Henry Luke - Newsletter #37 - COMMUNITY VISIONING RESULTS

February 2003

LUKEVISION- Celebrating 20 years of building Community Vision, we now have links to Visions or Strategic Plans for 51 communities or regions on our web site. Visit at http://www.lukevision.com/communities.htm

SAGINAW, MI-A 24-page Saginaw County Vision 2020 Annual Report for 2002 was an advertising supplement to the Saginaw News on Monday January 27, 2003. The report can be read at http://www.scv2020.org/. The Annual Report was dedicated to Vision 2020 Co-Chair, James O’Neill, Jr. who passed away December 31, 2002. Vision 2020 Executive Director, Liana M. Bachand, created the excellent Annual Report. Steering Committee President, Dave Hall, presided at the January 30, 2003 exciting Annual Meeting. Vision 2020 facilitator, Henry Luke presented the Key Benchmark report. This completed the second year of implementation.

The Lieutenant Governor was the keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting and said “ Saginaw County Vision 2020 should serve as a model for the rest of the state on how to attack community problems”.

In response to a strategy to provide more leadership training, “The Leadership Alliance” developed a program to train 1,000 leaders in three years. At the annual meeting, a young union leader told of completing the training in December 2002 and dramatic change that has already occurred. He believes 110 jobs at his company will be saved as described at http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-4/1044098682203390.xml

The “Arts, Culture, Recreation and Entertainment Alliance” (ACRE) delivered its master plan on January 21m 2003. http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-4/1043162403306060.xml The ACRE Master Plan will be enhanced by Dr. Samuel H. Shaheen’s $7 to $8 million commitment to restore the downtown Saginaw Historic Temple Theatre. http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-0/1044460381163050.xml

The “Success for All Students Alliance” is launching “Reading Buddies”, an intensive effort to find one-on-one tutors for students at ten county elementary schools that have low scores. http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-4/104281860642990.xml

The Vision 2020 organizers are starting up the “Comprehensive Economic and Workforce Alliance”. This new Alliance will promote “Career Ladders” within industries and make sure student shave the necessary technical knowledge to handle jobs. http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-4/104333886881480.xml

Saginaw’s first county-wide land use plan was completed in March 2000 and is now being analyzed to ensure that it can help meet the Benchmarks of Vision 2020.

The “1000 Leaders Initiative” is well underway with 92 graduates so far. Most of the graduates have committed to help with a community project and to mentor future leaders in training. The training has resulted in changed lives as demonstrated by the article above. http://www.scv2020.org/

The “Image Alliance” presented their video that featured the new logo and theme” “THE SAGINAW VALLEY…STRONG ROOTS…STRONG”. A huge commitment of resources has been committed to promoting the logo and theme.

The “Racial Harmony Alliance” has completed the first Racial Harmony Survey. It will be conducted every three years. http://www.saginawcountyvision2020.org/PDFFiles/racialharmony.pdf

The “High Tech Growth Alliance” refocused on cluster issues and direction, identified regional clusters and planned a IT Boot camp.

A Saginaw News Editorial said, “We go back to Vision 2020’s biggest success: Understanding the common goals and creating the ethos to work toward them as a community. No one else will do for Saginaw County what it must do for itself. And many of the successes that have come about in the past few years are attributable to the spirit of cooperation that is at the core of the Vision 2020 process.” http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-0/1043855405187420.xml

Saginaw County has had a tough time during the decline of the automobile industry’s very high paying jobs beginning in 1977. In 2000, they set a very bold Key Benchmark of achieving 2,500 net new jobs per year and were immediately met with a recession and war. Obviously, they have not met the job Key Benchmark, but have made strong progress in other areas. The Vision 2020 leadership is using these results as motivation to positively “review, revise and refocus” their Action Steps. http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-4/104281861142990.xml

For more information about Saginaw County Vision 2020, call Vision at 989-752-7161 or visit the web page at http://www.scv2020.org/

ST. JOHNS, FL-St. Johns Vision began five Strategic Alliances February 11-14, 2003 with the right attendance at each session. The meeting minutes will soon be on the web site at http://www.stjohnsvision.com/ and http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021403/met_11749391.shtml

SCHUYLKILL, PA-The county will have $220,000 for a small business loan program beginning in the spring. The program will be administered by the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce and will have a cap of $15,000 per loan. http://www.pottsville.com/pub/2003/Feb/13/E565373A.htm

The Pottsville REPUBLICAN and Evening Herald

JACKSONVILLE, FL-In 1999, Mayor John Delaney announced plans for the Preservation Project to buy 10 to 20 square miles of the city’s developable land. As of January 2003, 62 square miles or 39,659 acres have been purchased. This brings the total amount of parkland to 73,043 acres-or 114 square miles….15% of the land area. This makes Jacksonville among the US cities with the largest amount of parkland. The additional land cost was $134 million, with $58 million from the city. http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012603/met_11575230.shtml

Researchers of Mayo Clinic Jacksonville may be onto a drug that could someday treat or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease. The next step is for a National Institute of Health Clinical trial on 48 test subjects.

The Jacksonville Business Journal

LAKELAND, FL-A progress report from the Polk County Mentoring Program was issued in December 2002. In 2002, 2,312 children were mentored…about 20% of those in need. Grade level of student mentored….high school-23%, middle school-6% and elementary-71%. The mentoring programs improved student achievement in a big way. Measurable success was achieved in school attendance, behavior and in the state achievement test-FCAT. At risk kids who are mentored are 86% more likely to finish high school than their non-mentored at-risk counterparts. The 2,312 mentors spent 104,976 hours with their protégées. The mentors find reward in their mentoring experience: 54% experience increase in their personal and professional networking skills and 67% feel more satisfied in their jobs. http://www.lakelandvision.com/

GWINNETT, GA-Gwinnett County now claims the 3^rd largest economy in Georgia and Metro Atlanta and is on track to be the 2^nd largest sometime in 2003. According to economy.com, Gwinnett County, which has a population of about 654,000 people, has a gross county product that is expected to rise to $26.5 billion in 2003. Fulton County will be the largest at $75.5 billion. http://www.gwinnettchamber.org/economic/vision.asp

Atlanta Journal-Constitution 1/9/2003

RUTHERFORD, NC- Realize Rutherford volunteers met on January 10, 2003 to begin the implementation for the ambitious county Strategic Plan. Six Key Strategies were selected for beginning of Action Team Development on April 8-11, 2003. There will be a session on February 21 for training a large group of volunteers in the implementation process and preparing for the April meetings. http://www.lukevision.com./ruth/cover.htm and http://www.thedigitalcourier.com/articles/2003/01/11/news/news04.txt

PAST COMMUNITY VISIONING REPORTS, the Community Strategic Planning Process, and client web sites can be reviewed from the menu below. Luke Planning, Inc. provides facilitation for Community Vision and Community Strategic Planning. Please forward this newsletter to anyone who may have an interest in these topics.

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