A Vision for PEOPLE
F.O.C.U.S. Community Goals

Caring minds work together

A community of neighbors respecting and caring for one another, where diversity is valued, the vulnerable are supported, children thrive, and learning lasts a lifetime.

PEOPLE Outcome Goals:

• Our people will be healthy and always learning.
• All groups within our diverse human family will share in our community’s success.
• Those who cannot provide for themselves will receive the help they need.
• Our actions will show we share strong values about individual and corporate responsibility, giving, and volunteering.

PEOPLE Action Goals:


EDUCATION

1. Open schools weekends, nights & holidays:
• for meetings, recreation, and educational programs
• as sites for health and human services to individuals and families
• functioning as community centers

2. Provide equal, quality education for all children:
• by changing the way schools are funded
• to narrow the gap in per-student resources between "poor" and "rich" districts
• so that costs are equitably distributed among taxpayers

3. Increase the number of school days:
• to optimize achievement
• to make life-long education seamless
• with schooling in nontraditional settings, technology-assisted learning (distance learning)
• with apprenticeships for school-to-work transition, work site classes

4. Teach students to be good citizens:
• prepared academically and socially for current and future opportunities
• knowing how to direct their own continuous learning
• knowing their community and the expectations of citizenship
• encouraged and commended for service learning (volunteerism)
• provided with mentoring, internships, and work-relevant educational experiences that enhance academic achievement
• by schools more fully integrated into the community

5. Keep training teachers and make them accountable:
• by doing more and better professional development, including more contact with those who will admit or hire their students (for higher education, technical training or employment)
• with continuing employment subject to periodic review of clear, agreed-upon measures of professional achievement

6. Combine city and county schools:
• by first consolidating administrative and other functions across school districts
• wherever costs can be reduced and educational outcomes enhanced at the same time
• eventually to have one county-wide school system

7. Increase technology in all classrooms:
• so that every child will learn to use a computer
• with training for teachers so they can optimally use technology to improve achievement

8. Establish community scholarships:
• with teen input into the selection process for college scholarships
• not just for college - for technical training and other kinds of training as well
• for adults of all ages

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HUMAN SERVICES

9. Improve services for children 0 - 6:
• laying the foundation for the rest of life’s intellectual and other capacities
• focusing on prenatal care, parenting education, nutritional support
• further reducing infant mortality and low birth weight rates
• with every child having a pediatrician and consistent preventative health care fostered by better record
• keeping and a coordinated approach among providers

10. Provide affordable, quality child care:
• available for parents who work nontraditional hours
• staffed by screened and well-trained caretakers who are adequately paid

11. Organize more programs for teens:
• better coordinating programs that aim to reduce teen pregnancy
• teaching positive social interaction skills for managing or avoiding conflict, abusive relationships, negative
• peer pressure
• doing more to recognize and reward teen achievements - making achievement "cool"
• featuring teen centers and programs that teens want to attend
• including alternatives to teen incarceration that make sense
• providing jobs and internships for teens living in poverty

12. Foster independence and community involvement for older people:
• by offering more help connecting to paid or volunteer work
• by creating a community leadership program for seniors
• sustaining top-quality care for all kinds and degrees of health and living needs as people age
• with more inter-generational contact through planned activities

13. Increase collaborations and mergers among human services:
• to optimally use resources
• to provide single site access to services

14. Add diverse and multilingual staff to human services:
• especially for critical services such as hospital emergency rooms, police departments, emergency government services, 911

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HOUSING

15. Provide affordable, healthful, and safe housing:
• by enforcing housing codes and laws that provide incentives to improve properties
• by teaching first-time homeowners and tenants how to care for their property
• by establishing rent-to-own programs

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HEALTH CARE

16. Expand affordable, accessible quality health care:
• to include vulnerable community members
• featuring systematic data gathering for outreach and tracking
• becoming a national model for excellence of care and affordability

17. Establish a hospital for children:
• through collaboration among area hospitals
• adapting an existing facility as an alternative to building a new one

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COMMUNITY BUILDING

18. Eliminate discrimination and racism:
• by aggressively reinforcing relevant laws and regulations
• providing diversity training in schools and workplaces, and for police, hospitality workers, store clerks, and others
• continuing the Dialogue Circle movement and other efforts to create public forums
• eliminating "redlining" by banks, realtors, etc.

19. Build local pride and positive attitude:
• by educating our residents
• so they understand the economic and other impacts of positivity
• by holding more events such as the "Weather Or Not" luncheon
• by commissioning a special song about Syracuse and Central New York

For progress on this goal see Arts, Culture and Events Downtown: The Case for Stonger Recognition and Support Case Study

20. Include people with disabilities in all community activities:
• including our community’s economy
• by providing more education for the community, including employers

21. Increase support for volunteering:
• by people of all ages and backgrounds
• assisted by a central database and placement service
• with employer support
• with training for volunteers themselves and for staff who work with volunteers

22. Teach newcomers about the community:
• about our history, diversity, systems, and volunteer opportunities
• to help them feel welcomed and to integrate them into the community fully and quickly

23. Create one community calendar for all community events:
• encouraging collaboration in the scheduling of events such as fundraisers for charities
• with a web site serving as a community "bulletin board" and numerous hyperlinks to other local sites

24. Encourage religious congregations to partner on projects:
• as a key piece of uniting the whole community
• to optimally use resources

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