(The Old Mill District recently displayed these banners on a light pole as a way to call attention to the community visioning project |Photo courtesy of Envision Bend)
Haven’t completed the Vision Project survey? Join the 1,400 Bend area residents who have!
More than 1,400 Bend area residents have completed the Bend Vision Project survey since it was launched in mid-July. That’s an incredible number in such a short period of time. But we want to hear from more folks to make sure we have an in-depth understanding of the community’s challenges and potential solutions.
If you haven’t completed this online survey yet, please do so at envisionbend.org. It will take about ten minutes to complete. We also encourage you to share the link with your friends and family members and your own organization or networks. The survey is available in both English and Spanish on the website.
Information collected from the survey — including ideas to improve people’s quality of life — will be utilized by Envision Bend Action Teams in developing the community’s new five-year Vision and Action Plan. Once the Vision and Action Plan is completed in 2023, partnering organizations — a mix of governments, businesses, nonprofits, social service agencies and community groups — will help implement the Plan.
People who complete the survey also can enter themselves into prize drawings held every two weeks by Envision Bend. Prizes include concert tickets, restaurant gift cards and outdoor excursions. A final drawing this fall will award the grand prize winners with large cash donations to make to their favorite local nonprofits.
Bend: A Community Undergoing Big Change
It probably won’t come as a surprise to many, but Bend is one of the country’s fastest growing small cities, having grown by about 27,000 people between 2010 and 2020. Bend also is forecast to grow by another 56,000 people over the next 25 years, or more than 50 percent of its current population.
That growth trend is among several trends impacting the community that the Bend Vision Project has identified in its research. Other trends identified include urbanization, a changing climate, public health challenges, rising income inequality and changing values and civic norms.
Similar to information collected from residents via the survey and workshops, this research will be utilized by Envision Bend Action Teams when they develop the community’s new five-year Vision and Action Plan.
For a closer look at the trends and other information gathered to date, please click here for the Envision Bend’s newly updated Project Snapshot Report.
‘Listen & Envision’ Workshop being held September 14
Since mid-July, the Bend Vision Project has held four “Listen and Envision” virtual workshops to hear from residents about what they value most about living here, how they see Bend changing and what ideas they have that would have a positive impact on Bend’s future. The workshops are another way that Envision Bend is engaging with people during this outreach phase of the Bend Vision Project.
The next Listen and Envision session is coming up from 7-8:30pm on September 14 via Zoom. If you interested in participating, please pre-register by clicking here.
Also, launching soon will be some 20 focus-group sessions with seniors, business owners, Latino community members, first responders, behavioral health providers, faith leaders, teachers, parents and many others.
