CommunityStrategicPlanGuideandForm(USDA2001)

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Identifying the Important Values -- Form 15 Now that you have reflected on the power and importance of your values over time, add your historical values to the current list. Ask each person to vote for the three most important values. Usually the community finds that there is a lot of agreement on what is most important. Identify the ten values that have the most votes. They are your common and most important values. They are an important link to your future. They will sustain you through hard times and help you celebrate the good times. Write these values on Form 5. Your values are your guidepost. They are the signs along the road to give you direction through your journey. They are important to every step of change in your community — all the way to the actual design and spirit of a program or project. The community can check back to them when considering an important decision. They help serve as guiding principles. All community decisions should support the community values. They can help build the community based on what people care about and want. Vision Describes A Desired Future -- Vision Statement Form 5 Vision is a description of a desired future. It is based on the top values. It's big. It is much broader than what any one agency can do. It is timeless and may be years or decades away. It is an ideal future condition. It may be difficult to achieve, but you strive to achieve as much of it as you can. Following are some steps which will help you define your vision: * Read your community values out loud. Reflect on the desired future, based on these values. Envision your dreams. Do not think about resources, current capacity, existing political trends, or other constraints. Imagine the community the way you want it to be. A vision implies a size and focus of your community. It can be a series of statements that help you imagine the community's future. Vision ties values into something whole you can imagine. It is usually 5 or 6 statements Community "no monkeys" There are no monkeys in Ketchikan Because it's too cold. When I grown up I'm going to build a zoo. FOR MONKEYS ONLY. In Ketchikan or Metlakatla. It will be filled with monkeys. That's all. There will be spider monkeys, chimpanzees, Gorillas, apes and baboons. - Brooke Smart, Ketchikan that summarize the values and begin to paint a picture of the community in the future. Work together to create your vision statement. Together as a group come up with a statement that best expresses a common vision. You may want to vote once you have worked to refine two or three statements. This statement is a vision statement. You may use this statement as a reminder of what is important to the community. It expresses the guiding principles of the community and helps paint the picture of what the community wants to become. Use the bottom of Form 5 to write your community's vision statement. 17