Lakeland Vision told the City Commission on Tuesday that it has reached the midpoint of implementing its 2020 citizen vision and is focusing on program replication, aging‑friendly initiatives and workforce connections.

The nonprofit’s executive director, Laura Rodriguez, told commissioners that Lakeland Vision has delivered three generations of a citizen‑driven plan since 1998 and rolled out 37 community‑defined goals in 2020. She outlined committee work across four focus areas: strong and safe neighborhoods; lifelong education; jobs for a vibrant economy; and activities for a diverse community.

"Bike Buddies creates opportunities for youth and law enforcement to build positive relationships through bicycle repair and mentorship," Rodriguez said. She said more than 100 children have participated so far and that Lakeland Vision has produced an agency implementation kit and event operations manual so other Polk County cities can replicate the program.

Pat Steed, Lakeland Vision vice chair and longtime planner, reviewed the organization’s public engagement process used to refresh the vision in 2018–2019. "We had over 1,000 people in our engagement," Steed said, and the process touched every ZIP code in the Greater Lakeland area. She listed priorities that continued to surface: downtown activity, parks and trails, walkability, affordable housing, public safety and support for youth.

Amy Wiggins, chair‑elect, said board teams are conducting inventories of existing resources tied to each focus area to identify gaps and funding needs. She said the board’s first results targeted "strong and safe neighborhoods" and that the board will next return findings on jobs and activities for a diverse community.

Wiggins and Rodriguez described specific initiatives the board is advancing this year: an age‑friendly business certification administered with the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce; a senior discounts list and community resource presentations; a career exploration series and a Lakeland talent tour to connect graduating students with local employers; and health‑care literacy work to expand bilingual staff, community health workers and triage improvements.

Commissioners praised the partnership model. Commissioner McLeod said Lakeland Vision fills a coordination gap by pulling together organizations that might otherwise duplicate or miss each other’s work. Commissioner Madden and others asked about child‑care and early learning, citing research that early experiences affect later school readiness; board members said the group will treat early learning as part of lifelong education and workforce readiness.

The board said its next steps are to finish the current thematic inventories, identify sustainable funding or “funding insecurity” risks and share more detailed action recommendations later this year. The presentation materials and the full vision document are available at lakelandvision.org.

Why this matters: Lakeland Vision’s committees and partner organizations drive many community programs tied to the city’s comprehensive plan and can accelerate delivery of services (for example bike distribution, aging supports and workforce pipelines) that city staff and individual agencies could find harder to coordinate on their own.

Additional context: Lakeland Vision and the city coordinated during the last comprehensive‑plan update; board leaders said the joint outreach reached roughly 2,500 participants overall when combined with city engagement.