FAIRMONT — People in the area are highly engaged in the Power of 32 initiative and want to participate in creating a better future for the region.

Power of 32, which went into full operations mode in January 2010, is the largest regional visioning project ever undertaken in the country. As part of this effort, a series of community conversations were held throughout the region last year in order to get input from a variety of people.

Six key themes or issue areas were recently identified based on the information gathered, said Selena Schmidt, executive director of Power of 32.

Power of 32 includes 32 counties in four states: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland. Altogether, there are approximately 4.2 million people and 17,380 square miles of land in the region. In West Virginia, the following 10 counties are involved: Brooke, Hancock, Harrison, Marion, Marshall, Monongalia, Ohio, Preston, Tyler and Wetzel.

The initiative focuses on finding ways to pull together the economic region centered on metropolitan Pittsburgh and looking at how to work collaboratively, rather than letting political jurisdictions and competition inhibit the success of the collective region. This joint effort is trying to discover solutions that cross the borders and allow change to happen.

This two-year project has a $1.5 million to $2 million budget and is funded through a combination of private and corporate philanthropic organizations as well as a very small amount of public monies. Power of 32 is governed by a 60-member steering committee from throughout the region, with public, private and nonprofit entities represented.

The group is working to create a policy agenda that can be implemented, and part of that is understanding what matters to the residents.

Schmidt said the purpose of the community conversations was to find out what people believe is most important to make the area where they live thrive. This region has different and unique assets and challenges compared to other places in the world.

From the end of July to mid-November, 156 sessions took place across the 32 counties in the region and in every conceivable venue, from churches to board meetings. More than 3,000 people were documented as attending these sessions, which were each a two-hour commitment. Together, these people spent well over 7,000 hours focusing on the region and building its future, Schmidt said.

She said people of all ages, from 12 to 93 years old, and from every socioeconomic and educational background participated. The Power of 32 facilitators wanted to make sure that the information collected really represented the entire community and that everyone felt comfortable.

“I’m very pleased with them,” Schmidt said of the dialogues. “It was a lot of hard work.”

More than 100 volunteers helped to make the meetings happen. She said during the conversations, there was “really a commitment to listening and not telling and that makes all the difference.” The facilitators didn’t lead the participants to talk about any one issue, but instead stayed open to all thoughts and concerns.

Power of 32 found that most of the input from the attendees focused on six main areas: Economy, education, environment, governance, people/community/quality of life, and transportation/infrastructure. A series of sub-themes were also identified to describe what each issue means, Schmidt said.

“What came from it is the way that the public views public policy,” she said.

Schmidt said people weren’t just concerned about jobs in the community, but wanted to make sure there was a diverse set of jobs available and work for everyone across the spectrum. Individuals showed a real interest in wanting to build a sense of entrepreneurship and growing the economy through small businesses.

In terms of education, the participants were happy with the universities and colleges in the region, but wanted higher education to intersect more with K-12 and more promotion of trade schools, she said. They also stressed making sure public schools provide diversified education and building on science and art.

Citizens voiced the importance of protecting and preserving natural resources in the environment and balancing that with energy and tourism. They spoke about capitalizing on trails and waterways, Schmidt said.

On the issue of governance, more collaboration was cited as the primary goal, she said. People are also very concerned about the quality of their roads, bridges and transportation system, and broadband Internet access across the state is vital. In addition, citizens want to feel a sense of community where they live, and every kind of person deserves to find a home where they fit in.

People in the community have told the Power of 32 team where they want the region to be by 2025, and these six key themes have been pinpointed as a result.

Next, experts around the specific issues will come together to do high-level brainstorming and will look at those concepts and definitions. They will think of steps that make sense for the region and the challenges that must be overcome, Schmidt said.

She said solution teams for each theme will be meeting throughout April and May to come up with concrete solution sets or goals, and these discussions will be posted on the Power of 32 website to get feedback.

“The process in and of itself is really changing the way we interact in the region, and that is incredible to watch,” Schmidt said.

The Power of 32 initiative has the potential to create a snowball effect and get the region moving in the right direction, she said. Many collaborations have been forming over the last year and a half, showing that the initiative is even more powerful than anticipated.

“The people in the community really get it,” Schmidt said. “They understand the challenges as well as the assets that we have.”

For more information, visit www.powerof32.org.

E-mail Jessica Borders at jborders@timeswv.com.