Strengthening the talent pipeline and overcoming economic barriers are among the five strategic pillars identified in the latest comprehensive report setting a roadmap for growing the Greater Peoria region.
As part of Economic Development Week, the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council [GPEDC] on Thursday publicly released The Big Table: Greater Peoria 2025 Report, developed through community conversations held across five counties between October and February.
Chris Setti, CEO of the GPEDC, said the comprehensive 20-page document represents a “turning point” that will be used to draft the next five-year strategic plan for the region.
“Think of it as the forward to a book that’s currently being written,” Setti said following a news conference held at Distillery Labs in downtown Peoria.
“Through our comprehensive economic development strategy, we use The Big Table as a platform to gather public input into what will become a very specific set of recommendations around what the community — the region — needs to do over the next five years in these areas.”
The GPEDC held its community input events in Peoria, Tremont, El Paso, Havana and Lincoln, with participants discussing themes such as workforce opportunities, innovation, and quality of place.
Kelly Porter, a member of The Big Table planning and execution committee, said the dialogue was invaluable.
“The Big Table has always been about one thing, and that is making sure that the community has a seat at the table when decisions are being made about the future,” said Porter. “The Big Table starts with the people. It starts with real conversations in real rooms with the people who live and work here every day. So we were very intentional about who was at those tables.
“It wasn’t just the usual suspects that are involved. We went into neighborhoods, we reached out to people who normally aren’t invited to share what they think, and we created a safe space for honest conversations — and that’s what makes this report so much more credible.”
Setti said it was interesting to see that many of the same concerns raised in Peoria, such as transportation barriers and food deserts, also presented themselves in the smaller communities.
“That doesn’t mean the solutions to those problems ... is the same in all of those places, but I do think that’s what we started to learn; we started to hear some more themes that were in common across the entire region.”
The other strategic pillars focus on investing in livability improvements, strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and improving communication around access to resources.
One finding that was consistent in each county: the region doesn’t lack vision or effort, but it needs alignment and improved communication.
“We consistently saw people, especially in these meetings, not realize that the resources that they hoped were available actually were available,” said Setti. “So, we need to build better systems of communicating the resources that are already in our community, and as service providers, we need to do a better job of working together in those handoffs.
“It can be really overwhelming, for example, if you want to be a startup entrepreneur. There’s like 10 organizations that you could go to, but sometimes when there’s 10 choices, there’s like no choices. So how do we build a system that we are cooperatively working to make sure that the individual gets the services they need? So that was a consistent theme — I wouldn’t say it was a lack of information, but a lack of coordinated information.”
The full report can be found on the GPEDC website.
