ARROWHEAD ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AGENCY (AEOA) STRATEGIC PLAN | 2022-2023
Challenge: The Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency (AEOA), a Community Action Program designated to serve St. Louis, Lake, and Cook Counties in northeast Minnesota and providing additional service in nine neighboring counties, sought to complete a 2023-2025 strategic plan. AEOA is mandated to complete regular strategic plans and follow a Results-Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) model to direct its work in supporting low-income residents of the area it serves.
Role: Northspan facilitated a strategic planning process that included background research, a thorough survey, and two strategic planning retreat days with AEOA board members and leadership staff in early 2023. Through this process, AEOA reaffirmed its mission, vision, and core values, drafted a practical vision for the strategic planning process, identified underlying contradictions that held the organization back, and established strategic directions to guide its work. The six strategic directions for 2023-2025 are:
- Recruiting, training, and retaining talent
- Advancing the mission through outreach and communications
- Reformulating technology to meet program needs
- Engaging rural communities to share needs
- Seeking & accessing innovative, sustainable funding sources
- Fostering Governmental Relationships to Initiate Growth Campaign
The group then identified actions for each of the strategic directions and laid them out over a timeline to demonstrate how it will complete its work.
Results: AEOA is now following the strategic plan, which complies with its ROMA requirements and has charted a course for the organization over the three-year period for the plan.
View the full strategic plan plus background information and details on the strategic planning process here: Strategic Plan 2023-2025.
Reference: Scott Zahorik, AEOA Executive Director, scott.zahorik@aeoa.org, 218-748-7331