Power of 32 Caps Visioning Process With Interactive Town Hall Meeting Outlining Future Plans on November 3

The Power of 32 – a four-state regional visioning process that has collected thousands of ideas to build a stronger future for the Greater Pittsburgh region -- will culminate with an interactive Town Hall meeting, available by streaming video at www.wqed.org or on WQED-TV, this Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 8:00 p.m.

Click on image to view promo

The Town Hall meeting will announce the Agenda for a Thriving Region by 2025, which contains 14 projects developed by public, private and nonprofit leaders in response to the Regional Vision defined in more than 150 Community Conversations last summer and fall.

“The thousands of people that participated believed we could do more by working together, and these projects are the first steps toward making the ideas generated by residents become reality,” according to Selena Schmidt, Executive Director of Power of 32. “More than 300 leaders have worked together this year to develop aspirational yet achievable projects that leverage the strength of our region in response to the public’s concerns,” Schmidt said.

Members of the public are strongly encouraged to participate in the Town Hall meeting, during which the organization’s goals and solutions will be discussed, and steps for accomplishing those goals will be developed, Schmidt said. The goals fall under the categories of Economy, Transportation/Infrastructure, Education, Environment, Government and People & Communities.

At the Town Hall meeting and on the Power of 32 website – powerof32.org - members of the public from across the 32 counties are being asked to indicate what projects will make the region more competitive globally, stronger collectively and which ones they are willing to help with. Following the Nov. 3 Town Hall meeting, Power of 32 will continue to use its website and social media outlets, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to publicize activities, engage the public in ongoing projects, and provide updates on progress on its goals.

ABOUT THE POWER OF 32
The Power of 32 is the largest visioning project undertaken in the US. Started in May 2009, the P32 process included thousands of people across a 32-county, four-state region with Pittsburgh as its hub. Bridging borders, the project unites a region of 4 million people with economic output of $178 billion, so together they can leverage their rich natural and human resources to address their common needs.

To date, the Power of 32 has accomplished these three phases:
1. Community Conversations: A listening phase of 156 Community Conversations launched in Summer 2010, which identified strengths, challenges and possibilities facing the region.

2. Framing Solutions: Beginning in Winter of 2011, policy options that build on the region’s assets and opportunities were developed and vetted to address the top challenges identified in the Conversations.

3. Regional Prioritizing: In Spring of 2011, leadership committees prioritized the policy options and committed to 14 projects that best addressed the top regional challenges and took advantage of opportunities.

For more information, contact Selena Schmidt at 412-648-9474 or selenas@powerof32.org.