Our Opinion: KCCI catalysts

Our Opinion: KCCI catalysts

Tallahassee is so fortunate to be a beneficiary of the Knight Creative Communities Institute, which is again this year acting as a catalyst to four extraordinary projects that within in the next year expect to make real and lasting improvements in the quality of life here.

Four teams are at work with clear goals and new energy to move them along. They are:

Talent Lives Here is an initiative aimed at one of our long-standing ambitions, which is to increase the number of local college graduates who will choose to remain in the Tallahassee area as young professionals. The approach, specifically, will be through enhancement of internship experiences in businesses and organizations. The link is strong between where students have internships and the communities where they settle and thrive, because they’ve made connections and gotten to know the community outside of the campus “bubbles,” that students often never leave during their university experience. Interested? E-mail William Smith at Smith.William@ccbg.com.

Identify Tallahassee and Illuminate Tallahassee are two sides of one initiative that focuses on growing Tallahassee’s economy through an enhanced sense of place. This means recognizing special districts — like Midtown, G-Street (that’s Gaines Street), SoMo (that’s South Monroe) — for their unique qualities and enhancing Tallahassee’s visual appeal through art, arches, murals and other visual projects, with a focus on the urban core. Interested? E-mail jdrevell87@yahoo.com or mike@trusteria.com.

Explore Outdoors is such a natural. It will focus on informing newcomers as well as longtime residents about existing outdoor activities so there is more awareness of and participation in physical, cultural, historical and educational outdoor opportunities in this region. The flagship, to encourage an active lifestyle, will be an adventure race in August, with live music, food and vendors. Interested? E-mail lmille@cob.fsu.edu.

Start Up, Start Up is all about fostering a greater entrepreneurial climate in this region, especially in the areas of technology, research and development. This initiative will include identifying all the resources and organizations that can provide financial and/or consulting assistance to young, small businesses through a comprehensive Web site and with a mentoring focus. Interested? E-mail john.webb@freedomfabrication.com.

All of these ideas have been talked about off and on for years to some extent, and the KCCI program has such promise because it involves committed, well-focused volunteers with time-certain goals, the organization and human energy to advance these community-enriching ideas as never before.

With all the challenges and disruptions that the slow economy has brought about, we salute KCCI and all its volunteers in this year’s catalyst projects for stepping up and contributing so enormously and optimistically to this place we call home.