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Our Future By Design -
A Greater Winter Haven Community

By Willian Bygrave
Photos by Kathy Waters

Work begins on shared plan for Haven's future

WINTER HAVEN - Making the most of what's already in Winter Haven and building on its unique qualities to create an ideal community in the next 10 to 20 years is a big order to fill. But nearly 125 people turned out for the first stakeholders meeting of "Our Future By Design - A Greater Winter Haven Community" and began work ing toward creating such a vision during an all-day session Saturday at First Presbyterian Church. Attendees included many well-known names in the local government, civic and business community, as they began a six-month process to agree on a plan for the city.

The aesthetics of the city, enhancing downtown and reviving the Winter Haven mall, making the most of the city's abundance of lakes and improving the area's roads, all got early attention, as did the need to focus on the arts and improved neighborhoods.

A greater emphasis on getting youth involved in the community, as well as making government and civic functions a less alien concept for the younger groups quickly made the list of issues to address. Even economic development -- bringing in more high wage, high-skills jobs -- was listed as one important way to keep young people in the community.

Improving relationships between diverse groups and focusing on needs of the elderly and caregivers were deemed important issues to be addressed as the group moves forward.

The group's discussions analyzed strong points, weak points and what the barriers are to improving the community. Communications and educating residents about issues will be important, some said.

Marlene Duffy Young, a current county commissioner and former Winter Haven mayor, suggested the city distribute to residents a guide book to government, akin to "City Government for Dummies."

Another point that was brought up in the afternoon session was asking how non-profit organizations can collaborate on projects when resources to do so are at stake. For instance, the same dollars that are offered to help those causes come from the some large companies. This makes it very challenging for small business to volunteer and donate as much as they would like.
Still, other ideas expressed took vision to the point of finding out from computer companies ways to get a computer into every home to allow an even more accessible way to find information about the city, as well as enhance educational opportunities.

Seretha Tinsley, co-chair of the visioning effort, described the first session as one of "enthusiasm, where everybody is putting pen to paper and communicating with one another to thrash out ideas." Co-chair Dan Costello said the group expects to have a plan on how to proceed drawn up by late October or early November. This will be accomplished through a series of meetings, with the next one occurring May 18. That meeting, as with all subsequent session, will be held on Tuesday, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian.

Other dates are: June 15, July 27, Aug. 24, Sept. 14, Oct. 5 and Oct. 26. The process will culminate in a community celebration slated for January.

In the meantime, Costello noted that the stakeholder group needs to "reach out to other groups to make sure the plan and vision is truly representative of the whole community." And "Our Future For Design" is getting help from the Denver-based National Civic League.

Speaking on his sessions thus far - particularly Saturday - with the Winter Haven group, NCL facilitator Derek Okubo says he has a lot of confidence in this community. "I have experienced a lot of dedication and real commitment here," he said. "Folks say we can do something and we can determine our future." In assessing the Winter Haven group further, Okubo added, "there is a lot of energy heading that way, but that is not what I always see in other communities. Some folks have a mindset that they don't believe. But here, there's a sense of belief. Overall, the people here are really motivated to do something. The level of determination is the key to success. I don't have to focus on trying to sense that determination."

Just from observing the interaction between group members on breaks and during small group discussions, Okubo said he has readily picked up on the fact the entire group is involved in a lot of good conversation.

Walter Hall, executive director of the Citrus Center Boys and Girls Club calls "Our Future By Design" a great idea, but only if "you get a vision and actually put it to work. If we want to. We can do anything that we put our minds to."

Another stakeholder, Polk Community College President Larry Durrence, said he is benefiting from the session in two ways. "On a personal basis, it's exciting to see this many people representing so many groups. Obviously they have come very involved about the future of the community and they want to see it better." Speaking as the college president, Durrence said, "It's encouraging to see there are great concerns about youth and the future opportunities for them that are there to create."

Referring to the small group discussion exercises that took place in the morning session, he noted that "about half of the tables mentioned something about the city's youth. I think we can move together to develop a strategy to see a lot of exciting things happen in 10 to 20 years." As a further aside to the group's attitude on Saturday, Durrence added, "to have this many people turn out on a Saturday is a sign of commitment. They are giving up golfing, boating and fishing to do this."

The aspect Paul Cate likes about visioning is "it's a participatory, active program, rather than a reactive one." For City Manager R. Carl Cheatham, visioning is "a very enlightening exercise. It brings people with many agendas together in hopes they can focus on common goals on visions for the future."

Participants in the visioning retreat discussed a
variety of Winter Haven issues, including enhancing
the city's downtown area.

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