Myra Moss
Ohio State University Extension
Lima Center at Findlay
1219 W. Main Cross St., Suite 202
Findlay, OH 45840-0702
(419) 422-6106, (419) 422-7595 fax

Bill Grunkemeyer
Ohio State University Extension
204 Mount Hall
1050 Carmack Rd.
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-5942, (614) 292-7341 fax

Since 1997, Ohio State University Extension’s Sustainable Communities Team has engaged in designing and testing a model for sustainable comprehensive planning and visioning, implementing projects in six counties, townships and cities throughout Ohio. Our goal is to provide a unique approach more effective than traditional planning, through balancing and interconnecting social, environmental and economic community sectors, thinking long-term (50 years), being inclusionary, and employing multidimensional progress indicators. OSUE’s Team of Community Economic Development faculty has discovered and tested processes, tools and techniques that successfully promote this unique sustainable model in a practical, hands-on manner easily understood and adopted by community residents and leadership.

We propose to engage workshop participants in a simulated Sustainable Communities Program in order to: 1. Create a exercise through which participants can come to understand the sustainable approach by actually “living” it in a simulated environment, and 2. Enable participants to experience innovative sustainable approaches, tools and techniques that they can replicate in their own communities, including, A. Practical exercises to help residents understand interconnections among the social, environmental and economic community sectors, B. Methods to build an Inclusionary governing board and community visioning process so that residents become the leaders, C. Approaches to help residents think beyond decades to generations, and D. Techniques to develop multi-dimensional indicators to measure their long-term progress.

To date, comprehensive plans been completed in two counties and one city, and are being used by local leadership to determine land use policies and decide resource allocation priorities. We plan to share these successes.