What's In It For Me?

The statistics exist. Young adults and young professionals are underrepresented in our community.

The majority of people who have engaged in Crawford: 20/20 Vision community meetings thus far are over 50 years old or have lived in the county well over 20 years.

The reasons as to why this is are impossible to define. Maybe most young professionals have been away at college from March to June when the Vision meetings have been held. Maybe the more seasoned members of the community have more initiative to participate in this type of forum. Maybe young people don’t feel anyone will listen to them. Maybe they don’t see what’s in it for them.

No matter the rationale, there’s plenty in it for young people – and for everyone else for that matter. Crawford: 20/20 Vision is not a scheme based on political motivation or a mere attempt to make it seem like at least someone is trying.

Crawford: 20/20 Vision is a project that has been developed to make Crawford County a better place – to make young people want to move here after college – to bring jobs and empower people to take hold of their future -- to ensure a higher quality of life for all ages – and to decrease the growing crime and drug statistics to build a safer home.

There’s a reason the Vision initiative uses no tax dollars: it’s not a political project and the money that has been contributed by the following organizations is for you – to enable you to make a difference. The private funders of the project (Bucyrus Area Community Foundation, Ohio Mutual, WBCO/WQEL, AEP, the Arthur J. Freese Foundation, the Carter Family Foundation, WyseSolutions, LLC., and the Walter R. Hessenauer Charitable Trust) believe in a better future for the county.

This is the opportunity of a lifetime.

If you are a young professional who would rather move elsewhere because of the lack of job, entertainment, or housing options – but would hate to move away from your family – now is your chance to change Crawford County into a place where you can envision yourself succeeding.

Imagine living in Crawford County and being able to take pride in the place you live as a young professional. It’s possible, and the key is your engagement in this process. Crawford: 20/20 Vision has worked diligently to make this project accessible to all ages via our online communication strategy.

The ball is in your court, and Crawford: 20/20 Vision is on your team. You can make a huge difference for yourself and your community – just voice your opinion on Facebook, read and share one of our blogs, take one of our Survey Monkey surveys, e-mail us your ideas, sign up for the e-newsletter, or look through and learn more on our main site.

We referenced the wise words of Gandhi once, and we’ll reference his words again: “you must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

A Message from Robin Hildebrand

Dear Residents and Leaders of Crawford County:

Since March, the Crawford: 20/20 Vision initiative has engaged residents in our community through a series of eight public meetings that have been held around the county. While I am very pleased that hundreds of community members have taken the time to participate in the community engagement piece of the visioning process, we still have a lot of work to be done to address the significant challenges our community is facing.

My message as the chair of Crawford: 20/20 Vision is simple -- care enough about your community to get involved. Your involvement can be as easy as offering an opinion, or if you are really passionate about the future of our community, then get involved in one of the upcoming focus groups that will be created to provide solutions to the critical issues which have been identified by your neighbors in the public meeting phase of this very important initiative.

This initiative is important to me not only because I am the chair, or not even because I serve as the Crawford County Auditor … it is important to me because I am a resident of Crawford County, and this is my home – it’s yours, too. Let’s come together and stay engaged in this process so that we can build a better future for our county.

Sincerely,

Robin Hildebrand
Chair, Crawford: 20/20 Vision

Leave Your Jacket at the Door

“We need to pull together and present a unified front .... Drop the letter jackets … Put aside ego and realize we need to regroup as a county, not individual ‘silos’ of progress.”

This anonymous response, submitted to Crawford: 20/20 Vision via Survey Monkey survey, embodies a specific spectrum of feelings concerning territorial and traditional thinking that is perhaps hindering potential progress in Crawford County.

Crawford County has a population of 43, 403 (according to the US Census Bureau’s 2009 estimate).

Our roots define who we are. But whether you are a Galionite, a Bucyrian, a Crestliner, a New Washingtonian or a North Robinsonian, you are conclusively a Crawford Countian, and you share that title with approximately 43,402 other people.

