Community Visioning

Planned & Implemented by Citizens

Since Envision is about the future of Golden Valley, it was planned and implemented by citizens.

Through community groups and the City newsletter, organizers recruited volunteers with ideas and time to plan the Envision process. Mayor Linda Loomis and Golden Valley Rotary representative Don Anderson funneled the talents of more than 45 respondents into a 19-person steering committee and eight subcommittees. Within months, more than 60 citizens were involved in planning Envision events. These energetic, creative, and dedicated volunteers were the driving force behind Envision Golden Valley.

Community visioning is a way for all community members to set objectives and share their ideas and views about the future of the place where they live, work, and play. Envision Golden Valley involved three phases:

• Gathering ideas in six categories
• Grouping, connecting, and prioritizing those ideas
• Presenting a summary of grouped ideas to the community

Gathering Ideas

Using an inspirational scenario, the idea gathering phase incorporated three types of Envision events available to participants-the small-group Envision-In-A-Box meetings, the Internet-based Envision Online, and the large-scale Envision Summit.

• Envision Online was an Internet-based opportunity for people to participate in Envision without physically attending meetings. Comprised of an idea gathering phase and an idea grouping, connecting, and prioritizing phase, Envision Online was available to participants via the City website. Results were integrated into the Envision Summit. A separate online survey was also developed for youth ages 12 to 18.
• Envision-In-A-Box featured small group meetings, at a location chosen by the group, guided by a facilitator. Interested parties could download planning materials, such as a host checklist and invitations, from the City's Envision website. They could then contact City Hall to book a facilitator and reserve a box containing all necessary meeting materials, including sign-in sheets and name tags, fact sheets, instructions, tablets, markers, and feedback/comment cards. Results were integrated into the Envision Summit. Participants included neighborhood groups, schools, organizations, businesses, youth, and City employees and commissioners: Angelo Drive Neighborhood Group; Breck School; City of Golden Valley Employees (three meetings); Facilitators Training; City of Golden Valley Boards and Commissions Members; Golden Valley League of Women Voters; Golden Valley Historical Society; Golden Valley Mom's Club; Golden Valley Rotary Club; Golden Valley Seniors; Golden Valley Women's Club; Hidden Lakes Neighborhood Association; High School and College Youth Group; Idaho Avenue Neighborhood Group; Julianne Terrace Neighborhood Group; Kelly Avenue Neighborhood Group; Perpich Center for Arts Education; Ranstad Business Group (including other Town Square Businesses); Scott Avenue Neighborhood Watch Group; Thrivent Financial for Lutherans; TwinWest Golden Valley Business Council
• The Envision Summit, held February 23, 2004, at the Golden Valley Country Club, was a large-scale gathering where small groups of participants, guided by facilitators, shared and discussed their ideas for the future of the community and then grouped and prioritized them into broad vision statements. The vision statements were consolidated into a Vision Guide to be used by elected officials, City staff, and community groups to make decisions about the future of the community.

Grouping Ideas

When the idea-gathering phase was completed, teams of citizen volunteers worked to consider all ideas submitted and categorize them as visionary in nature or current problems. After grouping similar ideas to help identify themes, the teams created vision statements for each category, with the goal of presenting a refined vision to the community that first voiced the ideas.

Reporting Ideas

Volunteers worked with the City to create the Vision Guide, which reflects thousands of ideas, opinions, and statements from citizens who engaged in Envision Golden Valley. It unifies all this input into a shared community vision expressed as: "Creatively Connecting People and Places" and "Inspiring Care for Community."