Raytown: Reaching for Tomorrow
The National Civic League recently completed the process of facilitating
a community based vision and strategic plan for Raytown, Missouri for the
next 20 years.
 Quotes
from Raytown Participants
- "This process got many people involved and brought out the ideas
of the people in the community."
- "I feel this is one experience I will always remember. We have worked
hard for the past ten months and our goals still have to be reached - and
we are well on our way!"
- "It was a rewarding experience. I am confident we will reach our
goals. Working together we will turn our dreams into reality."
- "It was a great process to work towards building consensus in the
community. All people were treated with dignity and respect and encouraged
to present their ideas."
- "The community came together!"
- "I am proud to be a part of Raytown's future."
- "It was a tremendous amount of work by a lot of dedicated people."
Project Beginnings
An Initiating Committee for the project began meeting in Janaury to prepare
for the April 6th Kick Off of the "Raytown Reaching for Tomorrow"
Project. The IC consisted of a diverse representation of Raytown citizens,
including people representing local business, religious organizations, non-profits,
residents, local media, local government and other diverse interests and perspectives.
They discussed and made decisions on the process design, meeting dates and
meeting site, the project name, other projects/plans that should be integrated,
and selected chairpersons. They also conducted a stakeholder analysis to ensure
diverse respresentation of Raytown citizens in the stakeholder planning, developed
recruitement and outreach strategies, and identified research parameters for
data and information that was presented to the stakeholders at the kick-off.
Stakeholder Planning Process
On April 6th, NCL staff and Raytown community members held a kick-off meeting
for the project. The agenda was to create an understanding of the project
and the approach of the National Civic League, clarify roles, communicate
the project timeline, and asses the Raytown civic infrastructure. Over 100
stakeholders attended the meeting, helping to identify the pressing issues
to Raytown. During small group discussions, community members discussed Raytown's
capacity across the 12 different components of civic infrastructure, such
as building leadership, sharing information, bridging diversity, role of citizens,
and role of local government. After report outs from all of the groups, the
stakeholders then ranked how Raytown is doing in each of the 12 components.
View pictures from the April 6th kick-off
meeting
On April 20th, more than 90 stakeholders met in Raytown, facilitated by NCL
staff. At the outset of the meeting, there was a presentation of a Data Profile
on the community of Raytown with some comparisons to surrounding communities
in the region. The stakeholders in attendance then discussed the data that
was presented and identified the key underlying factors, forces and trends
impacting Raytown as well as the outside forces that need to be taken into
consideration when planning initiatives for Raytown. Stakeholders then discussed
and developed vision themes for Raytown and shared it in the large group.
A writing committee was formed and will draft a vision statement that will
be discussed in the May 30th meeting.
View pictures from the April 20th meeting
 On
May 30th, Raytown stakeholders met to achieve consensus on a vision statement
and the Key Performance Areas (KPAs) of the Raytown Reaching for Tomorrow
Commuity Strategic Plan. This meeting was structured with a presentation of
a draft vision statement and small group discussion to review the assessment
work accomplished to date. Important goals of this meeting included reaching
consensus on the Key Performance Areas: Infrastructure, Neighborhoods, Economic
Development and Image.
On June 20th a group of approximately 80 people met with a focus on the initial
planning work of the KPA work groups. This included reports from the KPA groups
on several details concerning the overall direction of the KPA work groups,
organization and scheduling of the work groups, and data/information needs.
Time was then spent in the work groups to develop the KPA vision, the identification
and analysis of factors supporting and inhibiting the attainment of this vision,
and problem identification.
On June 21st, the National Civic League held a facilitator's training for
the Raytown KPA coordinators, in an attempt to give these coordinators additional
skills in the realm of meeting facilitation to help move the visioning and
strategic planning process ahead and build capacity in the community.
On July 11, each of the KPA Teams presented their mini-vision and the key
challenges and issues identified as well as the assets identified in the community.
The stakeholder group provided feedback to the KPA Teams and came to a consensus
on the direction of the KPA's planning efforts. The facilitator reviewed the
next steps and the KPA Teams met briefly to touch base.
On August 1, each of the KPA Teams presented their objectives and the rationale
for the objectives. The stakeholder group provided feedback and came to a
consensus on moving forward with the KPA's planning efforts. The facilitator
reviewed the next steps and the KPA Teams met briefly to touch base.
 The
August 22 meeting was particularly important to building consensus around
the action plans of the KPAs. Each KPA group presented their mini-vision,
objectives, rationales for why they chose to focus on the objectives, and
the action steps of the objectives. The larger stakeholder group provided
constructive feedback and presented any concerns they might have regarding
the action plans to date.
View pictures from the August 22 meeting
The last stakeholder meeting took place on September 12th. At this meeting,
each of the KPAs presented their action plans to get consensus from the stakeholder
group. The funding research committee presented an overview of their findings.
The chairs of Raytown Reaching for Tomorrow also presented a recommendation
for how to structure the implementation entity that will oversee and monitor
the plan.
The city of Raytown, Missouri is moving ahead! NCL Community Services had
the opportunity to work with a dedicated and energized group of over 200 stakeholders
on a community visioning and planning process - Raytown Reaching for Tomorrow
- that spanned from April through September of 2002. The stakeholders focused
on four key performance areas: Neighborhoods, Image, Infrastructure and City
Operations, and Economic Development. This community based strategic plan
brought together citizens, businesses, local government, and community organizations
to focus on key action steps to move Raytown forward into the future. At the
final meeting, a few of the stakeholders commented, "This process got
many people involved and brought out the ideas of the people in the community."
"It was a rewarding experience. I am confident we will reach our goals."
And, "I am proud to be a part of Raytown's future." On October 24th,
2002 a celebration was held to release the plan and launch the implementation
phase of Raytown Reaching for Tomorrow.
For more information, please contact Amy Swiatek, NCL facilitator at (303)
571-4343 or amys@ncl.org.
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