Valley Visioning: Creating a vision for Utah County
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Utah County is at a crossroads. Residents today enjoy a high quality of life and a strong economy, but as the county adds more than a million people over the coming decades, growth pressures could lead to increased traffic congestion and air pollution, as well as loss of farmland and open space—among other growth-related issues.
That's why Envision Utah has teamed up with Utah County, the Association of Utah County Chambers, BYU, and UVU to bring together residents and local stakeholders to establish a values-based, community-supported vision for growth in Utah County. The process, called Valley Visioning, will tackle tough questions about transportation, jobs, housing, land use, air quality, education, water, and other issues.
We're excited to announce the official stakeholder kickoff for the effort which will take place on November 14. Together with the Association of Utah County Chambers, we'll introduce our Valley Visioning co-chairs, detail the visioning process, and workshop to discuss which issues are most critical for the future of the county.
We will be holding a series of public workshops in the following months to engage and hear the perspectives of residents from across Utah County. You can read more about the project by visiting
https://utahvalleyvisioning.org/
.
Please stay tuned for more updates as we begin this important visioning effort!
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Why don't college students want to become teachers?
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We know from our teacher shortage data that the number of new teachers coming from Utah's college programs is in decline—in other words, Utah college students aren't choosing careers in teaching. So we surveyed more than 4,000 of them to find out why that is and what we can do about it. You can read about some of the results and what that means for the state teacher shortage in the infographic below. (
Click for a higher resolution version
).
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So what does this all mean? It means if we want the best and brightest college students to pursue careers in teaching and end up in the classroom helping our kids, we need to make some changes—competitive compensation, more opportunities for career advancement, and teacher mentorship, to name a few. We can attract, retain, and reengage great teachers and provide our kids with an exceptional teacher workforce that will help them get a stellar education.
Click here
to learn more about how to support great teachers!
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The 2018 Common Good Awards — Thank you!
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We'd like to extend a big thanks to everyone who made this year's Common Good Awards such a record-breaking success! We heard Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez, UVU President, share her story on how the power of a vision for the future took her from extreme poverty to international leadership in the tech industry. Using Singapore as an example, Dr. Tuminez also explained Utah's unique potential to plan for the future and harness rapid growth.
In addition, we were pleased to honor this year's Common Good Awardees, Kids On The Move, Cowboy Partners, and Gail Miller. Congratulations! In the words of Dr. Tuminez, "You make Utah a better place to achieve so many dreams." Thank you!
Click here
to take a look at a selection of some of our favorite photos from the event.
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Brain Building 101: The power of early learning
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Over the past several months our early learning team has been busy visiting businesses throughout the community to share our Brain Building 101 presentation, and we want to visit you next! If you feel like your organization would benefit from a lunch-and-learn presentation that highlights the latest science and tips on early childhood learning,
let us know
! We're happy to work with you to customize the length and content of the presentation to match your needs. We can even help you get people to attend!
Brain Building 101 is a part of our larger effort to create a cultural shift around early learning in the community. Ninety-two percent of a child's brain growth happens before they begin kindergarten, so it's up to parents, caregivers, family, friends, neighbors, and others in the community to ensure that children build foundations for lifelong learning.
Please reach out to
tallred@envisionutah.org
if you think people in your organization would benefit from learning how to become brain builders!
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We greatly appreciate all of our contributors for enabling us to carry out these efforts. Please consider a donation to support Envision Utah today!
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Daily Herald
Utah County is poised for tremendous growth, but how that growth effects residents' quality of life is up to all of us and the plans we make now. Leaders at the Utah Valley Executive Summit encouraged attendees to get involved with the Valley Visioning effort and shape their future.
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Green Biz
Collective and collaborative action is key to building "smart" cities ready for the future. Private-public partnerships require effort on both ends and are powerful means to ensure we enjoy an excellent quality of life now and in the future.
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Daily Herald
The Point of the Mountain Development Commission met recently with landowners, government representatives, business and nonprofit organization executives, and thought leaders from various community sectors to discuss the final phase of the regional vision for the Point of the Mountain.
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