JRO has served as Advisor to Beaverton Community Vision since 2008. With guidance from a citizen-led Visioning Advisory Committee, the original visioning effort directly engaged more than 5,000 citizens over two years of creative outreach. Input was received in six languages, through community events and forums, surveys, idea boxes, website, video and other vehicles. Five actions teams, built around the five Vision goal areas, were assembled to process and convert community suggestions into actionable proposals which were then prioritized through a public review process. The result: a highly-supported action plan for improving livability and sustainability, downtown, housing and neighborhoods, transportation and more. Today, all City Departments budgets are required to address how upcoming work will contribute toward advancing community vision priorities.
Since 2010, over 60 community partner organizations have adopted Vision actions and worked to implement the vast majority of them in under five years. Notable successes include:
- A popular annual International Celebration
- Expanded Concerts and Theater in the Park events
- A new Beaverton Downtown Association
- Passage of an urban renewal to facilitate downtown redevelopment
- Improved coordination with transit partners/LED lights at bus shelters
- Increased focus and action to improve major transportation corridors
- A Beaverton Night Market featuring multi-cultural vendors and activities
Beaverton Community Vision was named Project of the Year by the International Association for Public Participation, Cascades Chapter, and later received an Award of Excellence from the national City-County Communications Managers’ Association. JRO is now serving as lead advisor for the Beaverton Community Vision five-year update: “What’s Next Beaverton?” Over 7,700 ideas have been received and sorted into action proposals for community review.
