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(Click here to return to the Ready Solutions content depot.)
Harnessing 'Ready Solutions.' No more fitting statement sets the stage for the mission that has guided, and continues to guide, the work of YorkCounts.
The findings issued in both the 2002 report, Rusk II: A Challenge to Change, and the original 1996 Rusk Report underscored an urgent need for change in core areas of York County life to address problems stemming from economic and racial disparity, concentration of poverty and fragmented land use. Those broad areas have implications in the every day lives of York Countians –- in school, in work, in community. If Rusk’s report had ended with a statement about eroding quality of life, the proverbial glass would have seemed half empty and the challenge nearly insurmountable. Fortunately, the report did not end there, but with a positive reminder of the potential that makes excellence within reach, and the challenge to achieve it.
YorkCounts, made up of people who believe that excellence is within reach, took its cue from that challenge. Ready Solutions are not prescribed answers, but rather recommendations for ways to begin rallying people at every level –- elected officials, businesses, organizations, leaders and grassroots volunteers -– to become stakeholders who will execute those recommendations. The time is now, and it is up to us, to take these initiatives to task, to mobilize participation and to move forward.
The time is now because the consequences to York County of not acting now are too great and too imminent. And it is up to us because the "challenge
to change" has been placed squarely on our table. These challenges will not fix themselves -- and we have harnessed too much energy and momentum to sidestep or overlook the problems and leave them for future generations.
The idea of Ready Solutions is not as simple as it may sound. That phrase is not meant to imply a set of prescriptive remedies or easy answers. The recommendations are, rather, a jumping-off point, a tool, a "roadmap" of research that will motivate and guide the community in this mission called YorkCounts.
The content reflects a mobilized effort of people who could not help but respond to the challenge. The voices are those of the people who make up YorkCounts -- their own convictions, and countless hours of thought, brain power, expertise and collaboration that have gone into crafting and suggesting Ready Solutions to stop the erosion of quality of life in York County and start the renewal process.
"Quality of life." Three simple words -– not so simple to achieve. Change for the better will require a willingness to change, to take active steps toward change, but change is a small price to pay for such high stakes -- our immediate future, our children’s futures and their children’s futures -- futures for generations to come. Some change will happen immediately, with benefits realized almost right away. Other change will happen slowly over months or even years. Other, more deeply rooted and complex systems may require years and years of chipping away, with significant benefit not to be measurable in this lifetime. But the urgency remains – the time to plant the seed of change is now. And it is up to us all.
The Ready Solutions summarize the work of 13 action teams, who identified, dissected and analyzed initiatives that are executable and can bring about positive change, then produced recommendations for moving forward.
The synthesis of 13 individual action team perspectives takes on a new synergy and moves forward as a cohesive plan, consisting of broad major initiatives with interlocking themes: a comprehensive economic development strategy, regional collaboration in place of localized planning, diversity at work in communities and advancing YorkCounts into the future.
A singular focus among York County’s 72 municipalities will not get the job done. The time is now to think outside those individual interests and pursuewide-ranging solutions to promote responsible development; provide more equitable housing, educational and job opportunities -- especially for those living in impoverished pockets of York County; and cultivate more diverse neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools. The problems are intricately interconnected;
therefore, so must the solutions be.
Broad outcomes that bridge social, economic and political divides will not happen as a result of singular, localized efforts, but rather from collaborative efforts between county and local governments partnering together and with city government, public and private community partners and the community at large. Only then will York County look and feel like a better place with a higher quality of life. Working together, we can arrive together at “real solutions” that make a better York County –- for everyone. That’s what YorkCounts is all about.
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