“Reimagine” Program

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania's "Reimagine" program works with local community groups to explore and develop environmentally and economically sustainable communities. We hold visioning sessions to generate project ideas for creating a sustainable economy in local communities/counties, and then we continue to work with local groups to help them develop and implement their visions.

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania's shale educational project branched out into exploring sustainable alternatives with a symposium on Sustainable Energy, Jobs and Economic Development at Pittsburgh's Energy Innovation Center in May of 2016. In 2017, we worked with community groups in two counties outside of the city of Pittsburgh. We held a "Re-Imagine Beaver County" visioning session for nearly 80 community members in Beaver County, which we had professionally filmed and made into a short video. The video captures the joy and sense of empowerment it brings people to focus on envisioning specific elements of an environmentally and economically sustainable local economy.

In the spring of 2017 we also collaborated with Indiana County League members, local government, and other community members to hold a day-long summit attended by nearly 100 local leaders and local citizens, which led to the creation of the Indiana County Sustainable Economic Development Task Force. The Task Force split into four focus groups: Agriculture, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Building Construction, and Environmental Restoration. We went on to help Indiana County develop extensive recommendations to address specific needs in each of these topic areas. We have supported the task force in exploring and implementing their ideas. The Indiana County Office of Planning and Development applies for grants that help carry out the project ideas from the Task Force. The EPA selected Indiana County's Sustainable Economic Development Task Force Agriculture focus group as one of 16 sites to receive technical assistance through the EPA's Local Foods Local Places program.

The "Re-Imagine" concept has spread and we have helped launch additional groups: Re-Imagine Butler County, Reimagine Turtle Creek Watershed & Airshed Communities (TCWAC), and Concerned Ohio River Residents' "A Better Vision" initiative. This past summer of 2021 saw us launch two more groups - Reimagine Fayette County, and Reimagine Cambria and Blair Counties: Visioning Sustainable Communities.

We plan to bring these groups together over the coming year (2022) for workshops that will build capacity in understanding and communicating the economic impact of envisioned sustainable development projects, and learning how to get funding and carry out the implementation of project ideas.

We also have developed a website, reimaginejobs.org , in collaboration with the Climate Reality Project. The site illustrates the variety of types of jobs that are sustainable, and engages companies and organizations to exhibit their career opportunities on the website. We are in the process of developing an Advisory Council that will identify issues and develop strategies to support the expansion of sustainable work opportunities.