06.21.05: Excellence Roundtable to focus on holistic lifelong learning community, through Gen-X, to elders

Submitted by Norm Roulet on Thu, 06/16/2005 - 16:23.
06/21/2005 - 10:30

Plan to join in the discussions at the Tuesday, June 21, NEO Excellence Roundtable at the City Club of Cleveland as we advance innovative open source pursuits for holistic economic development in Northeast Ohio, including:

  1. ongoing strategic planning for the upcoming NEO Learning for Life forums, July 5, 12, 19 and 26
  2. introduction of a new regional initiative to make NEO a national model for innovative approaches to affordable housing plus services for older adults
  3. collaboration with Next Generation Consulting to analyze the Generation-X appeal of our region

Thus we further awareness that economic development depends on optimizing brainpower, quality connected places and innovation networks with a general systems approach respecting children, young adults and elders - nothing less will do. Please review the following background information and visit the links provided in preparation for an impactful roundtable.

  1. The REALNEO team and the Excellence Roundtable are supporting Peter Whitehouse PhD/MD, the Intergenerational School, Case University, their Center for Regional Economic Innovation (REI), and enlightened area leaders to organize a series of forums in July to make NEO the world's most empowering learning community.

These four learning community forums, to be held consecutive Tuesdays, July 5, 12, 19 and 26, will focus on the economic impact of effective education and the catastrophic consequences of poor scholastic outcomes, which is one of the most significant issues in NEO and America today. Planning for these forums is the primary purpose of the weekly NEO Excellence Roundtables at the City Club, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM, on Tuesdays, June 14, 21 and 28 - join us and help plan the July Learning Community forums and the region's solutions.

These Learning Community forums precede an August 2nd levy for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and other regional education levies ahead, and come at a time when people of this region and nation-wide have realized America has lost competitive advantages to other parts of the world and that better strategies for education are needed.

The July Learning Community forums will pursue innovations in education that will transform our regional quality of life and economy and our global competitiveness. The forum will follow the Open Source Economic
Development framework of REI Executive Director Ed Morrison, who will help facilitate the series. The forums will draw together panels of experts and luminaries, including educators and students, to explore three core considerations driving
education-related outcomes - 1) brainpower, 2) quality connected places, and 3) innovation networks. The series will culminate with a major symposium on the relationship between economic development and quality education in our region.

The Learning Community forums are the brainchild of Dr. Peter Whitehouse, who is Director, Integrative Studies, Department of Neurology, Case Western Reserve University, and Professor of Neurology, Cognitive Science, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Psychology, Nursing, Organizational Behavior and History, University Memory and Aging Center, University Hospitals of Cleveland and co-founder of the Intergenerational School, which is exceptional. You may expect remarkable outcomes from this initiative, and a remarkable experience helping make it a reality. See information related to this pursuit posted at the NEO Excellence community here, and starting to develop at the Learn Life community here.

  • The McGregor Foundation and the Institute for the Future of Aging Services held a nationally significant workshop at the McGregor Home, on June 15 & 16, 2005, where a very diverse group of local, regional, state and national leaders, who are concerned with optimizing the quality of life of senior citizens, strategized on innovative models for helping older adults age at home and access affordable housing plus services, as opposed to the current aging healthcare models encouraging dependency and more expensive nursing home care models.

    The workshop was intended to lead to the development of one or several models of this pursuit of excellence in NEO, which leverages the abundance of talent and resources addressing senior care issues here. The workshop was successful, as McGregor CEO Rob Hilton took leadership to form a steering committee that will go into immediate action creating a collaboration to further one or several projects in NEO to meet the objectives of this pursuit here, as a replicable model for the rest of the nation. We'll discuss this pursuit at the Excellence Roundtable, and develop related content at a virtual community called Future of Aging to post here this weekend.

  • Over the past six months, Madison, Wisconsin based Next Generation Consulting has been working with the Akron Chamber of Commerce and area community leaders to analyze the Generation-X appeal of Northeast Ohio - results have been powerful, as reported on REALNEO here and here. Many Cleveland area leaders have been amazed by the value of this initiative, and arranged to meet with the CEO of Next Generation Consulting, Rebecca Ryan, and discuss the impact her work would have expanded and amplified across our region.

    That pursuit is becoming reality, as Next Generation Consulting will hold some focus groups with Gen-Xers in Cleveland, in July, and REALNEO is teaming up with Rebecca to conduct further analysis of the appeal of our community to that bedrock new economy population segment. The timing can't be better, as this expanded, public outreach will coincide with our efforts to increase awareness of the economic value of education, which is so critical a success factor for the Generation-X and younger and elder generations alike. We'll discuss plans for this outreach at this week's roundtable.

    • We hope to see you at the Roundtable.

    About the NEO Excellence Roundtable: People who care about Northeast Ohio who are openly strategizing on how our region may achieve world-class status - we are establishing benchmarks for success and taking action in pursuit of measurable outcomes. Current pursuits include bridging the digital divide in East Cleveland, deploying the optimal social network for Northeast Ohio, exploring innovative approaches to funding regional economic development and entrepreneurship, and exploring innovative approaches to improve education in NEO.

    We're nurturing face to face visioning and so have revived a storied tradition of roundtable lunches at the City Club, each Tuesday between 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM, where non-hierarchical area innovation champions are breaking bread and brainstorming. The NEO Excellence Roundtable format is casual and conversational - to join us for lunch, please contact coordinator Norm Roulet at norm [at] realinks [dot] org. Each attendee is expected to pay for one's own buffet lunch, which is $13 and always excellent - if that is a barrier to you attending, please join us regardless and we'll cover the difference.

    In the interest of supporting this open collaboration, we've also established a virtual Community Of Interest Link (COIL) called NEO Excellence - please visit at http://neoexcellence.realinks.us. To participate in the community, please "create an account" using the link found at the home page - or, if you have an account at another REALinks site... like at REALNEO... you may log-in with your username followed by @ that site's URL (e.g. your username [at] realneo [dot] us), and then enter your password from that site.

    Location

    City Club
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