Real change begins with a vision – what does success look like? Once we agree on that destination, we need to know how far away we are from our goal. We use our community indicators as navigation markers so we can know if we’re headed in the right direction and the distance we need to travel. Once we know where we are, we need to come together to plan on how to get where we’re going. We put plans into actions, obtain results, and evaluate our effectiveness. The same metrics that steered our planning now serve as the GPS to tell us if we’re on course. Based on that evaluation, if we haven’t arrived yet, we can re-examine our vision, change what we measure, or make new plans to ensure we all arrive at the shared vision together.

 

This is JCCI’s Model for Community Change. We’ve seen it work in communities around the world as effectively as it does in Northeast Florida. When we tell our stories, we often focus on a specific topic (like infant mortality or public safety) or on a specific program, like an Inquiry or the Quality of Life Progress Report. But all of these stories make up the bigger story of an organization that knows how to bring us together to make real, lasting change.  

 

Whatever you’re involved with at JCCI, you are part of something amazing.