I am Laurie Bonnett of the Urban League of Champaign County, urging you to be a part of “big. small. all” this November. “big.small.all.” is a project to build a vision of our future, initiated by citizens and leaders of Champaign County. You can be a part of the dialogue by attending one of the nine meetings planned all across Champaign County early next month.

This is the way it works: participants will be broken into small groups, where they will be asked for their ideas for the future of the area. All ideas will be placed in a database and used to write goals and policies for Champaign County’s future. The success of these meetings depends solely on widespread participation by all those interested in the future of our community.

Everyone’s voice will be heard - big business, small organizations and all voices from every profession and demographic group. We need to hear from the farming community, the small business woman and the minority student. We need to hear from you all. The timing is right for this project. Many organizations already have long-term plans and have done their own visioning processes. This gives us all a chance to take a look at how our individual plans might fit together and to present that information to the larger community we serve. And there is a growing sense of unity in Champaign County right now that we need to capitalize on.

Sure, we all have our own projects, our own goals, but underneath it all, we are starting to see that we have a lot in common. We are starting to see that what we’re really all working on is creating a better community with more options for us and for our children. And to make that happen, we’re collaborating in ways we haven’t before. “big. small. all.” was designed to be just that - a way for all of us,  the big AND the small to come together to share ideas, form collaborations and shape the future of Champaign County.

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