Raleigh, NC -

The Alliance for Regional Stewardship (ARS) is pleased to announce that the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber is the winner of the 2009 Organizational Champion Award for their leadership on the Agenda 360 regional visioning effort. Cincinnati’s Agenda 360 was named winner from among five award finalists at the ARS Regional Strategies Forum, held today in Raleigh, NC.

The Organizational Champion Award recognizes regions, regional alliances and regional leaders for excellence and demonstrated progress in at least one of the four principles of regional stewardship: innovative economy, livable communities, social inclusion, and a collaborative style of governance. All the award finalists exemplify regional cooperation efforts that have increased regional capacity, achieved tangible results and shown the potential for sustainability.

Agenda 360 is a regional action plan focused on transforming the Cincinnati USA region, which includes four counties in Southwest Ohio, into a leading metropolitan region. It is the result of a collaborative regional visioning effort in which 7,000 citizens contributed their voices. The visioning effort has developed into an actionable regional agenda with over 40 civic, business, government, educational and non-profit entities committed to create an aligned framework for tackling tough issues facing the region and position Cincinnati USA for sustained progress and success.

“Their application said ’Talent, Jobs, and Economic Opportunity for all who call our region home’ has been the rallying cry of Agenda 360. That’s the commitment it takes to drive regional success, and that is what Agenda 360 has accomplished in designing, developing and implementing their regional action plan,” said F. Michael Langley, Immediate Past Chair of the ARS Advisory Board and member of the 2009 ARS Award Committee. “It was clear in reviewing their submission and researching their progress that the Cincinnati region ‘totally gets it’ and through their current leadership and intergenerational focus on diversity and talent, will be a globally competitive region for the foreseeable future.”

The ARS Organizational Champion Awards were established in 2004 to recognize multi-city and multi-county communities that have abandoned rivalries, pooled resources and worked together to ensure their shared prosperity. The Organizational Champion Award is the highest honor bestowed by ARS. Finalists for the 2009 Organizational Champion Award were selected from a nationwide pool of candidates by a panel of five judges.

The Alliance for Regional Stewardship (ARS) is a national, peer-to-peer network of regional leaders working across boundaries to solve tough community problems. Supported by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, ARS members come from business, government, education, and the civic sectors and share a common commitment to collaborative action and achieving results. ARS is committed to the idea that strong and vibrant regional communities are built on four principles of regional stewardship: an innovative economy, livable communities, social inclusion, and a collaborative style of governance.

Source: ACCE

Publication Date: July 29, 2009