Campus participates in regional initiative

By Tom Uribes
University Relations

A newspaper dated January 27, 2015, showed up on the doorsteps of 180,000 Fresno area residents this week -- the first in several ventures by a joint venture formed in 2001 between the Fresno Business Council and California State University, Fresno: the Fresno Area Regional Collaborative Initiative.

"The New Valley Times" - a hypothetical 24-page, full-color newspaper set in the future - was previewed at a news conference on Jan. 26 by project participants including Fresno State President John D. Welty.

Welty was joined by community leaders at a press conference that morning in the Save Mart Center 's Shehadey Lobby where he also explained the Fresno Area Regional Collaborative Initiative for news media.

The CRI is a group of volunteers from the public, private and non-profit sectors "that attempt to deal with the root causes of the region's long-term social and economic problems," Welty said

Joining Welty at the press conference were Ken Newby, chairman of the Fresno Business Council and the Fresno Area CRI; Dr. Alan Pierrot, CEO of FSC Health and chairman of the CRI's New Valley Times Task Force; Deborah Nankivell, CEO of the Fresno Business Council; and Ashley Swearengin, CEO of the Fresno Area CRI at Fresno State.

The newspaper is one example of the efforts being undertaken through a Community Action Plan developed by CRI task forces, Welty said.

CRI first determined that the improvement of per capita income in the Fresno Region to at or above state and national levels would be the ultimate indicator of success - an ambitious goal, Welty said.

"The early participants in the CRI realized that improving income levels for all residents in the region would mean fundamentally changing the way local industries competed in the global marketplace, and doing that would require rethinking and improving virtually every major component of our community," he said.

CRI did this by first creating task forces to address areas seen as critical to the region's success in the knowledge-based, global economy then developing the Community Action Plan that they have been implementing since last year.

Those task force areas were: the preparation of 'knowledge workers'; the availability and accessibility of next-generation technology infrastructure; effectiveness and efficiency in our public and non-profit human services sector; collaborative land use and transportation planning; and the creation of an innovative culture.

"The New Valley Times project is an example of one of the CRI initiatives developed and executed by the Innovation Task Force," Welty said. "Is it truly possible to improve income levels for all residents in the Fresno Region? After reading The New Valley Times, I think you'll agree that it's quite feasible, but not without collaboration and innovation."

He added that "overcoming the fierce challenges we face as a region is only possible through a new approach to civic leadership."

To inspire higher standards of civic conduct among its own volunteer task forces, Welty said the organizers of the CRI developed ten principles: "Community Values of the Fresno Region."

These values include such principles as a commitment to "art of the possible" thinking, truth telling, resolving conflict, boundary crossing and collaboration, and most importantly, steward leadership, Welty said.