What: Grand Vision Framework for our Future Input Expo

Where: Kalkaska County (Kaliseum)

When: Tuesday, April 23, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

What: If you've ever had a new idea on how to improve your community, you now have an outlet for expressing it - the Framework for Our Future Input Expos. These events will be an opportunity for you and your neighbors to share ideas, concerns, and suggestions about important issues where you live, work and play.

Who's listening? Local governments - township, city, village, county, and regional - as well as community organizations, non-profits, businesses, and citizens.

The purpose of the Input Expos is two-fold: to Listen and to Inform. In an expo-like atmosphere, volunteers will work at Topic Tables to help you turn your ideas into strategies that communities can act on. And they will provide examples of projects that are occurring throughout the region, showing that innovative strategies developed at the grassroots level are very effective in moving a community forward.

The primary focus of the Input Expos falls into four of the six issue areas identified by The Grand Vision: Housing, Transportation, Commercial Corridors (Growth & Investment), and Energy. Future events will focus on the remaining two issue areas: Food & Farming and Natural Resources, as well as community health. The events are all part of a large-scale project called Framework for Our Future, which will develop a regional resource - or a toolkit of sorts - of strategies to support The Grand Vision. The goal of the project is to provide communities with the specific tools and action steps they need to move The Grand Vision forward.

For more information, visit nwm.org/framework