Leadership Everyone’s VOICE initiative, launched in 2012 in partnership with the City of Evansville Mayor’s Office, was a series of community visioning sessions that enabled participants to converse about their hopes and dreams for our community.

• Over 3,000 people took part in the 32 initial visioning sessions across the community that enabled a diverse population to be heard.
• VOICE data gathered from a diverse population. LE utilized this for grantmaking, sustainable projects, and comprehensive plans: Regional Cities, The Promise Zone Initiative, and Evansville’s Downtown Master Plan.
• VOICE inspired, servant-leader-led projects like: ParksFest, The Franklin Street Bazaar, Evansville’s Cultural Districts, and the Haynie’s Corner Arts District revitalization.
• Visit EvansvilleVoice.com for all data from this project

As Leadership Everyone has continued to have conversations throughout the region and hearing of similar challenges and potential, now is the right time to launch our next phase—Regional VOICE.  

Program Description 

• Regional VOICE will include Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, and Henderson County in creating a shared vision, leveraging pooled resources to grow assets, employment, and development.
• It will develop relationships for the region to come together and strategize for a preferred future.
• It will lead diverse participants in creating a vision for our region
• Communities use the data to leverage outside funding to achieve regional goals and grow resources, infrastructure, employment, health, and pride.

Program Objectives 

• Establish relationships with individuals and organizations, including libraries, civic groups, schools, faith communities, businesses, social service agencies, etc.
• Ask county residents to assist in public facilitations and give their personal input
• Provide leadership/facilitation training: LE’s Leadership Program, Customized Training, and VOICE Sessions
• Collect and share data to be used in local and regional planning efforts.
• Create and maintain a data repository that can be accessed for local and regional planning.

  Program Targets 

• LE will recruit and train a minimum of 25 facilitation team members per county.
• LE will hold 5-20+ public visioning sessions in each county.
• Project deliverables will Collect Demographic Data and Merge it with Qualitative Data; Data Merge Policy and Tools; Algorithms and Models to Analyze the Data; A working Set of Reports and Dashboards utilizing all of the new VOICE Data; A working Repository available to all authorized stakeholders housed in a designated location.

  Program Outcomes

• Visioning Sessions will be reported on the Regional VOICE website.
• Participants will be notified of updates via email and the project app.
• The collected data will be compiled and analyzed to determine trends.
• Action meetings will be held in each county to develop project committees.
• A Regional Summit will convene those interested. LE will bring together diverse stakeholders in a series of meetings to engage communities working together toward a shared vision.

Summary 

The Regional VOICE initiative will engage, empower, and include all citizens desiring to participate in conversations sharing their hopes and dreams for their community and the five-county region. Utilizing LE’s facilitation methodology, we will ensure all opinions are shared, documented, and made available to the public. Those who experience Regional VOICE will foster the concepts of servant leadership, community trusteeship, and a preferred future. Their collective visions will establish community priorities to feed into local and regional planning, developing initiatives for immediate and long-term implementation. For more information on Regional VOICE or to sign up to volunteer, visit www.VoiceCommunity.org.