Young Leaders of Northeast Indiana (YLNI) has taken its 2020 Vision Program to the internet.  Young adults in the area can express their vision for the region by completing an online survey for the 2020 Vision on the YLNI website, www.ylni.org.

Respondents have an opportunity to share why they choose to live in Northeast Indiana, followed by an expression of their vision for the region.  With their permission, the thoughts of these individuals will be available to the community through print and online media.  By collecting these stories, YLNI believes it will effectively identify the true visionaries and future leaders of the community, and also inspire others to accept the challenge of helping make Northeast Indiana a better place to live, work and play.

The goal of the 2020 Vision Program is to gain insight from area young adults in an effort to prepare Northeast Indiana’s young leaders for the decade to come.  The current phase of the program, “Engage,” aims to provide a true representation of Northeast Indiana’s Generation Y and identifies visionaries of the community.  In the future, the “Empower” phase will involve educating YLNI members and the community regarding its research and cultivating the future leaders of the community.  The final “Execute” phase will be the implementation of the various visions identified and developed from the initiative.

“During the ‘Engage’ phase of the project, we felt that the obvious medium for getting our 2020 Survey out to as many people in our demographic as possible would be to have it available online.”  Sam Graves, YLNI VP of Community Impact, stated.

YLNI wants to lead the charge in bridging the gap between community development and quality of place.  If young people are serious about making Northeast Indiana a vibrant and viable place to live, work and play, they must exercise foresight, collaborate with community leaders, and share their own “2020 Vision.” With this type of action, by the year 2020 that vision will have become a reality.