The Morris Development Partnership will address the lack of coordination that currently exists between citizens, agencies and institutions, and government in regard to housing initiatives, changes in the economy and demographics, opportunities for young people, etc. Morris has several disparate visioning and planning groups along with a fragmented community vision. This project will create a broad-based partnership to directly confront the shortcomings related to planning and operating in isolation. These problems have been identified and interest in creating this new partnership has been the topic of discussion at numerous organizational meetings during the past year. The remaining question is how will this partnership be formed and supported.
Basically, this new partnership will be designed to be inclusive and flexible, to maximize the utilization of local assets, and to address all dimensions of community life and sustenance. It will be an on-going change agent with a focus on building community capacity and identifying and implementing community action on urgent and important issues when not addressed by existing methods.
Project Co-Director, Roger McCannon has been directly involved in these development issues and will lead this effort.