Prince William County to begin work on developing Strategic Plan for 2025-28

Prince William County Supervisors were updated last week on how the county’s 2025-2028 Strategic Plan will be developed, according to a news release. The plan is intended as a big-picture roadmap to prioritize and clearly define the county’s goals and desired outcomes for the next several years. 

“Our goal is to create a relevant plan that is inclusive and actionable with measurable outcomes and key performance indicators. We also want to focus on ownership as far as completion of tasks and projects associated with the plan,” said Kaye Wallace, the county’s Strategic Plan Coordinator. 

County Executive Chris Shorter called the document “a clear multi-year plan for our county’s future…that will serve as a reflection of the community’s quality of life vision and goals…and ultimately guide our decisions on how we make strategic investments, align resources and define goals for the next four years.” 

There will be five phases: Planning and Launch, Gaining Insights, Strategic Plan Development, Strategic Plan Adoption and Strategic Plan Implementation.

To start, board members will appoint a community advisory committee. A strategic plan consultant will be hired and the project plan will be finalized.

The 16-member community advisory committees will include two members per magisterial district and two at-large members who are intended to function as liaisons between the Board and the community. Advisory committee members are expected to host a town hall in their magisterial district and to participate in a focus group with the strategic plan consultant.

A combination of opinions gathered through the town hall-style meetings, community focus groups and a biennial community survey will be “used together to empower county residents and county staff to offer their thoughts about the quality of life in Prince William County and to provide input on future priorities,” a news release said.

After each supervisor appoints two advisory committee members, the supervisor will be asked to hold a town hall—either in-person or virtua. There will also be one in-person community focus group within each magisterial district and at least three virtual focus groups with various stakeholders, such as community leaders or the business community. Such meetings are expected to be held between March and June.

This is the year for the biennial citizen satisfaction survey—so residents can take the survey and rate their satisfaction with the quality of life in Prince William County. The survey will begin this spring. 

During March and April, the consultant plans to interview each supervisor and the county executive and get county employees’ opinions at focus groups in May and June.

Then the consultant is expected to review all the data and “identify themes to share with the Board.”

In the Development Phase the board will be asked to identify goals and determine objectives and vote on action strategies..A draft of the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan will be posted online so residents can add their thoughts and ideas. At the end of the review process, the document will be edited and revised as approved by the steering committee and the Board.

This expected to happen in the November/December time frame with the final 2025-2028 Strategic Plan to be presented for ratification to the Board of County Supervisors in January 2025. 

Implementation Phase

After the Board approves the plan of work, the implementation phase will begin with the consultant conducting a training session for each agency to develop a work plan. The county will create an online dashboard to report on progress and keep the Board and the community informed. 

More information about the county’s Strategic Plan can be found at pwcva.gov/strategic-plan.