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Nonprofit Our Valley, Our Future urges residents to shape Wenatchee area’s 2027–2031 action plan
Summary
Our Valley, Our Future presented the region’s community-visioning process to the Wenatchee City Council, describing working groups on housing, wildfire resilience, a postcarbon economy and health literacy and asking residents to participate in surveys, listening sessions and upcoming summits.
Rachel Eevee, executive director of the nonprofit Our Valley, Our Future, told the Wenatchee City Council on April 9 that the organization is leading a community visioning and action-planning process for 2027–2031 and asked residents to take part in surveys, listening sessions and working groups.
“The action plan is shaped by thousands of residents,” Rachel said, adding that the group uses surveys (English and Spanish), stakeholder interviews and listening sessions to identify priorities. Board member Norma Gyos described local outreach and volunteer engagement, saying the organization has worked in the region for more than a decade.
Eevee outlined four pillars of the nonprofit’s work: community visioning every five years, producing an action plan, supporting partners with coordination and data, and sustaining engagement between planning cycles. She said the current plan is in phase two (engagement) and listed working groups focused on housing solutions, wildfire preparedness (including a planned bilingual wildfire information website), postcarbon economy efforts such as industrial symbiosis subgroups, early learning, and health literacy.
On housing, Eevee said the group supports partners by clarifying what types of housing are needed (for example, densification or alternative funding models) and by providing letters of support for projects. She noted the organization has helped secure funding and provided technical assistance for local projects; the transcript includes an unclear numeric claim about total funding and that figure is not specified in city records provided at the meeting.
The nonprofit encouraged the public to join its outreach: the Wenatchee listening session is scheduled for April 20 at the library, a housing solutions summit is planned for June, and a resilience summit was noted for April 16. Eevee invited council members and residents to participate in working groups and action teams.
Council members asked whether working-group meetings are publicized; Eevee said many subgroup meetings are not advertised publicly but that the groups welcome members who reach out and want to participate. Council members also asked whether projects such as an aquatics center originated in the action plan; Eevee said the aquatics item appears in the 2022 plan but she could not confirm the original source.
The presentation concluded with the nonprofit’s request that residents complete the online or paper survey (open through the end of the month) and sign up for working groups or symposiums.
Next steps: the city and partners will continue outreach and the nonprofit will finalize the action plan and share results later in the planning cycle.
