Make Connections.
Mission
Create a community engagement process that identifies ‘community drivers’ or priority areas for civic vitality, resident engagement, and leadership capacity for the greater Sauk Centre Area. The process should be or have:
- Inclusive (age, culture, newcomers, longtime residents, gender, perspective)
- Early Wins and Long-Term Work
- Establish a process and group to help shepherd work and ideas moving forward (feedback loop)
- Seed money to launch or start projects (Blandin grant and SCACF) with a grant process moving forward
How?
We will accomplish our mission through the following steps, some of which are completed:
- The Design Team was formed and trained to create the survey and goals
- The survey was created (resident and non-resident versions, multiple languages) on paper and online
- Six-week survey process (parade, presentations, in-person surveying at events, yard signs, etc)
- Analysis of survey responses for key themes, things to refer to others (Chamber, City, etc)
- Design Team is now working in Task Teams around the following priority areas identified in the survey:
- Entrepreneurship: business ownership, culinary/dining, and quality of life amenities (Housing)
- Messaging (local) and Marketing (external): What is happening, why choose Sauk Centre, Hwy 71 redesign and traffic
- Welcoming Initiative: International Festival, Welcoming Week, Navigators, Newcomer Club
- Advocacy (Cockle Burr Club): Access to services, and processes, and ask for what we need-not really ‘seen’ by county or St. Cloud-based non-profits who can meet resident needs
- Community Center: Explore partnerships necessary to consider a large-scale capital project