PWC strategic planning process to get underway soon

The Strategic Plan is the guiding document that outlines what the community would like the county to look like in four years. Drawn up by citizen volunteers, aided by county staff, the plan outlines a vision of how the county would support the identified strategic plan goals around human services, public safety, transportation, and other county services.

The Prince William County 2021-2024 Strategic Plan will guide budget decisions over the four years it will be in place, said Kaye Wallace, the county’s Strategic Plan Coordinator. “Every year, when we create our annual budget, we use the Strategic Plan to help determine where funding should be allocated.”

The Strategic Plan is adopted by the Board of County Supervisors every four years, which coincides with the election of the board. To get the 2021-2024 plan process started, the county’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will soon convene and train a strategic plan development team. The team will consist of eight county residents, each one appointed by a county supervisor, along with seven county staff members. Wallace said the team would meet 20 to 25 times throughout 2020.

Wallace also said that community input is essential to the strategic plan. “We really want to get community input as to what the priorities should be – what should we work on as a county over the next for years? Those things are important. We want people in the community to have their say in what’s going to be in the next strategic plan.”

The initial community engagement will begin in March with an online survey to help identify different strategic focus areas, Wallace said. Then, over the next few months, there will be several community meetings, including one in each of the county’s seven magisterial districts. After the community meetings, the team will analyze the input to set the priorities in each of the focus areas. It is expected that the team will share results with the board in early June.  The board will then hold a work session where supervisors will set the goals to be included in the strategic plan.

From July through October, the team will work on developing the draft plan. Once the board’s goals and strategies are determined, and the draft is complete, it will go to the community for in-person and online input this fall, Wallace said. “As soon as we get the plan drafted, we will host some more community forums so that people can come and give us feedback on the actual draft of the plan.”

Wallace also mentioned that they are examining different options to capture the community’s feedback online, as well.

The board is scheduled to finalize and adopt the plan by Dec. 31, 2020.