Activists: Poll will help region

The groups wants to take the results to local leaders.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Residents across northeastern Ohio are being asked to participate in an online survey that will help map the future of economic development for the region.
Voices & amp; Choices, a project set up by a group of philanthropic organizations across a 16-county region, used public meetings and leadership conferences to come up with a list of six specific challenges to the region's economic future.
Now, a series of options has been developed, again in concert with citizens and regional leaders, to deal with those challenges, and Voices & amp; Choices wants to know where the public stands on those options.
"We are at a critical, critical point in this process," said Shara Davis, project director, noting that the target is to create and prioritize solutions to the six challenges by October.
To help reach those conclusions, residents are being asked to take part in an online survey called Choicebooks at www.voiceschoices.org/choicebook.
There, they will find a series of options for the challenges and get an opportunity to select which they feel will best address each challenge.
For any resident who doesn't have access to a computer, hard copies of the survey are available by calling Voices & amp; Choices at (800) 929-2319.
The Web site is open now, and results will be compiled in time for a Sept. 16 town meeting to be held in Akron as part of the process to prioritize the solutions picked by the public.
Concerns to be addressed
Davis said the six challenges are: public school funding and accountability; creating a 21st-century work force; racial isolation and income inequality; uncompetitive business climate; sprawl and regional connectivity; and government fragmentation.
Some suggested options found on the survey include creating a regional fund to help entrepreneurs, advocating for a state universal health care program, changing the state formula for funding public schools and consolidating or reorganizing local governments.
"These are tough choices we face as a region," Davis said, adding that the identification of the six challenges as well as the suggested options to deal with them came from the 20,000 people who have participated in the Voices & amp; Choices effort thus far.
It is hoped that thousands more will take part in the survey to help select what options are best for the region, she said.
Voices & amp; Choices will use the results to engage leaders across the region to determine how the solutions should be implemented.
Those who participate in the online survey will be asked for their name, but people can also take the survey anonymously. Everyone, however, will have to give certain demographic information to access the Choicebooks survey forms.
Voices & amp; Choices is a project of the Fund For Our Economic Future, a multiyear collaboration of 80 philanthropic organizations dedicated to improving the economic competitiveness of northeast Ohio.
That group pooled $30 million to launch the effort, initially putting its money into grants to help businesses and industry create jobs before deciding that it needed to take a broader look at the root problems facing economic development and finding solutions for them.
Voices & amp; Choices was established out of that concern, Davis added.
gwin@vindy.com