Stand

Stand is a community visioning effort. By Chattanoogans, for Chattanoogans.

Stand believes the next big thing for the Chattanooga region is a thousand little things. Our mission is to engage community members to express their ideas for the future, organize around common purposes and translate vision into action.

A visioning process begins by bringing the future into the hands of a city’s people—recording needs and successes through surveys, open dialogue and community forums. Stand started with a four-question survey and an initial goal of collecting responses from 25,000 residents across the Chattanooga region.

On September 30, 2009, Stand closed its survey phase with a total of 26,263 completed surveys, positioning the Stand survey as the world’s largest questionnaire-based visioning process on record.

The responses to the Stand survey lay out a set of important shared values. Stand respondents express a desire to see:

• That our public education systems are a source of pride
• That citizens feel safe from crime in their communities
• That the region grow in economically and environmentally sustainable ways
• That the Chattanooga region is a hub for economic growth, offering high-wage, high-value jobs
• That the Chattanooga region is a desirable place to live, offering qualities of life that include clean air and transportation without unreasonable traffic issues
• That our region’s scenic beauty be managed and protected

The responses to the Stand survey show a region full of people ready for another transformation that keeps our future bright, vibrant and adaptive. To leave the Chattanooga region better than we found it, we must summon the tenacity, faith, and willingness to embrace the risk demanded by success. The stewardship of our community is, as it has always been, in the hands of its people.

The Stand team is promoting key findings from the Stand survey and sharing actionable knowledge to drive conversation and influence agendas; providing new platforms for exchanging ideas, confronting contemporary problems, and connecting emerging leadership; facilitating new initiatives and new community partnerships infused with the essential elements of creativity and innovation; and celebrating vision-oriented action – but we need your help.

Chattanooga is a creative place, one that has reinvented itself time and again over the last forty years. The Stand initiative represents the latest incarnation of our city’s spirit for self-reflection and community betterment.

In 1984, fifteen years after Walter Cronkite referred to Chattanooga as “the dirtiest city in America” on the evening news, a handful of Chattanooga’s leaders formed Chattanooga Venture and launched Vision2000, which set 40 goals for the city to achieve by the year 2000. These goals fell under the categories of future alternatives, places, people, work, play and government and covered everything from strengthening the downtown area to solving existing air, water, and toxic waste problems to creating before and after school programs.

By 2000, many of the original goals had been realized. Community investment of over $800 million and more than 200 projects and programs laid the groundwork for the recent multi-million dollar economic announcements and a community that is succeeding in spite of a national recession.

Chattanooga is now known as “The Scenic City,” and Outside Magazine recognizes Chattanooga as one of the best places to live in the US.

Building on the monumental foundation of Vision2000’s initiatives over the last twenty-five years, Stand was conceived in July 2008 by a diverse group of concerned citizens driven to enable a shared vision for the future of their community.

In May 2009, the campaign was launched by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers armed with yellow t-shirts, a website, and several thousand paper surveys. Stand hosted, coordinated and attended events of all kinds, engaging residents in all corners of the Chattanooga region—from shopping centers to house parties to neighborhood gatherings to festivals and rock shows. Over the course of five months, our field organizers created relationships with municipal leaders, organizations, businesses, churches and individuals.

On September 30 of 2009, Stand closed its survey collection phase with 26,263 completed surveys, officially making the Chattanooga region home to the largest survey-based visioning campaign, surpassing imagineCALGARY’s former record at over 18,000.

Population & Participation Rate:

City of Chattanooga 170,880 15.4%

Hamilton County 332,848 7.89%

Chattanooga Metro Statistical Area 518,441 5.07%

With the help of 40 businesses, 48 non-profits, 20 religious groups and 239 individuals the Stand team was able to reach residents from across the region.

Respondents were required to provide their zip code in order to participate in the Stand survey. Nearly 98% of participants provided valid zip codes. The majority of these participants lived within the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Hamilton, Sequatchie, Marion, Dade, Catoosa and Walker Counties.

The demographic composition of STAND survey respondents can be compared to what we know about the actual demographics of the Chattanooga Metropolitan Statistical Area based on data from the American Community Survey for 2006 – 2008.

To code and analyze survey responses, Stand contracted with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Center for Applied Student Research and with the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies.

Data entry and processing of the surveys was administered by two independent organizations: the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies and the Center For Applied Social Research at UTC. The Ochs Center prepared an executive summary of the results coupled with relevant statistics and previous research.

In April of 2010, Stand released the executive summary prepared by Ochs as well as the entire data set, scrubbed of identifying information, in a searchable database available to the public.

This was followed by an intensive 8-month results campaign. The Stand team distributed the results in useful formats to as many people in as many places as possible - making presentations to over 2,500 people and coordinating over 17 community events. Over 5,800 visits were made to the Stand Results page online, and over 29,000 people were reached via email.

Currently, there are major efforts underway in both private and public sectors to build a community that successfully addresses serious challenges including education, the economy, crime, safety, green space, local foods, health, arts and culture. Stand is positioned to play a critical role in coalescing and integrating the voice of the community into these historic efforts.

Stand is committed to providing the community the information, tools, and resources necessary to identify shared priorities through public dialogue, build stronger connections between residents, leaders and organizations, and collaborate to turn vision into action.

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