategic Planning for Rockdale County, a suburban community in the Atlanta MSA.

DALTON, GA-The Northwest Georgia Healthcare Partnership will receive a minimum of $225,000 during the next three years for the Community Care Network Demonstration Programs. Funding is by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. There were twenty-five participants Phase I and the NWGHP is one of eight to receive funding for Phase II.

DALTON, GA-The January 27, 2000 USA Forum headline was "Town finds a way to keep marriages woven together. The article describes a community-wide strategy to strengthen marriages." In the first twelve months of the program, the number of divorces in Dalton fell a remarkable 21%.

SCHUYLKILL, PA-Schuykill Vision has a Healthy Community Strategic Alliance. The Alliance was launched on November 30 by 49 representatives of Vision Partners. The group selected a Chair and identified five sub-sectors of the strategy for Benchmark and Action Step development. The five sub-sectors are Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Mental Health, Physiological Diseases, Violence and Pregnancy/Birth.

WILKES, NC- On November 16, 1999, The Wilkes County Commissioners agreed to help fund the first new schools built in the county in 20 years. Four new middle schools will be built, costing $46 million. When the initial estimate of costs were too high, School Board Chairman, Dr. Essie Hayes said, "we decided to follow the advice of Henry Luke of Wilkes Vision 20/20 to review, revise and refocus." They found that building the four schools simultaneously and with a different system of construction would lower the cost to $46 million.

NEW NAMES FOR MSAs-Under proposed new standards, the MSA designation for large metro areas will be eliminated. The new designations would be "Megapolitan" with population more than one million, "Macropolitan"- 50,000 to 999,999 population and "Micropolitan" with a 10,000 to 49,999 population. The public comment period ended December 20, 1999 and the final new standards will be issued later this year.

MOBILE, AL-Envision Mobile-Baldwin will have their 2^nd annual Town Hall meeting March 1, 2000.

E-MAIL-We have established a listserver for individuals actively involved in the Collaborative Implementation of Vision driven Strategic Planning. You may subscribe by clicking on lukevisionbenchmark-subscribe@onelist.com. If an e-mail form comes up, just send it blank with your e-mail address that you want to activate. If you have a problem, e-mail us at Click Here . This is a community where all of the members are approved by the moderator and where you can un-subscribe at your initiative. We encourage your subscribing and receiving the benefits from sharing with your peers in the process.

WASHINTON, DC-The High School Graduation Rate by state follows. Data is from the U.S. Department of Education, Nation Center for Education Statistics. Data excludes un-graded pupils and has not been adjusted for interstate migration. If your Graduation Rate table is garbled, please e-mail your FAX number or mailing address.

Past Collaborative Implementation Reports beginning with January 1999 can be reviewed by choosing one of the links below.

  to view the PDF format, you will need this free download from Adobe if you do not already have it.

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“America's Leading Community VISION Facilitator”