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Town & Gown: Building Successful University - Community Collaborations

January 28, 2019

Around the world, communities are working to take advantage of the technology revolution now propelling the global shift toward an information-based society, in which knowledge is the new capital and higher education is the new machine. Jacksonville, even with some of the necessary machinery in place, needs to build its intellectual infrastructure, which includes everything from improving high school graduation rates to attracting more research dollars into the local economy. Despite the recent rapid growth of the community and its higher education institutions, neither the community nor its colleges and universities have worked together in a strategic, comprehensive way to position Jacksonville for the future.The Town and Gown study committee began by identifying current and potential roles for both the community and higher education institutions in building the intellectual capacity of Jacksonville. In doing this, the committee reviewed the historical growth of higher education in the community. The committee then examined how higher education institutions were meeting the needs of the local community, and whether the community was supporting those endeavors. Lastly, the study committee identified successful efforts in other communities where strategic collaborations between institutions of higher education and the community have produced tangible results.The committee found that Jacksonville has reached a critical juncture in its history. Nothing less than the future of the community is in question. On the one hand, the future can be shaped through a deliberate, thoughtful, and intentional focus on building a community that recognizes knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge as a valuable local commodity beneficial to every resident's quality of life. On the other hand, the community (town) and its colleges and universities (gown) can continue growing along separate paths and Jacksonville may lose the opportunity to own its destiny in a world increasingly driven by intellect, ideas, and innovation.To compete globally and improve its quality of life, the Jacksonville community has to work locally with its higher education institutions to: develop sustained leadership in every sector of the community, including government, business, and higher education, to work towards building Jacksonville's intellectual infrastructure; create and implement a strategic vision that improves the quality of life in all areas of the community by co-opting the teaching, research, and service roles of universities for the betterment of Jacksonville as a whole; and build active collaborations between higher education and community institutions to carry out that vision as well as prepareJacksonville and its residents for meeting the opportunities and the challenges of the 21st century and beyond.

Recession Recovery...and Beyond: A Regional Study

January 25, 2019

The Great Recession of 2007-09, as pundits are now calling it, hit Northeast Florida brutally. A regional economy that had been fueled by population and construction growth, consistently doing better than the national average, saw unemployment skyrocket when the housing market collapsed, the economy retracted, and population growth slowed to a trickle.Jacksonville Community Council Inc. (JCCI) surveyed the community to identify residents' top priority for in-depth study. Job growth far surpassed any other regional issue. Volunteers and partner organizations from the seven-county region came together to explore new ideas for retaining existing jobs, rapidly creating new jobs, and for positioning the region for long-term economic growth.The study committee visited the seven partner counties (Baker, Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam, and St. Johns), examined existing job development plans and economic development strategies for the region, and explored promising practices from other regions that were achieving success despite the national economic climate.The resulting recommendations are designed to enhance economic development and job creation, signaling to the state and nation that Northeast Florida is open for business.Implementation of these recommendations will highlight Northeast Florida's existing assets and strengthen its competitive advantages in the economic world. Most significantly, action will build on Northeast Florida's successes and enhance the combined regional approach to competing in the global marketplace.First, the region must focus on its key regional growth industries. The primary immediate opportunities for substantial job creation in the region are in the areas of:* port logistics and associated industries* health and medical sciences* aviation/aerospace and defense contracting* financial servicesSecond, the region must bring its business and education sectors together in a shared emphasis to build and maintain an educated and skilled workforce. Shifting economic realities, along with the skill sets required for job growth, necessitate the training (or re-training) of local workers and the retention of these skilled local workers in their employment positions. It also prescribes the need for attracting talented workers from around the world.Third, economic success will require even more emphasis on encouraging the growth of small businesses. Enhancing the region's entrepreneurial spirit is critical to sustaining a vibrant economy. Improving access to support for small business development and expansion holds the potential for creating more jobs and more business owners.Fourth, the region requires both a vibrant urban heart and an expanded vision of its assets and aspirations – unfettered by current boundary definitions. The outsider's view of Northeast Florida often begins with Jacksonville and its downtown core. A good first impression of the city, along with having strong economic development partners with a variety of different attributes, can have long term positive implications. Successful regional economic development also means rethinking the regions boundary lines and embracing all the potential Northeast Florida has to offer – such as the research capacities demonstrated by the University of FloridaFifth, regional leadership must come together to encourage economic growth and enhance the business-ready environment of Northeast Florida. Regional leadership (political, business, and community) must maintain focus on reducing issues that unnecessarily add roadblocks to sustainable economic growth, by streamlining regulation and permitting processes, in order to improve Northeast Florida's competitiveness and economic success.Together, the implementation of these recommendations can accelerate short-term job creation and, more significantly, strengthen the region's ability to sustain economic growth for years to come.

