Community Vision Council Outlines Action Plan to Improve the Quality of Life in Greater Cleveland's First Health and Human Services Agenda.

Business Editors & Health Writers

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2002

The Community Vision Council today announced its action plan to change "the very fiber of our social services infrastructure" through a prioritized community vision.

The Council outlined its direction for the next several years, calling for measurable outcomes for every strategy.

The priorities that were approved based on recommendations from the Council's four issue-oriented Vision Councils are:

Strong families = successful children

-- Prepare children to succeed in school by enhancing the quality of daycare
providers as part of the next phase of the Early Childhood Initiative.

-- Build on and strengthen neighborhood services through fuller use of school
buildings

Health and caring for all

-- Improve health by reducing and preventing the use of tobacco.

-- Reduce disparities in health care through expanded health

education programs in schools, as well as broaden access to

health insurance.

Senior success

-- Develop a coordinated transportation system that is accessible

to and affordable for all seniors in Cuyahoga County.

-- Increase access to more accurate and current information about

senior services.

Learning and earning for life

-- Create a model for coordinated employment training and support

services targeted to the urgent need of displaced workers.

-- Increase graduation rates by expanding and coordinating

after-school programs that provide enhanced learning

opportunities for school-age children.

"Today's decision moves our community forward with a shared agenda that will fundamentally change the very fiber of our social infrastructure," said Robert W. Gillespie, Jr., chairman emeritus, KeyCorp and United Way Services' chairman of the board of directors. "Greater Cleveland provided a national model for urban renewal through partnerships; that same model must now be employed to improve access to health care and education for all Clevelanders," said Gillespie, who chairs the Community Vision Council with Steven A. Minter, The Cleveland Foundation's president and executive director.

"The members of the Vision Council have worked diligently to quickly establish their action plan and priorities," said Minter. "They have taken the first important steps toward achieving the Council's goal of identifying critical areas of need within our community and creating public/private partnerships for the prudent investment of available resources."

The Community Vision Council, a 26-member committee of leaders in the business community, government and key funders and providers of local health and human care services, is the first public/private partnership focused on improving local health and human services for Greater Clevelanders. Originally convened by United Way Services, the now independent, broad-based team, which has been at work for more than a year and a half, includes more than 160 volunteer leaders, primarily staffed by United Way. Today the Vision Council, pointed out that maintaining community core services are implicit within each Vision Council's recommendations and will remain on-going priorities.

An early collaboration between United Way and the Federation for Community Planning, and other area funders, led to the release of the Social Indicator Reports that served as one of the primary research tools for the Vision Council. The five-volume series that includes well being of children and families to health and housing, provides detailed social condition information of Cuyahoga County residents, revealing the inner-connections of two critical barriers to individual and family success, namely poverty and educational attainment. Reducing these barriers becomes an overarching issue in the Council's work that calls for expanded use of school buildings to activate some of the priorities. The Cleveland Municipal School District is a key partner in linking a number of components within the initial and emerging priorities recommended by the broad-based partnership. The District's Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett serves as a member of the Council and has been engaged in the project since its inception.

Separate reports from each of the four Vision Councils detail the rationale for priority selection. For example, the urgent need to create a model for coordinated employment training and support services for displaced workers is intensified with recent and projected corporate plant and office closings and relocations. Projections based on available research indicate that 35 percent of the local workforce will retire over the next 10 years, while the current workforce is expected to grow by only eight percent, leaving a 27 percent gap. With 65 percent of all new jobs requiring high-tech skills, education becomes critical for employers and employees, and a model that can be efficiently replicated is a top priority.

In the area of senior transportation coordination, the research showed that approximately 274,000 people over the age of 60 reside in Cuyahoga County (2000 Census), with more than 100,000 over the age of 75. As the population ages, transportation needs increase, thus explaining the need for all existing transportation collaborations to work together to develop a coordinated system.

In health and caring for all, tobacco cessation initiatives are based on statistics that show Cleveland adults rank third highest in quantity of smokers in 99 surveyed cities. While in statewide data, Ohio youths rank fourth highest in smokers.

For children to succeed in school, enhanced day care quality is based on the finding that daycare providers directly impact a child's capacity to succeed in formal education.

The Cleveland Foundation and United Way Services last month jointly announced they will invest a total of $6 million over the next three years to advance the community-wide agenda. The Community Vision Council, convened by United Way Services in the spring of 2000, became a permanent body ten months ago, at which time United Way changed roles to join the other committed partners at the table, Gillespie explained.

Gillespie, who will step down this March after completing two terms as United Way Services' board chairman, will remain active on the Community Vision Council as its co-chair, representing United Way. He pointed out that United Way donors can support both the local health and human services safety net, as well as the long-term objectives.