09/26/2005 in Announcements

Make Your Voice Heard:

Participate in a Voices & Choices Citizen Interview

The Fund for Our Economic Future has launched an initiative to involve tens of thousands of Northeast Ohio residents in creating a regional economic competitiveness agenda. The initiative — Voices & Choices — has begun with the first in a series of public engagement programs: one-on-one citizen interviews.  

This fall, citizens from diverse backgrounds throughout the region will participate in a cascading interview process that will eventually reach thousands throughout the 15 counties of Northeast Ohio. The interview process, in which citizens talk about the region with other citizens, is designed to identify the region’s strengths upon which an action agenda may be built and to foster a more positive public attitude about the future of Northeast Ohio.

The citizen interviews are the first in a series of Voices & Choices programs to be held over the next year throughout Northeast Ohio that together will constitute one of the largest public deliberations ever convened. It will create a sustained public dialogue to strengthen the region’s identity and create clear priorities for action. Each phase of the process will take on a different set of issues. Building upon the results of the one-on-one interviews, Voices & Choices will convene over one thousand people from throughout the region for a town hall meeting in Akron on November 12 to continue setting a regional agenda.

“The only way weíre going to improve the economic competitiveness of Northeast Ohio is for citizens to take action on the regional level,” said David Abbott, co-chair of Voices & Choices and executive director of the George Gund Foundation. “Voices & Choices will give the public a voice in setting a course for our future that will produce more jobs and create better economic opportunities for Northeast Ohio families and businesses.”

Voices & Choices is a project of the Fund for Our Economic Future, an unprecedented multi-year collaboration of 71 philanthropic organizations from across Northeast Ohio dedicated to transforming the economy of Northeast Ohio.

Those who would like to volunteer to conduct a citizen interview or participate in Voices & Choices, click here.