One afternoon late last summer in my home office/guest room/exercise room, I stumbled to my gym mat at the end of a work day to find it covered in sticky notes. After regaining my balance from slipping on one, and making peace with the fact that this must have been a sign to not do any mindful movement that day, I said to no one in particular, “strategic planning is great!”
This week, we are so proud to share our 2026-2028 strategic plan, Building Shared Prosperity with you, and we warmly invite you to take a look.
The fruits of those sticky notes, along with two retreats, dozens of meetings, hundreds of thoughtful conversations and analysis of more than 800 data
points from interviews, focus groups, surveys and research, this new plan affirms what ANCA does best. It maps a path through navigation and empowerment, regional networks and collaboration, solutions incubation and generation, capacity building and narrative shaping — all toward a future where our region’s economy really works for every one of us.
In this strategy and across our work, you’ll notice:
- A refreshed mission, vision, and set of core principles, aiming to build shared prosperity across northern New York as we envision a North Country economy that works for all.
- A reimagined relationship between our program pillars and five strategic goals, better aligning and telling the story of the ways our unchanged program pillars — Climate & Energy, Local Food Systems, Small Business, Welcoming & Belonging, and Organizational Excellence — interact with one another, our partners and region, and generate meaningful impacts.
- A redoubled commitment to welcoming all, while focusing our efforts on those most often excluded from or negatively impacted by our economic realities. This is reflected in our updated tagline, which speaks to the core of our beliefs: A North Country for All.
- A reinvigorated drive to serve as a multifaceted regional hub for actionable, equitable and effective economic strength.
Our strategy, designed to be reviewed yearly and wrap up in 2028, will usher us to ANCA 75th birthday. As we envision a future in which we’ve achieved our aims and put ourselves out of business — or at least have necessitated a significant strategic evolution — here’s what we think success will look like:
- A tapestry of strong places centered around locally owned small businesses that meet basic needs, provide good jobs, and support vibrant community life,
- Thriving farms and farm lands, and agricultural businesses that equitably nourish our region,
- Clean, low-cost and accessible energy solutions that ensure comfort, affordability, reliability and future readiness,
- Safety, meaning and belonging accessible to all, and,
- Strong, sustaining partnerships with peers and communities that uplift our region as a place for all to live and thrive.
Together, we believe in a strong economic future for our region, in full harmony with our one-of-a-kind natural landscapes.
Two weeks ago after double (quadruple) checking that I had digitally stored the information, I recycled my sticky notes and replaced them with an already dog-eared copy of our new strategic plan on the corner of my desk where it will serve as a living, working document.
In three years, I hope that this copy of our plan will be more dog-eared, more marked up, and proving its worth through meaningful and visible progress toward, to quote our refreshed vision, “an economy built on local ownership [that] ensures everyone can thrive together in a rural region of small communities and working and wild lands, with the desired amenities, essential services, economic security and safety and belonging needed to retain opportunity and residents.”
A strong, working strategic plan that centers and builds accountability from our region, its communities, and each and every one of our neighbors helps to ensure that we meaningfully ensure the long-term viability of our region as a place to live, work and play. We look forward to measuring achievements and making improvements along the way.
With gratitude for all who supported the construction of this strategy, and to every person who also sees a bright future for our region, we welcome you to join us. Reach out to me directly if you’re inspired to partner with us on this journey.
Zach Hobbs, ANCA Deputy Director: [email protected]