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It’s my pleasure to be writing you as Valley Vision’s new CEO. In my nearly three years here as a Managing Partner I’ve learned what a difference VV work can make by bringing people and organizations together to jointly create a better future.
I’ve spent the past few weeks gathering input from our board, our partnering organizations and other community leaders about your views on the health of our region, its strengths and needs, and your priorities and ideas for protecting and improving our quality of life. I’ve found there’s a great amount of respect and trust placed in Valley Vision and a heavy demand for the type of help we provide to new or growing collaborative efforts.
I’d like to thank everyone who helped make my predecessor and colleague Susan Frazier’s going-away party a hit. Susan continues to consult for us in our work with the City of Sacramento on General Plan outreach, but her day-to-day presence will be sorely missed!
I’d also like to announce several new additions to our Valley Vision “family.” Managing Partner Kristine Mazzei has recently returned from maternity leave, and still sends pictures of baby Benjamin when she’s at home with him. Also join us in congratulating Project Managers Chris Aguirre and Margaret Teichert on new additions to their families: Chris is the proud father of baby Olivia and Margaret mom to baby Benjamin. Margaret has decided to leave her full-time role at Valley Vision to concentrate on the very demanding role of full-time motherhood. We’re saddened to lose a valued coworker, but happy that her departure is for such a good cause!
With warm regards,
Where do you go to experience quality of life?
 Maybe it’s the invigoration of a ride along the Parkway, the drama of a good theater performance or the thrill of a close victory at a sports event.
Whatever your preference, experts say that off-time experiences like these – and the “civic amenities” like parks, museums and theaters that serve as venues for them – have a big impact on our ability to attract and retain new companies, entrepreneurs and talented workers.
That’s why civic amenities are a focus of the Partnership for Prosperity’s Business Plan for the Sacramento Region. And it’s why we’ve launched Experiences, a traveling interactive exhibit that’s designed to raise awareness about our existing amenities and gather input about the most important to invest in as our population grows.
Participants can review maps of our existing amenities, cast votes for the places they’d like to see more investment, and share their thoughts about how we might get it done. The exhibit premiered March 27 at the Folsom Visitors Center and roughly a dozen one-day showings are planned around the region. Can't make it? Read more and cast your votes online. Contact Chris Aguirre.
Many thanks to ULI Sacramento, the American Institute of Architects Central Valley and the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission for their financial support!
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New board members join as old friends depart
Please join us in welcoming new Valley Vision board members: Sierra Health Foundation President and CEO Chet Hewitt, Nolte Associates’ William Ishmael and Sutter Health Director of Government and Community Relations Collette Johnson-Schulke.
They replace UC Davis Health System’s Dr. Shelton Duruisseau, Sacramento State President Dr. Alexander Gonzalez and New Faze Development’s Martin Tuttle, who have stepped down as their terms expire. Sacramento Bee Publisher and Valley Vision board member Janis Heaphy is also retiring to Sun Valley, Idaho.
Many thanks for your insights and dedication to our region’s quality of life!
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Legacy Feast proving popular
Thanks for all of the (tremendous) interest in our Second Annual Legacy of Leadership Awards and Legacy Feast on May 22, 2008 at the California Museum for History, Women & the Arts.
More than 200 community leaders joined us last year to recognize exceptional leadership and cooperation on regional economic, environmental and social equity issues.
To learn more about the awards, visit our event web page or contact Debbie Uhrenholt at (916) 325-1630.
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 Partnership for Prosperity – Green Capital Alliance – Cleaner Air Partnership
The region’s largest business organization made clean and green technology a top priority on its annual trip to Washington D.C., and members of a Valley Vision-managed project helped play a central role.
