MOBILE, AL-Envision Mobile-Baldwin hosted their third annual meeting on March 1, 2001. Over 400 attended the meeting. Representatives from the six focus areas reported on progress and Envision’s Co-chairs spoke on their goals for 2001.

John Davis, Envision Co-chair, said "When we launched Envision nearly four years ago, the resounding #1 priority concern of our citizens was education. Today we face in Alabama-and particularly in Mobile County-what many are appropriately calling a "Crisis in Education". Some see a funding crisis, and some see an accountability crisis, but everyone sees that we have great challenges in meeting the educational needs of today’s youth

…..When a crisis befalls, some panic-but some get their adrenaline flowing and rise to meet and to overcome the challenge. For people of substance and of faith, challenges serve to arouse, to energize, and to intensify the need for unified collaborative action. We are not mice, but men and women of faith and substance

…..Important initiatives are underway: the Mobile-Baldwin Early Childhood Collaborative and the Governor’s Commission on Early Childhood; Mobile Area’s Promise; the Center for Workforce Development; Job Fairs and Job Shadowing; the Mobile Area Education Foundation’s programs, which impact more that 20,000 students and 1,700 teachers; South Baldwin Education Foundation’s Scholarship program; and Leadership Mobile’s Future program and more.

We do have many wonderful initiatives underway in the Mobile-Baldwin region, and we must maintain focus and momentum on those initiatives in the year ahead; important strategies such as Land-use Planning, Constitution Reform, Early Childhood Collaboratives, and many others deserve our continuing and untiring support. I challenge myself and each of you-and thousands more like us-to stay the course and to finish the race with enthusiasm and to bring hope to this and future generations of an even better place to live, work and play."

Alabama voters passed Amendment One authorizing $100 million for improvements at the Port of Alabama in Mobile and $11.6 million for Mobile and Baldwin County to spend on repairing highways and bridges. Amendment One addresses three specific Envision Strategies.

The "Character Counts" Character Education program will soon be implemented in all of Mobile County schools. Character Education addresses Envision Strategies for Educational and Economic Development and Core Values of integrity and honesty.

Between 1997 and 2000, the crime rate in Mobile decreased 62% for murders, 46% for rape and 33% for robberies. In 1997, Envision established thirteen strategies designed to improve safety.

The Mobile County Department of Human Resources (DHR) developed a brochure that details the skills necessary for a successful start in school. The Alabama State Board of Education reports that over half of Alabama’s pre-schoolers are not ready to enter kindergarten. DHR is a part of the Strategic Alliance addressing this very important Envision strategy.

SPOKANE, WA-Rich Hadley’s recent comments on Spokane’s New Century Plan developed in 1996.

"When we did the New Century Plan, I felt that Spokane would be on the way to real success if we could pull off a downtown mall (done), get the N/S Freeway started after being dead for 50 years (underway), and reopen the Davenport Hotel (underway). There are tons of other great things happening now. The New Century Plan worked-it is validated every day. http://www.spokane.org/chamber/newcentury.html

CURACAO, NETHERLANDS ANTILLES- Vishon Ḳrsou had an intensive midyear review on March 29, 2001. In a difficult economic climate Vishon has developed an aggressive grass roots campaign. By 2001 year end, they plan over 700 presentations to 8,500 people. By June 2001, they plan for 400 Vision Partners and 35 Strategic Alliances.