(Photo courtesy of Envision Bend)
- 3,500 participants provided feedback to the Vision Action Plan over 17 months
- 57 residents participated in Vision Action Teams in Spring 2023
- There are 128 recommended partner organizations in the Vision Action Plan
Envision Bend recently released the five-year Vision Action Plan, a series of strategic actions designed to guide the greater Bend area into a sustainable and prosperous future. The 44-page Vision Action Plan can be read and downloaded from the Envision Bend website at envisionbend.org.
“This community plan is truly more than just a document, a vision, or an action plan,” said Leigh Capozzi, Envision Bend Board of Directors and VP of Marketing and Communications, Protect Our Winters. “It is a living testament and community created roadmap that represents what Bendites and Central Oregonians value, see as strengths, opportunities, have identified as challenges we face today and anticipate in the years ahead.”
The Vision Action Plan is for the years 2024-28 and includes a vision statement and a list of core values from community input. The Plan is built around four focus areas: Guiding our Growth; Ensuring a Safe, Healthy Environment; Building an Economy for Everyone; and Cultivating an Inclusive Community. Each focus area features a “game changer” project designed to have a transformative impact on the entire community, a “quick win” project that is more achievable in the next year or two, and five additional strategies.
Among the challenges and issues addressed by the 28 strategic actions: Workforce housing, homelessness, child care, health and wellness, commercial redevelopment, job training, food security, public transit, resiliency, resources conservation, and historic preservation.
The Plan’s release culminates a 17-month community outreach, visioning and planning process. More than 3,500 participants provided input in 2022 to Envision Bend on ways to move the community forward. Four action teams made up of residents with expertise in certain fields and community members-at-large analyzed that input in spring 2023 to develop strategies that tackle community challenges. It was vital that individuals typically not able to participate in planning efforts — such as renters, working parents, individuals living with disability, and other underrepresented groups — were at the table. Envision Bend offered a ‘Needs Stipend’ to those who requested financial support for time away from work, childcare, transportation, or other participation barriers.
Envision Bend is working with public and private organizations identified in the plan to support implementation of the strategies and help bring them to fruition. Envision Bend’s role will pivot to being the stewards of the plan by working alongside the recommended partners to spread awareness, celebrate success, convene organizations, share progress reports, and regularly update the Vision Action Plan.
Envision Bend is a nonpartisan, community nonprofit organization. Its mission is to bring diverse stakeholders together to educate, engage and empower all members of the Bend community to have a voice in our community’s future. In 2021, as the successor organization to Bend 2030, it reorganized and rebranded itself as Envision Bend.