The Sacramento Metro Chamber added a Clean/Green Technology Team to its list of 12 other policy teams on the annual Capitol-to-Capitol or “Cap to Cap” trip, where more than 400 community leaders inform their Congressional representatives about regional causes like flood control and air quality. Chamber leaders also made growing our region’s clean energy technology sector one of the top four overall policy priorities for the trip. See the Bee article
The new team included many members of the Valley Vision-coordinated Green Capital Alliance, a volunteer group of business, utility and local government leaders who work to support clean energy tech’s growth here. Born as the Partnership for Prosperity Clean Energy Action Team, the group recently rebranded to mark ambitious expansion plans and to highlight the increasing importance of regional sustainability as a central tool to growing our clean tech business sector. More background
Because supporting sustainability and clean tech requires an integrated approach, several Cap-to-Cap team leaders gathered at a recent Cleaner Air Partnership quarterly luncheon to share and coordinate their “green” federal policy and funding requests. Representatives of the Clean Technology, Air Quality, Transportation, Workforce and Economic Development teams attended the discussion.
It’s the latest sign of clean energy technology’s increasing importance in our region since the Partnership for Prosperity’s Business Plan for the Sacramento Region highlighted the sector’s potential to diversify our local economy AND help our environment. And a spate of major local announcements make it a great time to talk up our clean energy chops in Washington. Announcements over the past week show one of the nation’s largest solar manufacturing plants will set up shop at McClellan, that SMUD has inked the nation's largest solar-homes development partnership, that the City of Sacramento has landed a $200,000 solar grant, and that Sierra College is launching a solar installation training program.
For more about how to get involved or support the Green Capital Alliance, visit the Partnership for Prosperity website or contact Kristine Mazzei.
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 Partnership for Prosperity Novel workforce study available soon on interactive website
The Partnership for Prosperity’s Education Action Team is nearly finished with a year-long research study that forecasts job and skill demands that our economy will require over the next 10 years.
This innovative $65,000 study, completed by the Sacramento Regional Research Institute and Valley Vision, examines 75 leading regional industries, over 700 different jobs, and the specific capacities and skills needed for each. Both a summary report and a companion Website will be released this spring that will allow users to search, relate and compare a wealth of information for free.
This benchmark study – unmatched by any other region in the country – is advancing our competitive advantage by driving stronger pathways between the local workforce and local high school, vocational and college programs – a major goal of the Partnership for Prosperity’s Business Plan for the Sacramento Region.
Details: Bill Mueller.
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 Hmong Health Collaborative Hmong leaders developing collaborative strategic plan
With facilitation and support from Valley Vision, members of the Hmong Health Collaborative are in the midst of developing a strategic plan for coming years of work empowering Hmong refugees, immigrants and descendants in Sacramento and the Central Valley. To help further their efforts, the ten organizations in the Collaborative have split their efforts into two working groups, one focused on community organizing and one on engaging public policymakers.
Besides looking ahead, the two groups are also working together on direct action: a new pilot project that’s designed to increase the amount of access traditional shamans have to Western health care settings. The project involves educational meetings with Western health providers about Hmong spiritual practices and the involvement of shamans in Hmong healing practices, as well as trainings that educate shamans about Western health care.
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Community health needs outlined in detail
Did you know that 90 percent of the 105 ZIP codes in Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties exceed the state rate for heart-disease-related emergency room visits? Or that all four counties had diabetes death rates that were lower than national goal rates?
After months of careful planning, the area’s four nonprofit health systems and project manager Valley Vision have jointly unveiled an innovative new Web site designed to improve the public’s access to community health data like this, plus resources. The Healthy Living Map at www.healthylivingmap.com allows visitors to view health data such as rates of youth obesity, asthma, diabetes, and heart disease by ZIP code on a satellite map of Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties.
The map is part of an every-three-year study called the “Community Needs Assessment” undertaken by the area’s four nonprofit health systems – Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region, Mercy/Catholic Healthcare West, and the UC Davis Health System – to identify the needs of the underinsured and uninsured. The online map augments the paper report that’s traditionally produced.
Details: www.healthylivingmap.com.
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Find out more about the Valley Vision Leadership Council
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