Workforce Development

The City of Decatur and Macon County conducted a joint workforce development assessment for our region. This is the assessment strategy and implementation plan:

opens in a new windowWorkforce Development Final Reportopens PDF file

City of Decatur Housing Strategies and Impediments Report

The City of Decatur developed a strategic set of housing goals, programs and priorities to stabilize the housing stock, provide a pathway to homeownership, and invest in Decatur’s families so that they can build household savings and community well-being. A stronger, more vibrant housing stock, combined with economic development initiatives that expand job readiness and economic opportunities, aim to stem population loss and rebuild Decatur’s neighborhoods through both public and private investment.

Code Enforcement Assessment

The City of Decatur engaged the Center for Community Progress to study our housing and building code enforcement approach. They completed a final assessment and executive summary:

Great Streets, Great Neighborhoods – Jasper Street

We are embarking on a major revitalization initiative for neighborhoods along Jasper Street. The Great Streets, Great Neighborhoods project focuses on underutilized corridors and uses community ideas to help transform neighborhoods into welcoming, safe, and vibrant areas. The Jasper Street Corridor runs between Pershing Road and East Lake Shore Drive and connects neighborhoods, parks, industry, and so much more. Stay updated on this project and get involved at opens in a new window JasperConnect.org.

Utilizing GIS

The City of Decatur has a multi-faceted approach to neighborhood revitalization. To help drive our decision making, we have been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Check out this opens in a new windowrecent case study explaining our GIS work.

We were recently featured in an article by the American Planning Association for our GIS work aiding neighborhood revitalization efforts. See the article opens in a new windowhere.

 

2017 Initiative

In the fall of 2017 the City of Decatur kicked off the creation of what will be a roadmap for the future of our community. This Neighborhood Revitalization initiative is a resident driven, committed effort to identify the steps necessary to rebuild, reinforce, revitalize and – in some cases – reimagine Decatur, a no-holds barred honest conversation amongst our Decatur family about where we are and where we want to be. The only rules: be honest and be big and bold in our thoughts and to feel free to think beyond our current boundaries and the definitions that the outside world may have assigned to this community in deciding what we wanted for ourselves.

 

 

Seniors

Meetings were also held with focus groups of Seniors/Disabled on May 1, 2018, June 6, 2018 and August 18, 2018. Seniors at the Decatur Senior Center and local high-rise apartments were asked to fill out surveys about the condition of the City and recommended changes to be made in order to make the community better. Over 50 surveys were collected.

Seniors had concerns about crime, afterschool programs, the condition of sidewalks with the area and parks that were close within walking distance. They wanted a safe place to play with their grandchildren when they visited. They were also concerned about rehabilitation, bust transportation and demolitions.

grandparents with children

 

Millennials

The Millennial Re-envision plan is a continuation of the Community Revitalization initiative that started in the Fall of 2017, to help in identify the steps to rebuild, reinforce, and revitalize Decatur.

In the first round of community revitalization meetings, millennial voices were not adequately captured, so in the Fall of 2018 a group of Decatur Leadership Institute participants were assigned to the began the task.  They started out by creating a Facebook page with information for Millennials residing in Macon County to inform members about events, networking, and as a revitalization survey platform.

On September 24, 2018, the Decatur Leadership group launched an online revitalization survey called Millennial Thoughts and gathered 60 online responses.  They went to Millikin University and Richland Community College on October 17, 2018, to talk to students about the survey and gathered approximately 40 surveys.

On November 15, 2018, the group held a happy hour event at Door 4 brewing and invited young professionals in the community and gathered over 20 surveys.  The group ended up collecting 123 surveys with data from millennial residents.  The top categories of interests for the survey participants were better schools, more police, lower taxes, more government transparency, more low income assistance, and more activities for the community as a whole.

group of millennials