Vision for Staten Island makes progress in bringing the community’s vision to reality. This independent not-for-profit has initiated a “visioning” project, which serves to bring the Staten Island community together with public and private leaders to create an inclusive and comprehensive vision for the future. The process continues with Reality Check Workshops scheduled for April 29 and 30, and May 6 and 7 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at P.S. 58, located at 77 Marsh Avenue in New Springville.

Vision for Staten Island is a process of continuous refinement of the ideas gathered from the public. Vision for Staten Island’s Idea Gatherings held between December 2008 and February 2009 resulted in over 2,800 ideas contributed by nearly 900 members of the community. Click Here to view these ideas.

In order to begin refining the content of the vision, the Vision Steering Committee organized the ideas into 20 major topics, identified basic themes within each topic, and constructed a draft vision statement for each topic. The next step is the Reality Check workshops, where the public’s intuitive input is integrated with more specific information brought to us by “topical experts.” This is done by discussing and framing issues related to each vision topic. The results of the Reality Checks will later be passed to Topical Work Groups that will refine and strategize the vision.

The four Reality Check workshops are open to the public. Five topics will be addressed each night. Participants will select their preferred topic of focus at registration and will be assigned to a small group accordingly. Once in their small group, participants will review their topic’s ideas, address the critical questions for that topic, and brainstorm preliminary implementation steps to be addressed by the Topical Work Groups. Each small group will be led by a trained facilitator.

The Reality Checks are critical because they address issues in a public context–where experts interact with the public. All citizens are encouraged to attend any (or all) of the following Reality Checks, and work on the topics that are most important to them.

The schedule is as follows:

April 29, 7:00pm-9:00pm: Health, Planning and Physical Development, Marketing, Culture, Housing

April 30, 7:00pm-9:00pm: Transportation: Roads and Traffic, Transportation: Public Transit, Environment, Diversity, Youth

May 6, 7:00pm-9:00pm: Economic Development, Community Cooperation, Social Services, Government Services, Parks and Recreation

May 7, 7:00pm-9:00pm: Education, Preservation and Beautification, Waterfront, Transportation: Walking and Biking, Aging.

Vision for Staten Island Reality Checks address key issues as the public interacts with the experts.