EXTEND COMMUNITY is helping Evansville VOICE – a community-wide visioning initiative born of a partnership between Leadership Evansville and the Mayor’s Office – to increase awareness of its efforts through planning and consultation, website design and creation, and branding initiatives.
EvansvilleVOICE.com’s responsive design, which is compatible with smartphone and tablet devices, and its social media components make it easy for community members to get involved and stay informed on the VOICE process – even on the go. Additionally, EXTEND COMMUNITY developed branding for VOICE, helped spread the word about the project within the community, and has assisted in planning and execution from the beginning stages to the present.
VOICE is Evansville, Ind.’s citizen-driven visioning process that asked citizens to share their ideas, hopes, and visions for Evansville’s preferred future to build strategic actions toward collaborative goals. The sessions allowed respectful conversations to take place, all voices to be heard, and every vision to be documented and shared. VOICE will ensure that everyone in our community has the opportunity to take part in creating a desired future.
Lynn Miller-Pease, executive director of Leadership Evansville, and Mayor Lloyd Winnecke announced the VOICE initiative in July of 2012. In the first stages of the project, public sessions were conducted for community members to voice their ideas to improve the community and their visions for Evansville’s future.
Based on the information collected in those sessions, three themes emerged, around which “flower pot” meetings are currently being conducted: green spaces, city core, and experiences. The themes were announced in a Big Action Meeting (BAM) in October of 2013.
“It’s been a dream of mine to see the city of Evansville finally come together and create a plan for the future based on the input of our residents,” said Shawn Collins, founder and CEO of the EXTEND GROUP. “So when the opportunity presented itself to help brand and define those objectives, we were all in from day one. If you look at the results do far from the VOICE program, it shows that we as a community are invested in the future of our region.”
EXTEND COMMUNITY, an arm of the EXTEND GROUP, develops creative marketing solutions for its non-profit customers, as well as community service organizations, municipalities, and tourism or economic development groups.
The EXTEND GROUP is a network of experienced designers, writers, marketing strategists, and technology professionals who specialize in the development of online businesses and other forms of branding. Located in Evansville, Ind., the EXTEND GROUP strives to provide simple and elegant solutions to complex problems relating to environments, devices, services, and systems.
For additional information, please contact The EXTEND GROUP at (812) 205-2106 or [email protected].
