Residents invited to help shape next OVOF regional Action Plan

WENATCHEE — Residents of Chelan and Douglas counties will have several chances this year to help shape the region’s next five-year Action Plan as Our Valley Our Future begins a new round of surveys and community listening sessions.

The nonprofit initiative announced on March 3 that it has launched its “Our Valley Together” planning process, which will gather public input and guide development of the organization’s 2027–31 Action Plan.

The current plan, released in 2022, expires at the end of this year. Since the first Action Plan was introduced in 2017, more than 100 initiatives and programs connected to the effort have met their goals and brought more than $120 million in outside funding into the region.

Executive Director Rachel Evey said community feedback plays a central role in determining the organization’s priorities.

“OVOF’s work is defined by the opportunities, challenges, and priorities identified by the residents of Chelan and Douglas counties,” Evey said. “The ideas residents share in the survey will become our focus for the next five years.”

As part of the outreach effort, OVOF has launched a bilingual public survey and plans to host about 20 listening sessions with residents, community leaders and regional stakeholders.

Responses from each of those sessions will be analyzed and used to develop initiatives and programs — known within the Action Plan as “action items” and “game changers” — across six community focus areas.

Those areas include economic development and jobs; housing, transportation and growth; environment and sustainability; health and social services; lifelong learning, culture and youth; and civic engagement and decision-making.

OVOF organizes committees of subject-matter experts for each focus area to help shape the initiatives. Local governments, nonprofits and private organizations are then recruited to lead projects identified in the plan.

The process also functions as a regional needs assessment, giving public officials and community organizations insight into the region’s priorities and challenges.

More than 20 organizations have already signed on as partners in the “Our Valley Together” planning effort. Participating groups include the Chelan County PUD, Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority, Link Transit, Wenatchee Valley College, NCW Libraries and the Wenatchee Valley YMCA.

OVOF expects to release the completed 2027–31 Action Plan at a public event in January 2027.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media