Imagining the Future of Council Bluffs, IA
Events invite residents to share their dreams for community.
What do you love about your community? Where do you spend your time? How could the place you call home be better?
These are questions the Iowa West Foundation asked Pottawattamie County, IA, residents during its recent Imagine Hours sessions. The organization uses these sessions to help set its priorities, and the community’s responses are already positively impacting the region.
“Going into any public listening sessions, there’s always a risk of unleashing a flood of criticism about irritants like potholes, but that didn’t happen,” says Iowa West Foundation President and CEO Brenda Mainwaring. “Instead, we asked, ‘What do you love about your community?’ The response was remarkable. Our community has so many points of pride. When we asked what would make this place even better, we heard recurring themes relating to housing and workforce education.”
Stronger Communities
“We all want to live in a community where we are included and appreciated. The best ideas for how to make a community a place where people love to live are going to come from the people who already call it home,” Mainwaring says. “[The Iowa West Foundation] can expand and develop those ideas to strengthen our communities’ love of Southwest Iowa.”
The foundation, which provides grants for community projects by government entities and nonprofit organizations, is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the Midwest. It is funded by investment income and the Iowa West Racing Association, which receives contracted fees paid by local casino operators – Ameristar, Harrah’s and Horseshoe. Mainwaring says the foundation is already implementing residents’ ideas and suggestions.
For example, Iowa West retooled its support for education to focus on job readiness to meet the needs of rural and urban students.
“And we have convened local experts to help us understand housing needs across the spectrum of near-homeless to comfortably housed,” Mainwaring says. “Those conversations have already led to two new programs that we hope will address some of the gaps that our experts identified.”
Talent Pipeline
Matt Mancuso, the executive director of business and community education at Iowa Western Community College (IWCC), immediately recognized the importance of Imagine Hours and was one of the first people to request the results.
During the Imagine Hours sessions, employers and individuals expressed what they wanted in workforce development programs, like those offered by the college.
“When I saw the process, it was so unique getting ideas from the community,” Mancuso says.
IWCC plays a vital role in developing the talent pipeline for the region’s businesses. The college has around 7,000 students enrolled in credit-oriented classes and up to 9,000 noncredit students taking career training classes or personal interest leisure classes.
“What is a community requesting, from truck driving classes to classes for credit? They were throwing out ideas of what they would like to see. We used it as a roadmap,” Mancuso says.
IWCC is fine-tuning its classes and hired a part-time marketing coordinator to spread the word about what’s available.
Classes for commercial driver’s licenses or medical technicians are examples of workforce programs. Plus, IWCC is adding life and leisure classes, such as photography and cooking.
“Things you would do not necessarily to improve your work position but your life position,” Mancuso says.
Moving forward, the Iowa West Foundation plans to keep listening and imagining a bright future.
“Our core mission is to support communities where families love to live. We can only do that if we know what people love about their hometowns and what they think would make it even better,” Mainwaring says. “The Iowa West Foundation can be an ingredient in successful communities, but the energy and commitment come from the community. By understanding their priorities, we can help build the hometowns they want.”
For more information about the foundation’s Imagine Hours sessions, click here.
Get to Know Council Bluffs, IA
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