Quality of Life Progress Report 31st Edition

February 15, 2017

For more than 30 years, JCCI has partnered with major Jacksonville stakeholders and organizations like United Way of Northeast Florida and JAX Chamber to bring our community this report. Its purpose is to give residents, leaders, and decision-makers a comprehensive look at the quality of life in Jacksonville. It uses numbers and trends to tell a story about how we live and what is changing. Some changes are welcome and are the result of focused community investment over many years, which is the case with the graduation rate. Other trend line changes are short and sharp, as seen in the two-year spike in serious bicycle accidents from 2010-12.While priorities of what to track have changed since JCCI's beginnings, some of the indicators have been maintained for three decades. The JAX2025 visioning project organized these indicators into ten targets of focus, narrowing in on goals for specific indicators to reach. For this year's progress report, we've included the longest trend lines possibleto reflect the longtime look that JCCI's indicator tracking provides.Very few communities in the U.S. have access to such long trend lines. Taken as a whole, these long-term trends show how our city has changed. Perhaps more exciting, they paint a picture of how social conditions improve, or worsen, in relation to other conditions. For example; a common belief is that crime will increase as poverty increases. This report shows that in our community, this is not so.

Building Actionville: 2015 Election Guide: Determining if Your Candidate is #On Target

January 16, 2015

In September 2012, JAX2025 asked Jacksonville to Imagine a better future. 16,000 voices responded, by survey and in person, and created a Vision with 10 Targets for action. Each Target included progress measures and strategies for success. In May 2013, the JAX2025 Vision was released at a community celebration.The momentum for change built quickly. With shared agreement on what Jacksonville's future should become, alignment among civic, government, and business interests, and the energy created as Jacksonville emerged from recession, great leaps forward have been taken to achieve this vision. From downtown development to economic growth, educational performance to energy conservation, artistic experiences to government transparency, Jacksonville is reaching to build a better future.

Children: A JCCI Community Inquiry on Creating Early Learning Success - Final Implementation Report

December 5, 2014

When the Children: 1-2-3 Inquiry process began in Fall 2011, there was widespread agreement among professionals and stakeholders in the early childhood development sector that it was time for Jacksonville to become a place where all newborns, infants, and toddlers can thrive. In Duval County, 30 percent of children entering kindergarten could not pass the test that shows they are prepared for school learning, virtually assuring years of difficulty in keeping up with their classmates and peers.The first three years of life provide the most rapid period of brain development, and it is during these early years that a one-time window of opportunity exists for maximizing a child's developmental potential. Healthy brain development requires a consistent nurturing environment that is impacted by many factors (e.g., talking to and playing with the child, good nutrition, active movement, uninterrupted sleep, quality childcare, regular visits to pediatricians, etc.).While this unique three-year window has been known to early childhood professionals for years, the Inquiry discovered that others in the community – including many well-meaning and attentive parents – are not fully aware of all the things they can do to provide their children with the best foundation possible for a lifetime of learning. Expanding awareness of the importance of 0-3 throughout every segment of the community was therefore an objective of the highest priority when the Children: 1-2-3 Implementation Task Force came together for the first time in July 2012.The Task Force included 68 members, some of whom were early childhood professionals, while others were simply concerned citizens interested in improving their community. This Final Implementation Report reflects the countless hours of hard work of these Task Force members throughout the last two-plus years. Their dedication to improving the lives of our youngest children has been extraordinary, and it was both humbling and exciting for me to serve as their chair.The Children: 1-2-3 Inquiry developed nine recommendations that essentially fell into two main categories – creating and maintaining an environment where all newborns, infants, and toddlers thrive; and educating the whole community about the critical first three years of childhood development. It was the role of our Task Force to advocate for implementation of these recommendations to the applicable stakeholders and elected leaders in the community.

