Our Six Foundational Areas of Focus
When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.
~ Roy E. Disney
A “foundation” is the underlying basis or support for everything that comes after. Just as a builder would not begin a structure without a solid, secure foundation in place, an organization such as Polk Vision cannot begin work without a statement of those values at the core of our work, the goals we are pursuing. For Polk Vision, those are our Foundational Areas of Focus: Education, Economic Development, Infrastructure, Government, Quality of Life, and Civic Engagement. Focusing on these areas, we aim to bring about change in our county communities by aligning resources to address underlying causes.
Our six foundation statements originate from a total of 619 unique citizen concerns collected in a series of community meetings in 2014. These six foundations underpin our path toward making Polk County a community that realizes its aspirations and full potential. Goals will be met and replaced with new ones, but these foundations will continue to build our future.
Although we will look at each of these in-depth in future blog posts, it’s important to understand the basis of each of our six foundational areas.
Education: Polk Vision partners with educational entities, spanning preschool to post-secondary, to ensure that Polk County has a world-class, fully integrated education system that supports the needs of our vibrant, progressive community. We are committed to improving student attendance, boosting the literacy proficiency of our students, and creating a talent pipeline through collaborative efforts.
Economic Development: Polk Vision works with businesses in various industries as well as with multiple development councils and chambers of commerce in order to maintain an environment that attracts quality business with higher-paying jobs, improve productivity, and retain educated young people.
Infrastructure: Polk Vision consults experts in city planning, land use, utility services, and natural resource allocation to ensure growth management and infrastructure that protects the environment, enhances the quality of life, supports education and economic development and is economically sustainable.
Government: Polk Vision collaborates with city and county leaderships to create a comprehensive system of government that is effective, efficient, diverse, and responsive to the basic needs of its citizens.
Quality of Life: Polk Vision embraces healthcare providers, arts and culture programs, and social service systems to cultivate a quality of life that encourages diverse backgrounds to live in harmony while developing physically, spiritually, mentally, and culturally within a healthy and safe environment.
Civic Engagement: Polk Vision encourages all private sector organizations, both for profit and nonprofit, to unite and promote private sector leadership that drives the partnership with government and citizens to ensure that Polk County is a premier place to live, learn, work, and play.
Every decision we make as an organization, every project we promote, and every benchmark we achieve is in pursuit of one or more of these foundational values, supporting one unified goal: to grow Polk County into the best community it can be.
That community is one that draws strength from each and every person in it, thriving on the varied and diverse experiences that empower us as a whole.