As some of you reading this blog may already know, Visioneering Wichita has been selected to receive the 2010 Alliance for Regional Stewardship (ARS) Organizational Champion Award presented by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE). What some of you may not know, is that back in 2005, when the Center for Community Support and Research was known as the Self-Help Network, we were helping shape and develop the fledgling initiative. So in honor of our partners over at Visioneering Wichita, and their well-deserved award, we present “5 Questions about Visioneering Wichita”
Q1: What exactly is Visioneering Wichita?
VW is a 20 year strategic plan that started in 2004 designed to improve the quality of life, foster economic development, and promote civic leadership in the city of Wichita. This plan was based on input from over 16,000 Wichita residents.
Q2: What are the goals of Visioneering Wichita?
- To promote job growth
- Stop the decline of Wichita per capita income
- Provide for a skilled workforce
- Increase the number of post-secondary students by 3% per year
- Develop the downtown area to promote economic development and to expand the arts/culture of Wichita
- Promote racial diversity, opportunity and harmony
- And more.
Q3: How was CCSR involved in Visioneering Wichita?
CCSR provided a series of leadership development classes for the Visions Partners – promoting civic engagement and community collaboration. As a result of these classes, participants were able to:
- Better understand the elements of a successful community collaboration
- Identify strengths and challenges in collaboration
- Learn how to use their newfound leadership skills within their local organizations, networks and coalitions
- Develop and action plan for organizing and bringing together groups to assess collaborative strengths and challenges.
- Grow in ability and willingness to participate in future strategic alliances and other community leadership roles.
The plan is solid, but we need the support of the Wichita citizens, businesses and government. If we all work together and focus our efforts, we can drastically improve our quality of life and meet the VW benchmarks.
Q5: How do I find out more about Visioneering Wichita?
Good place to start – The Plan. Available to download as a pdf from Visioneering Wichita.
Or just contact info@visioneeringwichita.org.
Congrats again to Visioneering Wichita in receiving this national award!
Photo Courtesy of AnyJazz65
