Board Receives Update on Development of FY2025-2028 Strategic Plan

The Prince William Board of County Supervisors received an update on the development of the county’s 2025-2028 Strategic Plan during their meeting last week. The county’s Strategic Plan serves as a big-picture roadmap to prioritize and clearly define the county’s goals and desired outcomes for the next several years.  

“Our goal is to create a relevant plan that is inclusive and actionable with measurable outcomes and key performance indicators. We also want to focus on ownership as far as completion of tasks and projects associated with the plan,” said Kaye Wallace, the county’s Strategic Plan Coordinator.

“I’m very excited to work with our Board to initiate this year’s strategic planning process,” said County Executive Chris Shorter. “The Strategic Plan is a clear multi-year plan for our county’s future, and it will serve as a reflection of the community’s quality of life vision and goals. The plan will ultimately guide our decisions on how we make strategic investments, align resources and define goals for the next four years.”

Wallace told the Board that developing the strategic plan will occur in five phases: Planning and Launch, Gaining Insights, Strategic Plan Development, Strategic Plan Adoption and Strategic Plan Implementation.

Planning and Launch Phase

In the Planning and Launch phase, the Board will appoint a community advisory committee, and the county will onboard the strategic plan consultant and finalize the project plan. The 16-member community advisory committee will include two members per magisterial district and two at-large members to serve as liaisons between the Board and the community. The committee members will assist with a community town hall-style meeting in their district and participate in a focus group with the strategic plan consultant to offer input on the strategic plan.

Gaining Insights Phase

To gain insights during phase two, community town hall-style meetings, community focus groups and a biennial community survey will be used together to empower county residents and county staff to offer their thoughts about the quality of life in Prince William County and to provide input on future priorities.

Each Board member will hold one in-person or virtual community town hall-style meeting for a total of eight town halls. There will also be one in-person community focus group within each magisterial district and at least three virtual focus groups with various stakeholders, such as community leaders or the business community. These meetings are projected to occur between March and June 2024.

The biennial citizen satisfaction survey will allow residents to rate their satisfaction with the quality of life in Prince William County. The survey will begin this spring.

During March and April, the consultant will hold one-on-one interviews with each of the Board members and the County Executive, as well as hold employee focus groups between May and June.

The consultant will then synthesize all the data and identify themes to share with the Board.

Development Phase

During the strategic plan development stage, the Board will hold two work sessions where they will use the input received to collectively identify the goals for the Strategic Plan. The work sessions are projected to occur in early summer.

A steering committee, formed of executive leadership team members, will then use the four-year goals to select several objectives for each goal, and staff will develop action strategies and key performance indicators, which will then be brought back to the Board. This is anticipated to occur from July through October.

Adoption Phase

A draft of the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan will be posted online for feedback. At the end of the review process, the document will be edited and revised as approved by the steering committee and the Board. It is anticipated that this will occur November through December. The final 2025-2028 Strategic Plan will be presented for ratification to the Board of County Supervisors in January 2025.

Implementation Phase

After the strategic plan is ratified by the Board, the implementation phase will begin with the consultant providing a training session for each agency to develop a work plan. The county will create an online dashboard to report on progress and keep the Board and the public informed.

More information about the county’s Strategic Plan can be found at pwcva.gov/strategic-plan.