Owen2020

In the spring of 2005, Owen County launched a process designed to define a
vision for the future. The process brought together the dreams and hopes of
over 2,200 persons who live in the county – from the youth in the middle and
high school for whom this future is being imagined – to adults of all ages.
Persons living throughout the county, in all voting precincts and small
communities participated, as did those involved in the many civic and
religious organization in Owen County.

We often hear the complaint that no one cares about our communities anymore
and no one wants to participate in making our communities a better place to
live and work. But Owen County proves this wrong. A group of citizens --
members of Owen County Leadership, three participants from the East Kentucky
Entrepreneurial Coaching Institute, the local newspaper, as well as several
organizations developed a process to engage the entire community in a
discussion about the future of Owen County.

Participants were asked to answer four questions:

HERITAGE What aspects of life in Owen County do you value and feel should
be protected or preserved?

CHANGE What is one thing we could do right now to make Owen County a
better place to live and work?

VISION Imagine Owen County as you would like it to be in 20 years.
How is that picture different from what it is today?

ACTION What do we need to start doing now to achieve our vision?

Through these many and diverse methods, nearly everyone in Owen County –
regardless of age or where they lived and worked – had an opportunity to
participate in the discussion about the future. When you think about it, if
there are 10 to 20 people at a public meeting, this is considered a good
level of public involvement, and really hot issues may bring out 100 people
or so. But often the public’s engagement in these discussions is around what
they don’t want. Here, we have over 2,200 residents talking about how to
make Owen County a better place to live and work – a community they would
want to stay in and one that would provide opportunities for them to come
home and raise their families.

Owen County 2020 offers residents and community leaders the information
required to articulate a vision for the future and to identify the initial
steps needed to begin moving forward. Owen County 2020 also reveals some
deep divisions within the community that need to be addressed now in order
to clarify the vision and insure that everyone is moving toward the same
goals. Finally, Owen County 2020 is the foundation on which public/private
partnerships can be built as well as collaborative efforts by civic
organizations.

The answers found on all surveys submitted follow, divided by question.