F.O.C.U.S (Forging Our Community's United Strength) Greater Syracuse is a community-wide project designed to economically advance the Central New York area by facilitating an atmosphere of positive change and unity in the community. It was founded by a group of Leadership Syracuse graduates and residents and is a non-for-profit organization. FOCUS is loosely based on an increasing number of similar organizations popping up in regions across the country. In brief, to facilitate the beginnings of this economic development, approximately 200 trained volunteers went into the community, (schools, workplaces, houses, of worship, etc.), and facilitated over 124 open sessions with over 2,500 participants. Participants were asked to come up with ideas and dreams for the future of the area, and over 15,500 were generated. These were entered into a database at the local college and grouped into 87 main goals for development in the following categories: education, government, health and human services, neighborhoods, downtown, economic development, arts and events, and tourism. These goals were compiled into a community report, voted on by the community at the 'Vision Fair', and used to benchmark progress of the group.
             The process to attain the goals outlined is based on FOCUS serving as 5 "C's", a Convenor, Communicator, Catalyst, Clearinghouse, and Champion. Members of the organization break up into task oriented-groups to identify regional resources with the capacity to act on the goals, or who are already working on the goals. The goal is to eliminate duplication of projects of services among these resources by increasing communication and cooperation between them. They also serve to communicate progress to the community via a newsletter, gather together community groups and leaders, and sit on a number of regional committees. The group is all-inclusive and open to anyone, and the core group meets once per mont...