“People in Greater Owensboro take enormous pride in this community,” The Harwood Institute for Public Information starts the 72-page report on Owensboro-Daviess County. The Institute reports that though the people cherish the family-oriented, faith-based and strong personal relationships in the city, “people see the community struggling to work together productively.”
The Institute conducted city-wide conversations from November to February, learning the pulse of Owensboro’s residents. They found that many fear the community is in danger of stagnating and there is a growing restlessness about its future.
The report states residents ask themselves several questions:
- Will Greater Owensboro honor its past while adjusting to changing realities?
- Will the community make room for more voices and people and fresh ideas?
- Will people overcome divisiveness to work together to tackle pressing issues holding the community back?
- Will it adhere to the status quo and risk stagnation, or will the community seize opportunities to come together and build a better Owensboro?
Throughout the conversations, the Institute found four overarching themes for Owensboro to move toward unified action: focus on pressing issues, move from getting together to working together, grow civic capacities and be inclusive.
Rich Harwood, the Institute’s President and CEO, said throughout their conversations that people in the community, from city leaders to everyday people, want to engage and improve Owensboro.
“[It’s] interesting and noteworthy just how much people want to engage and how much they have to say, and I think most importantly, how much they want to help move Greater Owensboro forward,” Harwood said.
He said the feeling is felt across all demographics and areas of town, and because of this, without coming together first, it may be difficult to find where to mobilize.
Though the report, attached at the end of the article, may have difficult issues, Harwood said he doesn’t aim to showcase only Owensboro’s negative sides.
“The purpose of this work is to help the community move forward in a productive way. Not withstanding the fact that people are restless and they feel like the community is in danger and stagnating, the good news is people want to work on it,” Hardwood said.
The Harwood Institute also determined nine areas that they define as beneficial public capital that a community can work on to develop over time. These areas (on pg. 31) include an abundance of social gatherings, organized spaces for interaction, catalytic organizations, safe havens for decision-makers, diverse leadership, and more.
In the report, the Institute details how some capitals already manifest in Owensboro and where residents can utilize them better for growth and development.
For example, while the abundance of social gatherings causes people to gather downtown or utilize live music, they note that “people rarely mention social gathering places outside of the riverfront area.”
Some interviews that led them to that conclusion included people saying, “Owensboro is a great place to raise a family, but I wouldn’t want to be here if I was young and single.” Similarly, another said, “There is no place for teenagers to go after a game or anything. All they’re doing is roaming the streets, getting in trouble.”
Harwood will be presenting some of the results at Thursday’s Rooster Booster. Register for Rooster Booster here.
To read the report, view below.
