Iowa West Foundation: Belonging in the Bluffs
Interviews with Iowa West Foundation staff and nonprofit partners
Iowa West Foundation: Belonging in the Bluffs
Belonging in the Bluffs - Lindsay Toussant Brown, Growing CB
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Welcome, Boomer Listeners. I'm Peggy Sweet, and this is Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation. I am joined in studio today with a new friend, and we all know how I love to make new friends. I have Lindsay. She is the growing CB consultant here in Council Bluffs. Welcome, Lindsay. Thank you for having me, Peggy. Appreciate it. It is great to have you here, and you are here to share some of the incredible things that are happening here in Council Bluffs. Some of the growth, some of the, I don't know, how would you word it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's the the growth and ideally the future landscape of what Council Bluffs can be for the those who live here and for those who may live here in the future.
SPEAKER_00So can you tell me a little bit more about Growing CB? I mean, I know that there's been surveys and other things. Where are we at right now?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. So Growing CB is an initiative that's spearheaded by iOS Foundation, the City of Council Bluffs, Pottawatomi County, Council Bluffs Chamber, and Advanced Southwest Iowa. And this collective effort is kind of that next natural progression post some of that surveying that you just referenced. So the most recent would have been Voices and Visions for those who participated in that. I know there was quite a bit of participation for that data collection piece, but it's really we have this data. Now what do we get to do with it? Where are we gonna take it? How are we gonna grow our community in both a population growth and a strategic economic growth strategy for the city? So that's really where this kind of morphed and adapted to. So what I am doing is taking that past data surveying and using it to really build upon for a vision of what can exist and what can be the future for population growth and for that strategic economic development. The ultimate goal is the population growth because if you are not aware, Council Bluffs has been stagnant in population growth for quite some time now. And that is a little unique compared to the rest of the Omaha Council Bluffs metropolitan area. And we want to make sure that when we do grow, we grow in the best way possible for the Council Bluffs community and to keep the integrity of what people love about Council Bluffs in general. So I would say that's really where the Growing CB initiative came from and kind of our end goals, how we're getting there, is quite the quite the journey. You know, uh you kind of have to test a few things to see what works and and maybe what doesn't. But I will say my journey so far is starting to interview different people to really wrap my head around some of the past surveying and data collection pieces, but also get an understanding of what people love about their community, maybe what are the challenges, what are some of those opportunities, and how do we really capitalize on those to make this a great place for people, like I had mentioned earlier, who did live here or those who may live here in the future. And so when we look at the population and how we want to grow that, some of those things that we really are need to work towards in understanding is identifying who that target audience is for Council Bluffs. And what that may mean is, you know, who are those interested in moving to Council Bluffs? Where would these individuals come from? What would draw them to relocate here? And then ultimately what would keep them here. So by understanding some of those individuals that already live in Council Bluffs call it home, have called it home for a very long time, understanding what they love about it and what draws them to stay here and continue to make it their home, we can use that information to understand what those who don't live here currently, you know, may make them also come to love it the same way that people from Council Bluffs love their community.
SPEAKER_00Lindsay, how can we connect with you and try to get some more information on this? Yeah, you can uh shoot me an email.
SPEAKER_01The email is growing cb at gmail.com.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And I'm gonna have you back this afternoon, and we're going to talk more in depth on how people can get involved a little bit more and where they can find out more information too. That sounds great. Thank you. This has been Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation.