Regional Initiatives
The Fund supports a few regional initiatives that are addressing the four priority areas of Advance Northeast Ohio.
Education Works
Background:
Education Works is a regional collaboration committed to developing a community that prizes life-long learning, even for those who have already left the “education” system, and emphasizing personalized learning for all learners, such that the region may meet the diverse needs of its community more effectively. Grounded in 21st century learning principles that emphasize critical thinking, problem solving, communication, global awareness and other “soft” but imperative skills, the group began to envision a region where every individual appreciates the relevance of learning in his or her own life, and where each can aspire to be well-educated person and, with conviction, say, “That can be me.”
Recent News:
- The Education Works Leadership Council elected to pilot a few new initiatives, while committing themselves to “actively partner with the regional community to identify, promote and foster the knowledge and capabilities necessary for all people to become thriving members of a global society.”
- 12 AVI Foodsystems’ workers who work at AVI’s Hiram College food service operation volunteered to participate in the “Great Books at Work” program.
- Educators from Kent State University are engaging teams of teachers and administrators from six regional high schools to to create specific, personalized education for each student and to encourage teachers to teach educators what works best in the classroom.
Regional Prosperity Initiative
Background:
The Northeast Ohio Mayors & City Managers Association (NOMCMA) is leading the Regional Prosperity Initiative to develop a framework to implement regional infrastructure planning that will accelerate economic growth and ensure that the benefits of that growth would be shared among participating communities, thereby reducing inefficient intra-regional competition and limit no-growth sprawl. More information about this effort is available at www.neo-rpi.org.
Recent News:
- The Regional Prosperity Initiative issued in September 2009 two reports updating its progress in developing consensus on a tax base sharing program and planning for land use planning.
- The RPI proposed pooling 40% of the growth in the commercial and industrial tax base and pooling 20% of the growth in the income tax base.
EfficientGovNow
EfficientGovNow
Background:
In March 2009 the Fund launched EfficientGovNow, a competitive grant program designed to encourage the region’s local governments to collaborate to deliver services and to increase public support for government collaboration. The collaborations that receive the grants are determined by a vote of the public. The program is, in part, an extension of research co-sponsored by the Fund in 2008 that highlighted the duplicative nature of local government in Northeast Ohio and the high cost of delivering those services. In the first round of EfficientGovNow, more than 13,000 residents voted for the three best government collaborations. The three winning projects involved 21 governmental entities and their collaborations will provide a combined estimated savings of $1.8 million.
Recent News:
The second round of EfficientGovNow took place in 2010, culminating in an awards annoucement in June. A consolidated land bank, merged safety dispatch and a novel effort to stimulate greater use of solar electricity earned the top spots from nearly 17,500 Northeast Ohioans who voted in the EfficientGovNow competition. Plus, the Fund chose to award a grant to a fourth collaboration among smaller communities in Ashtabula, Columbiana, Summit, Carroll and Lorain counties, which came in sixth place in the competition. The Fund had said it would consider awarding a fourth grant if a collaboration from a smaller community demonstrated strong support for its project.