ECONOMIC ACTION
Seven years in—seven to go
is being taken on and looking at the additional initiatives we could take on. RA: Will there be a product or plan? Kate: The riverfront aerial mapping will be produced. RA: Who is guiding the discussions? Kate: Our champions. They are Visit Quad Cities, United Way, QC Chamber, and the QC Community Foundation, and each of the four organizations are aligning their goals with the 2030 goals. Our full board of directors numbers 14. The most important role of our board is to ensure that Q2030 lives up to its promise of collaborating with many and showcasing regional successes to accelerate a more cool, creative, connected, and prosperous community for all. RA: What are 2023 actions that will lead to 2030 goals? Kate: In 2023, we will strive to contact 40% of high schoolers without clear
career potential to be engaged in apprenticeships and learn how they are experiencing the system. In addition, we hope to have an online, usable riverfront amenity guide as well as signage to tell the stories of the region. Finally, we want to make our growing refugee population more aware of entrepreneurial work, uplift the work they are doing, and decrease poverty within that population. RA: Would you say you are encouraging Kate: Yes. Q2030 has a lens focused on diversity and inclusion and promises to be an active advocate for convening Quad Citizens collaboratively. It is our policy to work with those who are advocating the Quad Cities as one metropolitan region, like Bi-State and River Action. collaboration to build trust with those who have been historically underrepresented?
— by Kathy Wine
L aunched in 2016, Q2030, a Regional Action Plan that is a transformational community and economic development initiative designed to make our bi-state area cooler, more creative, connected, and prosperous by the year 2030, is inspiring change. Organizers are connecting the dots by moving from economic impact to environmental impacts, social justice, and even housing justice. We sat down with Kate Jennings, Executive Director, in December to learn where we are exactly, half-way to the 2030 goal. RA: How do cities’ 2030 goals t into your regional goals? Kate: That is the biggest challenge, making sure that the work is complimentary to other work that
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