State of the Vision – May 2003
Highlights of Progress

Downtown
To date, a number of important activities have occurred, resulting in significant improvements in the city, and a plan to assure continued improvements is in place.
These include:

Education and Life Long Learning

This element of the community’s Vision is a very broad and integral part that many strategies and action items were developed. The Vision Force agreed to focus in on a few of the strategies that appeared to be foundational to the achievement of many of the other strategies. Listed below is the update of those strategies.

A ‘Target Reading First’ Collaborative was created to coordinate efforts that focus results in increasing exposure to and practice of reading by our children and by providing leadership to achieve the Vision. The Collaborative, which meets monthly, has several working committees. One is completing a comprehensive inventory of reading programs and activities in the Greater Bakersfield area in order to identify gaps, opportunities for further collaboration, and needs that may be satisfied in terms of volunteer hours and financial support by the business community. Another committee is applying for a $4.5 million Early Reading First federal grant. This collaborative is housed at the Kern County Network for Children and is co-chaired by Steve Sanders and Bernie Herman. Strategies to accomplish the Mission of the collaborative include:

Seamless transition between grade levels is one of the focuses of Jim Burke Foundation Education Leaders Focus Group. Their work includes increasing communication between educational leaders from pre-K through the university, which has been very successful so far. In addition, the Kern High School District developed KernLearn, a web based effort to address academic needs of students in grades 7-12, and as such, streamline the transition between junior high and middle school students in participating districts to high school

Community Planning and Transportation

Many of the strategies and action items in this section of the Action Plan were legislated into law through adoption of the update of the 2010 Metropolitan Plan by both city and county elected officials. Some specific action items accomplished or in process include:

Youth and Family

The strength of this Vision Force that meets every other month to monitor and champion progress is that many of those attending are social service providers who are able to increase their effectiveness through sharing of information and collaboration. Some of the specific accomplishments include:

Economic Development

Economic development by attracting new businesses has been negatively impacted by the budget crisis in the state of California. Nonetheless, some progress has been made in other areas.

Quality of Life

There are a large number of diverse strategies and action items included in improving the Quality of Life in the community. Listed below are just a few of the ongoing efforts.

 

Vision 2020 was an 18-month process involving over 13,000 residents, including our youth, to develop a Vision for our community’s future and an action plan to accomplish that Vision. The Plan was handed back to the community January 2001. Since that time more than 100 agencies, and organizations have been actively involved in implementing the Plan. What has been most impressive is the extraordinary increase in cooperation and collaboration throughout the community in accomplishing the community’s Vision.