Unlocking the Pieces: Community Mental Health in Northeast Florida

October 14, 2014

While people from every walk of life are vulnerable, some demographic groups have a disproportionate risk of mental illness. The prevalence is higher, for example, among people living in poverty, military veterans, victims of crime, people who are homeless, and persons in non-dominant social groups including women, people of color, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population. This is due in large part to the chronic stress from trauma, difficult living conditions, and discrimination within society and among service providers.Mental illness is pervasive in Northeast Florida, just as it is throughout the world. It affects people of every age, gender, race, sexual orientation and socio-economic standing. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that one in every four adults in the United States (approximately 61.5 million) experiences a diagnosable mental illness in a given year. That means that approximately 268,384 of the 1,073,534 adults in Northeast Florida are living with a mental illness. About 4 percent of adults live with a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, or other psychotic disorders – or nearly 42,000 in Northeast Florida.

A Legacy of Community Change

October 2, 2014

2014 JCCI Annual Report.

Unlocking the Pieces: Community Mental Health in Northeast Florida - Executive Summary

September 30, 2014

While people from every walk of life are vulnerable, some demographic groups have a disproportionate risk of mental illness. The prevalence is higher, for example, among people living in poverty, military veterans, victims of crime, people who are homeless, and persons in non-dominant social groups including women, people of color, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population. This is due in large part to the chronic stress from trauma, difficult living conditions, and discrimination within society and among service providers.Mental illness is pervasive in Northeast Florida, just as it is throughout the world. It affects people of every age, gender, race, sexual orientation and socio-economic standing. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that one in every four adults in the United States (approximately 61.5 million) experiences a diagnosable mental illness in a given year. That means that approximately 268,384 of the 1,073,534 adults in Northeast Florida are living with a mental illness. About 4 percent of adults live with a severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, or other psychotic disorders – or nearly 42,000 in Northeast Florida.

Welcome to Actionville: Spring 2014

May 6, 2014

One year ago, we completed the Imagine It! phase of JAX2025 and launched theBuild It! phase. JCCI's Model for Community Change calls for frequent and consistentmeasurement of progress to allow us to know where we're on track and where weneed to focus additional efforts.Some results appear quickly. Others become apparent over time when we look atvarious measures. When we look at the measures, movement and direction can beas important as outcomes, many of which will take time to accomplish to the levelsanticipated in the Vision.In our measurement, we use both qualitative and quantitative measures – storiesof action and data that indicate direction – to describe the results. In each case,the information presented is the most current data available. More data and sourceinformation can be found online at www.communitysnapshot.org.The results are clear: Jacksonville is a different city than it was a year ago.We are making progress. Our challenge today is building on this momentum toreach the JAX2025 Vision before the year 2025. Join us in that effort.

Recession Recovery and Beyond Advocacy Task Force: Final Implementation Report

December 1, 2013

When the Recession Recovery & Beyond Advocacy Task Force began its work in the summer of 2011, Northeast Florida was suffering under the worst of the residual impact of the Great Recession that had actually "officially ended" two years earlier. You wouldn't have known it by the malaise that still enveloped the region where the unemployment rate stood at a staggering 11.2% in January, 2011. The housing market, long the major catalyst of the local economy, had collapsed, foreclosures were rampant, and new construction was nearly non-existent. Businesses were failing, and per capita income was declining.We are pleased to report that as JCCI closes out its two-year implementation effort, solid progress has been achieved in a number of areas that will hopefully help lead to a prolonged period of sustained economic growth in the region. Significant among these are advances in small business development and entrepreneurship; momentum toward meaningful Downtown revitalization; support at the local, state, and federal levels for JAXPORT expansion; notable growth in the aviation/aerospace sector; a strong emphasis on workforce development and educational alignment with industries with plentiful job opportunities; improved regional collaboration and cooperation; and increasing traction with key stakeholders for a potential game-changing Institute of Preventive Medicine and Urban Health.By August, 2013, the unemployment rate in the JAX MSA had dropped to 6.7%, down 4.5% from January, 2011, and a full 3.3% over the past year and a half. Local economist Paul Mason, who directs UNF's Local Economic Indicators Project, forecasts a continued drop to around 5.75% by the end of the year. Construction jobs in the Jacksonville area have risen by 8.7% in the past year, surpassed only by the professional and business services sector which has experienced job growth of 10.4% over the same period.

This is my Story...Building a Better Jacksonville

September 25, 2013

2013 JCCI Annual Report.

How Do You Build Community?

August 17, 2012

2012 JCCI Annual Report.