Engaging entire community part of improving quality of life in Shelby County

But are there too many plans?

Denise Holland prefers to think of these various initiatives as pieces of a puzzle.

“Like a puzzle, there is indeed some overlap because part of the picture is on more than one piece. Each piece is essential for creating the picture. And just as a puzzle has interlocking pieces, so too must the initiatives in the county,” said Holland, community liaison for Major Health Partners and coordinator for Healthy Shelby County.

The Quality of Life plan being facilitated by the Blue River Community Foundation is aimed at bringing the various initiatives together.

“Bringing the various goals and action steps together in one plan demonstrates that there are many groups from multiple sectors working toward the same outcomes: for example, a more walkable community, improved health, continued improvement of educational outcomes for all of our youth, access to arts and cultural activities,” said Amy Haacker, executive director of BRCF.

The action steps outlined in specific initiatives can be plugged into the larger Quality of Life plan.

“There is overlap, but I like to think of it more as strengthening our priorities through consistency and cross-referencing,” Haacker said.

The challenge, though, can come from the confusion brought by many plans with similar goals.

“If you’ve ever worked on a large jigsaw puzzle with one or more people, you also know there can be a lot of tension and subtle or direct conflict because it takes a little while to trust each other and fall into a rhythm of truly working together,” Holland said. “People’s enthusiasm for getting the picture completed may overwhelm their willingness to cooperate. If you’ve ever put a puzzle together and found out at the end that a piece or two is missing, you know how frustrating and disappointing that is.

“I think that is a general challenge we and lots of communities have:  broad engagement. Getting all the pieces together. We tend to race forward fueled by our passion and determination which clearly has its positive and problematic points,” Holland added.

The challenge of finding a common framework for improving Shelby County is where some work needs to be done, in Holland’s estimation.

“Success comes when everyone working on the puzzle has the same picture in their minds. With a common framework, then all these various puzzle pieces begin to make sense because everyone is able to see how they are contributing to the big picture. And we can collectively measure our progress in creating the big picture. Plus we can hold each other accountable for doing our part to get our particular piece in place,” Holland said.

“I think ultimately, we have a lot of reason to be very optimistic,” Haacker said. “We have leaders across many sectors, including our civic leaders, schools, nonprofit, and many individuals who are really engaged in improving quality of life in Shelby County.”