Great Arrows
Weekly Update 2/12/2023 to 2/18/2023 #160
Hey, I have a great idea… before I tell you more, let me share some of my week serving as mayor of the best smalltown in America.
The Brookings Study of the Burkart Opportunity Zone advisory team kickoff meeting was this week. While most of the advisory team meetings will be very hands-on, this one required more presentations to get everyone up to speed on how we got to where we are. In 2022, the core team of Jim Plump, Jackie Hill, Dan Davis, and myself started working with a team from The Brookings Institute, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and Anderson Bohlander to set the foundation for the advisory team to build upon. Last week, I shared how this work will create a handbook or a playbook to use for the next three years, and this week I get to share how well the work seemed to be received by the advisory team. I had several great conversations as the week went on with members in attendance. Over the next several months, the team will be looking to add input from even more community members, and I hope you will accept the invitation to be a part of the conversation when the time comes.
Congratulations to Healthy Jackson County on a good Mental Health Summit. While I didn’t get to stay for the whole event due to other commitments, I did enjoy the first half and listening to the presentations being made. This work goes hand in hand with the grant work we have been doing since mid-2022. As our grant comes to a close later this year and we have identified our recovery community's strengths and weaknesses, it will be exciting to see how we can then start filling gaps that we have in our community related to recovery and mental health. One gap that identified itself pretty quickly was the lack of transitional housing. We have facilities in the region to help get someone started. We have work release if their start is through the corrections system. What about when the time comes to return to the world and they are not ready to fly solo yet? Many communities have what is called transitional housing or sober living where someone can continue their healing in a controlled environment. They are screened on a regular basis, must attend meetings, and hold a job as they adapt to a healthier sober lifestyle. Currently, we have some projects in the works if we can just secure some help with the initial down payment via city, county, and state support through grant opportunities.
The last meeting I will touch on this week was a tabletop exercise with Jackson County Emergency Management. The Seymour team joined representatives from several areas to work through a disaster scenario. We do this once or twice a year to prepare for what we hope never comes, but it is good to train just in case. As always thank you to everyone who participated and expanded the shared knowledge.
Quickly back to that great idea from earlier before I sign off. I hear this statement on a regular basis. Someone will share an idea and then follow it up with "what is the city going to do about it." Sometimes it is a business that is needed, sometimes it falls into the world of non-profits, and from time to time it is something that the city can work on. I am always happy to share what I think the next steps are and help connect the dots for whatever it is. I enjoy hearing from you and seeing how we can continue to move our community forward in a positive way because we all know there is more than enough negativity in the world. Keep the ideas flowing so we can explore who is the right person to tackle it. Whether it is from the side of the private sector, non-profit, or government. Bill Moyers said, "Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow." I encourage you to keep bringing the arrows and let me help see if we can find the bow.