Aspire announces program moving to Johnson County Public Library
Aspire Economic Development + Chamber Alliance has announced plans to transfer oversight of the Community Development Volunteer Program to its member and community partner, the Johnson County Public Library (JCPL). The program will take on the name CommUnity Matters at JCPL.
The organization says the program, which launched in 2013, is designed to help produce studies, events and initiatives to help make Johnson County a desirable place to live, work and play.
The Community Development Volunteer Program has contributed to projects across Johnson County including the establishment of a countywide trails plan, a destination marketing initiative and a program for helping students find alternatives to four-year colleges. “Some of its success has been the fact it’s been an incubator of ideas and incubator of initiatives” said Aspire Economic Development + Chamber Alliance President and CEO Christian Maslowski.
When describing the program, Maslowski said, “It is the nexus with business leaders and business stakeholders, elected officials, residential stakeholders and nonprofit organizations. This program is excellent at bringing all of those different types of stakeholders together.”
Maslowski found that it was imperative to launch the program with an economic development organization, but now it can be most effective in serving the community by running through the JCPL. “It made complete sense that one of our anchor institutions that’s also responsible for the fabric of our community, the library, would take this on, and they were thrilled and honored, we just couldn’t be more happy about it,” said the CEO.
Maslowski believes the library is a perfect fit for the program because it is intimately engaged in community conversations across Johnson County through its own existing programs. “They have staff team members who have already volunteered with the program and are passionate about it. They can devote more resources to leading it and growing it than what we were able to,” said Maslowski.
The focus of Aspire is shifting now to workforce development. “As robust of a workforce that Johnson County already has and continues to have, we know we have to continue to build a pipeline,” said Maslowski
The hiring of a full-time staff member into the role of workforce development was another reason for the transition. “Because of fallout from the pandemic a greater emphasis was put on talent development in Aspire. It had been slowly transitioning, and it was very clear already, we needed to do as much as we could in workforce,” said Maslowski.
“The Johnson County Public Library is proud and honored to continue the rich legacy of this impactful program,” said JCPL Director Lisa Lintner said in a news release. “This program speaks to the core of our mission and provides an outlet for community members to connect, share ideas and improve the overall quality of life for Johnson County residents.”
You can learn more about the CommUnity Matters program by clicking here.