What is Agenda 360?
You know this is a great place to live. That's why you're here.
Great neighborhoods, strong business community, stunning natural beauty, affordable housing and great quality of life.
You also know this place has its challenges. Slow job growth, weak public transportation, rising numbers of poor and uninsured, too many children who enter school unprepared to learn.
What can be done to create economic opportunity for everyone here? To build a talented workforce so that business owners can find the workers they need to grow; to educate workers so they can land the jobs of the future; to help us compete with other major metro areas in the country and around the globe; to improve our quality of life?
In the fall of 2006, about 50 local civic leaders made a trip to Boston to look at how they had improved on those issues in their region. What they found startling in Boston was that the people they talked to had the same basic list of priorities for the city. They were on the same page, so to speak.
That was not true in Southwest Ohio.
From the lessons of that trip was born the idea for the plan you hold in your hands, Agenda 360. It was launched in early 2007 with a group of leaders from more than 30 organizations from labor unions to business groups, from social service agencies and their constituents, to lawyers, public officials and civic leaders.
What they began to create was a framework for tackling the tough issues facing the four counties of Southwest Ohio.
One great advantage for our region in building this framework was the existing United Way State of the Community Report. The report collects data on key areas such as poverty levels, educational attainment and health status. It will help us track our successes.
Because of this important connection, Agenda 360 has been closely tied to the State of the Community Report from the beginning.
As the group started its work, it chose the name Agenda 360 very deliberately. The word "agenda" reflects the to-do list of important actions our region should take. The "360" describes the comprehensive nature of the plan. It addresses a wide range of social and economic issues. It also reflects the geographic coordination south into Northern Kentucky, west into Southeast Indiana and north to Dayton.
While the Agenda 360 plan was designed to look at the issues facing Southwest Ohio, it recognizes that the entire 15-county metropolitan area shares common traits and challenges. In fact, many of the projects described here reach into the broader area.
Agenda 360 has three overarching goals:
- To keep talented workers in the region and attract new ones.
- To grow new jobs and retain existing jobs.
- To provide economic opportunity a chance for a good quality of life for everyone who calls the region home.
HOW WE DID IT
The Agenda 360 organizers began with the framework of Northern Kentucky's Vision 2015 growth plan as a way to closely align the two plans once Agenda 360 was complete. From there, organizers reached out to engage a diverse range of people in Southwest Ohio.
Today, more than 7,000 people have contributed their voices to the planning process.
What we found is that there is broad community support for the idea of transforming the region into a leading metropolitan area for talent, jobs and economic opportunity. In fact, 93 percent of respondents to the Agenda 360 Community Survey respondents strongly endorsed this "rallying cry."
This endorsement was consistent across the region among all groups by age, race, ethnicity, gender, income and educational levels; among small, medium and large businesses; and in the nonprofit and government sectors.
The survey also showed that our values for how to make decisions are shared across the region. The single most important concern to our community affirmed by 95 percent of those residents is that we track progress and be accountable for the results. In addition, 88 percent of respondents said they wanted us to choose a few key areas we agree will truly transform the region. Another 88 percent also said it was critical that we welcome participation by all, making sure those with different views and backgrounds are heard.
WHAT WE DID
What has resulted from this process is far from your typical regional vision plan. It's not encased in a plastic binder ready to sit on a shelf collecting dust. It contains no dense jargon aimed at outsmarting you.
Instead, there is plain language about you and the place you love, your home, and how it can be even better. It is designed to be do-able, definable and accountable. The six imperatives identified for transforming our community are:
- Quality Place: We must create strong, attractive and functional places in which to live, work, journey and play.
- Business Growth: We must use our strengths as a region to retain, attract and create businesses and jobs.
- Qualified Workforce: We must provide our young people and our workers with the skills necessary to get good jobs now and in the future.
- Transportation: We must expand our options for moving people and freight across the region.
- Inclusion: We must work to create a welcoming community in which all people are embraced and their differences are the foundation for the community's successes.
- Government collaboration: We must help the region's many cities, counties and townships work together toward our common goals.
The following pages explain in greater detail what each imperative means, where we are now on the issue as a region, where we want to be by the year 2020, and what plans, programs and directions can be used to get us there.
Identifying those areas is a way for all of us to understand what our focus should be as we move forward.
We hope you will find the following information relevant and useful. But it's just a start. It gives us a direction, the 'to-do' list. Now we need action. And we share responsibility for its success.
So stay informed. Stay connected through the Agenda 360 Web site (cincinnati360.com). Stay active by attending meetings to give your input on the plans and programs described here. Most of all, stay engaged. Our region needs you.