Guest Column by Latala Hodges, Sr Communications and Operating Officer
By now, we hope you’ve heard about Our MHC — the community visioning process we’re currently undergoing in partnership with the City of Martinsville, Henry County, and our vital community partners.
You may have noticed us around town lately, and that’s because we are now deep into the community engagement phase of this project.
We are diving into Martinsville-Henry County deeper than we ever have before because we want this plan to reflect your true voice. This effort builds directly on our last strategic planning process, where we learned a harsh truth: many residents felt a lack of hope for the future. That drove us to make Hope our official North Star.
Now, Our MHC is taking that work a step further. We’re co-creating a 25-year vision for our region that will directly inform The Harvest Foundation’s roadmap for the next 3 to 5 years and beyond. To do that right, we need to build a strategy that is highly intentional and clearly measurable.
But we can’t do it from behind a desk or from a conference room. We have to meet you exactly where you are in the community.
If you’ve been out and about these past few weeks, you might have already run into team members from Horizon 54 (formerly Equitable Cities), the consultants we’re partnering with to do the work. Here’s where we’ve popped up: The Smith River Sports Complex, Collinsville and Ridgeway library branches, May’s Bassett Cruise-In, The Ground Floor, and local storefronts during Uptown Martinsville walkabouts.
So far, a few themes have risen to the top:
- Economic Opportunity & Workforce Development
- Housing & Neighborhood Stability
- Youth Retention & Leadership
- Health, Wellbeing & Quality of Life
- Regional Collaboration & Trust Building
- Environmental & Outdoor Assets
- Infrastructure, Mobility & Connectivity
- Arts, Culture, Identity & Community Pride
We’re heading into our next phase, which focuses on personal and candid conversations about where we want our community to go in the next 25 years. We want you to tell us what we’re missing and what you really think. We need your honest perspectives to shape these priorities.
To keep this work centered in the community, we’ve teamed up with local community liaisons who are handling most of these interactions. These are people who live right here alongside you. They are your neighbors, the folks you see at the grocery store, and the people you sit next to in church. They’ll be setting up at major upcoming events, including the Latino Festival and Smith River Fest, so please stop by, say hello, and share your thoughts.
We’re asking you to please get involved. This is a level of community-wide listening that only works if every voice is represented. We want to make sure no one is left out of this conversation. If you think there is someone we need to talk to, a neighbor, a local leader, a business owner, or a friend with a unique perspective, please tell us. Let us know who they are, and we will gladly contact them directly.
You can make a difference, and you can be the change you want to see in our community. To submit a name, find out where we’ll be next, or share your own feedback, visit the Our MHC website today.