About FOCUS - FOCUS Greater Syracuse

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MISSION STATEMENT

FOCUS is a citizen driven organization that taps citizen creativity
to bring about change in Central New York by enabling citizens,
organizations and government to work together to enhance the quality of our lives
and our economic future.

FOCUS engages in citizen-centered research, engagement and planning.

FOCUS PRESIDENT’S NEW YEAR MESSAGE

As we say “Welcome!” to 2021, I’d like to reflect a bit on progress made through the challenging year of 2020 as well as look forward for FOCUS Greater Syracuse.

In some ways, 2020 was a time for growth for FOCUS:

The March lockdown pushed us to embrace the virtual world, beginning by holding our board and committee meetings virtually and finding that attendance improved by going virtual.
In late spring, we experimented with virtual FOCUS forums exploring the impact of COVID-19 on our community. We soon realized that we were reaching a larger and growing audience. Attendance is up, and even more people visit our website to view past forums now available at any hour.
Our Citizens Academy also went virtual and, although we had a smaller class to comply with pandemic limits, the result was more than satisfactory to both our Academy attendees and to our presenters.
We were honored to learn this summer that Onondaga County had selected FOCUS to manage the Onondaga County Age Friendly/Livable Communities project, including facilitating the 40+ member Onondaga County Livable Communities Alliance.
All of this activity has been the result of FOCUS Board and staff members stepping up and lending their time and expertise to make these things happen.

As we end 2020 and begin 2021, we look forward to continuing our efforts to facilitate, educate and celebrate citizen engagement focused on making Central New York a better place to live for all.

In particular, we look forward to our January 27^th Virtual Wisdom Keeper celebration, honoring the Central New York Community for Service, Resilience and Innovation in the face of COVID. We hope many will join as we celebrate the good works that were accomplished in this community in 2020.

I want to conclude by thanking the many people who have contributed their time, expertise and/or financial support to FOCUS this year…our FOCUS Forum and Citizen Academy presenters and attendees, our FOCUS Board members and Emeriti, our program and Wisdom Keeper sponsors, funders and contributors and, of course, our staff. I continue to be amazed and grateful for the tremendous support we receive.

Looking forward to a safe, healthy and prosperous 2021!

Rita L. Reicher, PhD

FOCUS Board President

A MESSAGE FROM THE FOCUS BOARD

Dear FOCUS Friends,
As we reflect on these times, the Board of Directors recommits FOCUS Greater Syracuse to stand with the people of this community, our leaders and organizations, against the unconscionable social inequities that exist today. We are deeply saddened and outraged by the many social injustices that have occurred over the recent weeks, months and years and, most recently, the death of George Floyd – all reminders of and rising from discrimination that has divided our nation for centuries. We understand Black Lives Matter as a call to action of our community and nation to break down the barriers that divide us, working together to create a united America.

The FOCUS core mission is to inspire and educate, to serve as a convener, a communicator, a catalyst, a clearinghouse, a champion and a celebrator, improving the quality of life for all of our people, in all our neighborhoods, for all of their lives.

FOCUS reaffirms our goal to help create a community where everyone is treated as a full and equal partner, has an equal voice and role in shaping our community’s future, and has equal access to all that is needed to live a healthy, productive and satisfying life.

The Board of Directors
FOCUS Greater Syracuse
focus@syrgov.net

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF FOCUS

As many have stated, these are challenging times, no less true for FOCUS Greater Syracuse. I am happy to say, however, that we are alive and functioning, albeit remotely.

A quick summary of much that has happened since late March:

Our FOCUS Forums have been hold but we are investigating the option to conduct virtual forums and hope to begin to do so in the near future. We have been working with our SU Community Link intern on a final report on the survey we conducted earlier this year on potential topic areas of interest for our forums.
We are in the initial stages of planning, together with Syracuse University’s Office of Community Engagement and the City of Syracuse, our very popular Citizens Academy to be held this Fall. Citizens Academy is an eight-week program that introduces people from all walks of life to the operations of local government and the people who make it work. More than 400 people have been through the Academy and we look forward to opening the application process again as soon as possible. The specifics on how we will proceed with this program will be ironed out as we learn more about how we reopen Onondaga County and the City of Syracuse.
The Wisdom Keeper committee has been meeting and is recommending that we hold off our next Wisdom Keeper celebration until the Spring of 2021.
We are finishing up a few health and age-friendly-related projects that are due to be completed this Spring. Additionally, we continue to seek new projects for which FOCUS is uniquely suited and are submitting applications as appropriate.

From a financial point of view, funds are very limited and there are more unknowns than usual about the potential for sponsorships of our flagship programs.

FOCUS is an independent 501 (c) 3 organization supported by your charitable contributions, grants and sponsorships. Donations can be made using the DONATION link on the homepage or by sending a check to our offices at 201 E. Washington St., Suite 704, Syracuse, NY, 13202.

Rita L. Reicher, PhD

President

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW DECADE

FOCUS began 2020 with a look to the future

Attendance at FOCUS Forums roughly doubled year-over-year in 2019 driven by topics of vital interest to the community, coordination with like-minded organizations, and introductions to new leadership in city and county government, police, and broadcasting. Thank you to Syracuse University’s Office of Community Engagement and Thursday Morning Roundtable, WCNY, Leadership Greater Syracuse and National Grid, Onondaga Community College, Onondaga County, and the City of Syracuse for support and collaboration in these efforts.

FOCUS, which is the independent not-for-profit Forging Our Community’s United Strength, invites anyone with an interest in improving the quality of life in the Greater Syracuse area to bring ideas and questions that need answers to this launch for the new decade of FOCUS and Forums.

There are so many opportunities open here and now that the challenge for Greater Syracuse will be setting priorities and continued devotion to the work at hand. Come tell us where you want this community’s energy to go as the STEAM School and Syracuse Surge, I-81, the Southside Campus for the New Economy, Blueprint 15, and regional mega-warehouses and a statewide canal trail and lake loop are on the verge of becoming a reality. Building a more attractive welcoming, sustainable community and environmentally sound economy requires your focus.

What is FOCUS Greater Syracuse?

“Forging Our Community’s United Strength,” FOCUS Greater Syracuse is a community-wide visioning program created with the goal of making Syracuse a better place to live and work. Started by a group of interested residents, the program, loosely modeled after several visioning projects around the country, came out of the desire to determine a course of action and growth for Syracuse. FOCUS Greater Syracuse is a not-for-profit organization.

What is different about FOCUS Greater Syracuse from other visioning programs is that the ideas came from thousands of every day folks, the citizens of Syracuse and Central New York, not from people in authority positions.

FOCUS asked the citizens of Greater Syracuse what their dreams were for the future of our community. What did they want Central New York to look like in the future? They came up with real goals. READ ABOUT THE COMMUNITY GOALS HERE.

We highlight 20 GOALS for 20 YEARS .