Recently, it’s been said that the residents of Crawford County generally do not identify as part of a county, but rather as part of just the city or town in which they live.

We should take pride in our differences -- many people who live in Crawford County are deeply invested in their community because it is their home. Generations of families have been tied to specific areas for decades, and every area in the county has its own history and its own strengths.

Despite this, we must shift our perspective and strengthen the bond between the communities.

In order to make a change in the county (not just each community), we must come together. Competition, duplication of services and the “letter jacket” mindset are not conducive to a brighter future for Crawford County.

In another Survey Monkey anonymous response, one person said:

“Everyone is so afraid of collaboration. Do we need so many school districts? Do we need two large hospitals? I find it so odd that the cities are so close geographically but so self-minded. Other surrounding counties take more pride in being a unit and see collaboration as a positive thing that makes the county run more effectively.”

Perhaps the perception of collaboration should be changed so it is seen as a positive option instead of a potential downfall. Imagine what Crawford County could be if we drew from the strengths of each community and came together.

We must learn from the past and move forward together. The colors sported on varsity letter jackets may yield friendly competition for those who are still in high school, but they cannot color our perspective as members of a countywide community.

The Vision Gets Social Online

According to its Website, “The Crawford: 20/20 Vision initiative is an unprecedented effort to bring together the people of our county to take charge of our challenges and turn them around.”

At the most recent Crawford: 20/20 Vision community meetings, one of the questions those in attendance were asked was which age group they belong to. They were then asked to respond using Turning Point clicker technology which offers immediate, viewable results.

On March 30 in Crestline, nearly 63 percent of community members at the meeting identified as older than 50 years old. On May 17, nearly 69 percent of people in the Crawford County Fairgrounds Youth Building were older than 50. Following the trend, nearly 59 percent of attendees were older than 50 at the May 18 community meeting at Colonel Crawford Intermediate School.

While the older-than-50 demographic was irrefutably well-represented and their attendance and input is highly valued by the Crawford: 20/20 Vision organizers, the figures were far lower for ages 18-24, 25-34 and 35-40 – which does not represent the entirety of the county’s population. Sometimes, these lower age ranges were not represented at all aside from a miniscule slice on the pie chart with a zero above it.

From the statistics, it seems as if the 18-40 age range is the lost demographic. Somehow, college students and young professionals have been grossly underrepresented in the community process.

In Crawford: 20/20 Vision’s data, it states that population is declining – it’s down 6 percent since 2000, and down 12 percent since its 1970 peak. “Young people are leaving … (the) population is aging.”

So, why are young people leaving? Is their absence at the community meetings either a.) A sign of low initiative? Or b.) A feeling of disconnect from the county?

Perhaps both. Perhaps neither.

It is safe to say that it is never safe to make assumptions. The best way to learn why college students and young professionals have any opinion one way or another about the future of Crawford County is to ask them. But, where are they?

Online.

Crawford: 20/20 Vision established a Facebook page on May 21. A week later, the group had over 130 members – and it’s grown steadily since. Facebook allows page administrators to view “Insights” on the group – which measure group interaction, post quality and other forms of Facebook activity such as media consumption and photo views.

One of the most prominent features of the “Insights” tool is the chart which shows administrators total fans and categorizes them by age, gender and location. At the time of the most recent update to the chart, exactly 50 percent of group members were 18-24 years old. Twenty-one percent of members were ages 25-34, while the rest of the group was fairly evenly distributed in other age groups.

The difference between community meeting attendance and Facebook membership in terms of demographics is undeniably significant. What’s more important is the interaction and discussion that is generated within the group.

The model of open discussion in person to person meetings is reenacted on the Vision’s Facebook wall. When asked what they thought was Crawford County’s greatest challenge, people responded – in person and online.

