Greater St. Cloud Community Pillars to Transition to Communities of Excellence Initiative

July 15, 2020
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St. Cloud, Minn. – The former Greater St. Cloud Community Pillars Initiative announced today that it is transitioning to the Central Minnesota Communities of Excellence (CMCOE). CMCOE is an initiative to drive alignment of community organizations in the six communities of Central Minnesota (St. Cloud, Sartell, Waite Park, St. Augusta, St. Joseph and Sauk Rapids) by focusing attention and resources on structural problems and opportunities in the region.  The end goal will be to create a vibrant, thriving, diverse, and sustainable community that attracts people to live, work and play.

The Community Pillars Initiative began in 2010 when local leaders explored Dubuque, IA, a city that was having great success in planning and executing a shared community vision. The team learned that Dubuque’s success was not only in their local assets but how the community collectively used those assets to plan for the future. At that point, local leaders established the St. Cloud Community Pillars. Since then, the vision has been refined, and the current areas of focus are arts and entertainment, community engagement, economy, education, green, housing, infrastructure, safety and wellness.

Programs developed by the Community Pillars Initiative include the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation, Around the Cloud, Community Outpost (COP) House and the new St. Cloud Area YMCA. Every year, the initiative would hold a community conversation to update residents on the progress in each of the focus areas. Organizers of the Pillars included representatives from Paramount Center for the Arts, GREAT Theatre, Central Minnesota Community Foundation, St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce, St. Cloud Development Corporation, St. Cloud State University, Partners for Student Success, Initiative Foundation, United Way of Central Minnesota, CentraCare and Greater St. Cloud Public Safety Foundation. The organizers have used the last year to re-evaluate the work of the Pillars and believe that by moving to the Communities of Excellence framework and network, the work can continue and make significant progress.

Caryl Turnow, Executive Director of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, stated, “The Pillar’s work has supported the collective advancement of our region’s top priorities for almost 10 years. Now we have an opportunity to continue the work through the Community of Excellence Initiative, which lays out a concise framework to advance that work in a deeper way.”

The CMCOE will follow the Communities of Excellence Framework, based on the Baldrige principles of improvement as part of a national learning collaborative with 30 other communities in the U.S. CMCOE will be the only participant in Minnesota. The framework will focus on economic vitality, health, education, safety and infrastructure, and quality of life. It uses a systems perspective to optimize the entire system, not just pockets of excellence. CMCOE will encourage dialogue, connect people and resources, and ensure alignment across sectors to create a sense of community.

“CentraCare is excited to be part of Communities of Excellence,” said Kenneth Holmen, MD, CentraCare President and Chief Executive Officer. “Through our successes over the years, we know that we are better together. If we can align agendas and strategies around common goals, we are confident that we can drive change, improve outcomes and make an impact.”

CentraCare will be the backbone organization of CMCOE, but a steering committee made up of a diverse group of individuals will maximize collaboration across the community.  Community leadership and partners will collectively assess performance for the Central Minnesota region to determine where improvements and innovations are most needed to get positive and measurable results. CMCOE will also engage the community to update on the status of certain focus areas and to get feedback on direction.
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