About Us

Health and SafetyOne Lenawee Purpose and Vision Statement

One Lenawee is a collaboration of concerned people dedicated to the Vision of Making Lenawee County a Great Place to live, work, learn, worship, play, and invest.

 

How we work

• We bring attention and action to important community issues, and after careful study, advocate for positive change.
• Uniting and Connecting partners and committed people, we identify, support, and develop initiatives and projects that optimize community resources toward The Vision.
• Our Process: Evaluate. Educate. Engage.

 

One Lenawee Documents

• History
• Organization
• Accomplishments
• 2021 Objectives
• Current Members

One Lenawee Accomplishments

1. Cradle to Career is a community-comprised partnership working to ensure pathways of success for every child, every step of the way, cradle to career. Cradle to Career has historically had 6 focus areas- Kindergarten Readiness, Reading and Writing Proficiency, Preparation for High School Math, Social and Emotional Competence, Graduating with Confidence and Enrolled, Enlisted or Employed. Beginning in 2021 we will be incorporating the Whole School Whole Community Whole Child (WSCC) Model into our work. The WSCC Model will expand our focus to include 5 tenets that state: each child should attend a school that is Healthy, Safe, Challenging, Supportive, and Engaging by integrating health and education. The LISD is its backbone organization.
2. The Lenawee Health Network (LHN) is fully functional, and its backbone organization is ProMedica. Connecting Lenawee (CL) is a member, and through a MDHHS grant secured by the LHN, CL erected over 1,100 trail and street wayfinding signs on 21 bike routes throughout Lenawee. We continue work to make trails and bike routes accessible and safer.
3. We sponsored and raised the money for the CRC/UM government effectiveness report for Lenawee County. As a result of this report:
   1. One of our members served as chair of the Lenawee County Safety Committee; their report was well received and actions taken.
   2. We proposed a County Manager form of government, which was rejected. However, as a result of our interest in examining improvements to county government, one of our members served on a committee to study changes to the County Administrator’s position. Their recommendations were adopted by the county commission, and are still in effect.
   3. We periodically work to identify good county commission candidates,  educating them on what we believe are good government principles.
4. Connecting Lenawee is the strand for Infrastructure/Parks and Trails and River Raisin. We raised the money for the Non-Motorized Plan for Lenawee County, which is our guidebook for future projects:
   1. See #2 above regarding progress on the Non-Motorized (Active Transportation) Plan
   2. The plan was adopted by County and several local governments, many of which have also adopted Complete Streets legislation as a result of our initiative
   3. We worked on the Kiwanis Trail extension to Tecumseh for many years, and it is now being brought to fruition by the Kiwanis Trail Authority.
   4. Our aim is that all of Lenawee is connected, through networking and physically, to points of interest and recreation, especially to the University Region North of us. 
   5. We organized and raised money for a River Raisin Restoration Plan. We’ve made progress on the short-term improvements, and are working on the longer-term.
5. A Strategic Vision for Lenawee was developed in 2017, and goals set in seven areas identified through a countywide visioning process:

“Among the goals are making Lenawee County a destination area for the arts, developing non-motorized travel, creating a regional recreation authority to coordinate recreation projects and secure funding, using multiple media sources to disseminate community information, highlight the kinds of jobs in the community and what they pay to give students an idea of what careers to pursue, coordinate road work and other infrastructure projects to make them more cost effective, and support entrepreneurs by helping them develop their business ideas.”    The Daily Telegram, Dec. 1, 2017

 

This strategic vision still guides us in 2021.

 

One Lenawee History

One Lenawee was birthed by the Lenawee Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), then doing business as One Lenawee, as a way to engage all areas of Lenawee County to pull themselves up by the bootstraps from the Great Recession of 2008/09, during which we saw nearly 20% of our jobs disappear and many businesses close permanently.

It began in early 2008, and really gained momentum on December 10, 2008, with an Asset-Mapping meeting at Siena Heights University, attended by 80+ community leaders. The evening was sponsored by Consumers Energy, Adrian College, Jackson College, and Siena Heights University.

In 2009, several follow-up meetings were held, and in October, 2009, a Steering Committee was formed to carry forward what the community said were the most important topics: Education, Collaboration between various organizations, Art (both performing and visual), Community Development, Agriculture, and branding Lenawee County.

One Lenawee is a very close partner with the LEDC, now doing business as Lenawee Now, which focuses on economic development, while we focus on quality of life. Both are integral to the well-being of Lenawee County.

Between 2009 and 2013, the following topics were addressed by One Lenawee:

• Government organizations in Lenawee County – county and local
• Education – C2C (Cradle to Career)
• Health – LHN (Lenawee Health Network)
• Active transportation – CL (Connecting Lenawee)
• County-wide strategic vision – OL (One Lenawee)

Between 2014-2020, the following topics were addressed

• Education – (C2C)
• Healthy Lenawee – (LHN)
• Complete Streets – (CL)
• Non-Motorized Transportation Plan – (CL)
• Extending the Kiwanis Trail to Tecumseh – (CL)
• Restoring the River Raisin – (CL)
• Strategic Vision for Lenawee – (OL)
• Making Lenawee a trauma informed community (CIC) Community Impact Core Group
• Branding One Lenawee/logo (Marketing & Communication)

This has all been done with volunteers, as there is no corporate organization and no continual source of funding; all money raised has been for specific projects. We have no officers, but members of the steering committee take turns being the facilitator of our monthly meetings, while leading one of our seven strands: C2C, LHN, CL, Art, Entrepreneurship, Workforce Development, and Communication/Marketing.

 

One Lenawee Challenges / 2021 Objectives

Challenges

• Integrating/activating the business community
• Integrating/activating local government for all cities, towns, villages, and townships
• Integrating/activating more community service organizations
• Integrating/activating agriculture
• Leadership succession

2021 Objectives

• Public Transportation for All
• Quantity and quality of attainable quality housing in Lenawee
• Continue working on our seven focus areas
  1. Education – Cradle to Career
  2. Health and Safety (Lenawee Health Network and Law Enforcement)
  3. Marketing and Communication
  4. Entrepreneurship
  5. Workforce/Talent
  6. Arts
  7. Infrastructure/Parks & Trails, River Raisin – Connecting Lenawee

Current Members 

Troy Bevier – Public Safety

Jackie Bradley – Community Service

Madeline DeMarco – Community Service

Justin Gifford – Communications & Marketing

Mark Haag – Cradle to Career

Tim Kelly – Cradle to Career

Sue Lewis – Lenawee Health Network

Marty Marshall – Infrastructure/Parks & Trails

Dave Maxwell – Communications & Marketing / Connecting Lenawee

Chris Miller – At Large

Kim Murphy – At Large

Lynne Punnett – Communications & Marketing

Tim Robinson – Entrepreneurship

Dan Swallow – Infrastructure/Parks & Trails

Don Taylor – Arts / Connecting Lenawee

Joe Williams – At Large

Randy Yagelia – Workforce Development