Preserving the past while strategically planning for a promising future
for all citizens through mutual trust, respect, and cooperation.
Advancing White County is a comprehensive community and economic development strategic planning project for White County, Arkansas. This project began in May 2009, and was jump-started by Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe’s Arkansas Works Summit — a call-to-action for all 75 Arkansas counties to go through an assessment and planning process.
Co-chaired by County Judge Michael Lincoln and Searcy Mayor Belinda LaForce, this project will result in a completed assessment and strategic goals for the county. Participation is open to any interested citizen. Please use this site to get information about past events, find out about upcoming events, link to state resources, and contact the project team.
Advancing White County Strategic Plan: 2010-2015
Advancing White County Discovery Report
Phases of the Project
The strategic planning process has several phases. The graphic below illustrates these phases. We are now in the Implementation phase.
Formulation Phase
Sub-committees met to formulate strategic goals related to Economic Development, Health Care, Education, and Infrastructure.
Analysis Phase
Advancing White County has completed the Analysis Phase. This phase was focused on gathering information for the Discovery Report, which will include an analysis of the county’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and provide some general recommendations. Understanding the current situation of the county is an important step that must be undertaken before the community can start setting strategic goals. You can’t know where you want to go if you don’t know where you are!
This phase included research and data collection from publicly available data sources, as well as one-on-one confidential interviews of key community and business leaders, a driving tour, and a business survey. The information collected can be viewed in the Discovery Report.
Project Organization
The Project is organized into an Executive Committee and Steering Committee. The Executive Committee is composed of the project co-chairs and other key county leaders, and their role is to provide guidance to the Project Facilitation Team. The Steering Committee is composed of any citizen who wants to be involved and help shape the future of White County—participation is open to everyone! When the Formulation of the strategic goals begins, the Steering Committee will break off into several sub-committees, each with a specific area of focus. An organizational chart is shown below.
Meeting MinutesNovember Steering Committee Meeting - November 30, 2009, Beebe Business Survey – October Kick-off Meeting – May 1, 2009, Searcy Town Hall Meetings – June 22-23, 2009, Beebe, Bald Knob, & Rose Bud |