“One of the greatest challenges for Crawford County is to attract people to come to our community and to want to make a home here, people who will give back to the community,” said Matthew Hoover, Facebook group member. “Of course jobs are one of, if not the greatest, factors and draw for people to want to be in a community; however, with the state of the economy that's a very difficult task. I think that Crawford County should concentrate more on bringing more attractions to the area that will bring culture back into our communities. Indeed, it’s a tremendous uphill battle, but there are things and people among us that we could capitalize on.”

Hoover, a native of Bucyrus, said Crawford County no longer feels like the place where he grew up. And he’s not the only one who contributed to the discussion.

“This is an overall good community, but it could be better,” said fellow group member and Crawford County resident Becky Teynor Woods. “Since I only live in Bucyrus, I can’t vouch for Galion. Since both cities are near the new route 30, the land around the exits/entrances should be utilized in some way.”

Problem identification on the wall leads to an even better topic of discussion: potential solution identification.

“(We need) hotels, restaurants, shopping centers … maybe a ‘mini-resort’ that brings all of those things together,” said Mark Fiske, another member of the group. “Go-karts, a driving range, bumper boats – SOMETHING that might get people to stop … on their way to the lakes.”

Agreeing with Fiske and Woods, Hoover said: “We can also focus and try to grow some of the existing things that we have … the few things we do have here (Bratwurst Festival, Car Show, etc.) really do well and pull people from all over. Again, I think it is our proximity to major highways … We need to somehow attract businesses and restaurants to build here in Crawford County. If there is nothing to do here, then Crawford County will only attract people who do nothing.”

The discussion generated on the Crawford: 20/20 Vision Facebook page is supplemented by another online entity: Google Blogger. The Vision’s blog features a variety of posts thus far and its purpose is to provide detailed, readable information about the Visioning process and relevant topics.

For example, Facebook members (and a multitude of community members) identified employment as a major challenge faced by the county. The most recent blog post, titled “OhioMeansJobs – Crawford County Does, Too” addresses the concerns of job availability and job creation, offers a resource that allows people to find hundreds of jobs in Crawford County and surrounding areas and concludes with a positive outlook focusing on opportunity rather than inadequacy.

The Facebook and blog site go hand in hand and also work cohesively with the Vision’s new Twitter page. The Twitter account offers visitors and followers concise (140 characters or less) messages about something relevant to the county or the Visioning process. Using a tool called TweetDeck, Crawford: 20/20 Vision’s statuses (tweets) can be instantaneously updated on Facebook as well. The most recent addition to the Vision’s social media efforts: a YouTube Channel.

The best aspect of these online social media resources is their price – because there isn’t one. Online entities such as the ones that are being utilized by Crawford: 20/20 Vision are free and are undoubtedly reaching a different, broader demographic. The initiative is for the people and is owned by the people, and these resources make it cost-effective and accessible for all.

In addition, Crawford: 20/20 Vision is now developing an e-newsletter for those who join the e-mailing list (sign up here). The newsletter will feature updates on the initiative, links to social media and interactive aspects to engage those who are involved in the process.

At the hub of this all is the initiative’s home Website, which contains all of the information about Crawford: 20/20 Vision. Tabs on the homepage allow users to access information about “what we are doing,” “what we are learning” and “where we are going.” Links have been added so that crawford2020.com visitors can easily access the aforementioned forms of social media.

As the online communication develops and the meetings and open discussions continue, awareness heightens among people of all ages in the county. As voices are “heard” through their input in discussions on the Facebook wall and blog posts, potential solutions are being cultivated.

Involvement in the Crawford: 20/20 Vision initiative – whether at community meetings or on the Net– contributes to the betterment of the future of Crawford County. Get connected -- participation in this unprecedented process is just a few clicks away.

Visit www.crawford2020.com for the home site. The Facebook page can be accessed at www.facebook.com/crawford2020vision. Read the blog at crawford2020.blogspot.com or follow us on Twitter by going to www.twitter.com/crawfordco2020. To watch the YouTube channel, go www.youtube.com/crawford2020vision.

The First Addition to our YouTube Channel: What We're Learning...