Red Oak Community Heart & Soul unveils community action plan

e Red Oak Community Heart & Soul organization.
On Oct. 19, members of the organization and its core leaders held a special community event at the Wilson Performing Arts Center. “Growing Ideas Into Action” was presented to the audience, revealing the organization’s community action plan, while asking for help in shaping its future.
The event opened with recorded comments from several Red Oak residents. Dr. William Butz said he’s been a part of the Red Oak community for 25 years.
“Red Oak is the size of town that we were looking for and my family came here because of the great hospital facilities that we have. It’s a very vibrant medical community that was doing a great job of taking care of the community at large. We’ve also really enjoyed being involved with the YMCA as well as the Wilson Performing Arts Center and those things are what makes Red Oak such a lovable place to live,” said Butz.
Red Oak resident Larry Brandstetter shared some of the things that he loved the most about Red Oak.
“I like the people, I’ve worked with the people, I worked with children at the school for 35 years, so I got to know their parents, I got to know their grandparents, and I got to know their relatives, and they’re all really good people. A couple are stinkers, but most of them are really good people,” Brandstetter joked.
Red Oak Community Heart & Soul core team member Joey Norris opened the session with a brief history of how things had progressed to now.
“The Red Oak Heart and Soul Community Action Plan is what we’re celebrating, and it is built from the voices and values of our residents. Over the past two years, hundreds of community members shared stories, ideas, and hopes for Red Oak’s future. From this input, more than 700 unique action ideas were gathered and refined into six key themes that reflect what matters most to our community,” explained Norris. “This plan marks the shift from listening into action. It is a guide for residents, organizations, businesses, and local leaders to work together toward shared goals in areas such as community roots, economic development, recreation and entertainment, schools, public safety, and government. More than a document, the plan is a roadmap to strengthen Red Oak’s future, grounded in our shared values and powered by the commitment of our community. We want you to join us because the mission isn’t over. What we’ve done is put a plan together, now we have to execute it. The first step is to educate, the next step is to celebrate and the third step is to activate.”
Outgoing Red Oak Mayor Shawnna Silvius, who is one of the people who spearheaded bringing Community Heart & Soul to Red Oak also spoke during the event. Silvius was pleased at the enthusiasm she was seeing and expressed her appreciation to all those who have helped through the process for the last several years. Also speaking at the event was Sarah Lightner, senior program director for the national organization of Community Heart & Soul. Lightner came all the way from Vermont to share nt the celebration in Red Oak, and shared her appreciation of all the volunteers who worked tirelessly for several years to make the program a reality.
“One of the best parts of my job with Community Heart and Soul is seeing the fruition of all of this work, and also knowing that while this is the end of a process, it’s the beginning of the activation of seeing everything that will continue to happen because of Community Heart and Soul. Red Oak is part of a group of more than 130 communities across the United States who are Heart & Soul communities. I would say that’s definitely something that Red Oak can wear as a badge of honor, because it drives home that you’re a community that’s come together. You’ve really listened to what matters most to all the residents in your community to help put together your framework and your guide for that roadmap for the future of your community,” said Lightner.
Red Oak Community Heart & Soul project coordinator Samantha Williams said that after reaching out the community, when they really started to break the numbers down, they found out that they had received more than 600 surveys and had conducted 97 in-person interviews.
“Many more data points came from working with the industries and then putting together a bunch of community events. We received 1,634 statements from community members,” Williams said. “We started noticing recurring themes. The six themes that we identified were public safety, economic development, schools, recreation and entertainment, community roots, and government. From those themes and those statements, we created our Heart & Soul statements. We identified 783 action ideas, but some of them were following in the same type of theme. When we boiled it down, we narrowed things down to 117 action ideas. We held a workshop in July of this year and invited local nonprofits and organizations who work closely in those areas, because we wanted to find if the action ideas were obtainable or not, and what kind of funding is out there to move forward with them.”
Williams said the group from each theme prioritized a handful of action ideas, reducing the list from 117 action ideas to 35 prioritized action items that they’ll be moving forward with. The action ideas were as follows:

Public Safety
• Find a dental provider for medicaid patients.
• Develop rehabilitation program(s) for frequent offenders.
• Instead of taking someone to jail for misdemeanor infractions, provide community service and mandatory training for skill development.
• Establish a bullying support group, a support group for battered women, and a program for individuals with Alzheimer’s and dementia. For those with Alzheimer’s and dementia, it would include a workshop two times a week for an hour.

Economic Development:
• Secure more funding for and develop more childcare facilities, as well as establish a cozy, welcoming coffee shop in Red Oak that stays open into the evening and serves as a vibrant gathering space offering a unique community hub that attracts visitors, encourages local spending, and enhances the town’s appeal to new residents.
• Form a contact committee like the Industrial Foundation.
• Launch a business incubator in an empty downtown storefront to support local entrepreneurs and pilot projects with a focus on innovation and mentorship.
• Implement a comprehensive housing strategy that expands access to affordable entry-level homes, downtown, upper-story apartments, infill tiny homes, townhouses, and everything in between.
• Tourism strategy for Red Oak that includes creating large-scale attractions and a vibrant downtown with regular events and activities positioning the town as a must-visit destination where people come to explore, dine, stay, and potentially settle.

Schools:
• Create a community service program for high school juniors and seniors that places students in meaningful volunteer roles such as helping in senior centers, animal shelters, and elementary schools. Partner schools with local businesses and organizations to strengthen the teens-to-workforce transition and provide mentorship opportunities for students who need extra guidance.
• Offer more STEM related programs and camps for younger children, not just the senior high.
• Have the fire department come and spray the kids (rainfall style, not blasting them with a hydro-cannon) after working hard at track and field day in the spring.
• Install flashing lights for crosswalks during pick up and drop off. It’s such a safety issue.
• Conduct a traffic study to evaluate and fix the flow of traffic between the elementary school and the junior/senior high school.

Community Roots:
• Form a LGBTQ support group.
• Establish neighborhood groups that focus on cleaning up and fixing up properties/whole blocks.
• Christmas is coming around the corner, we need more options to be able to donate food to those in need.
• Preserve and revitalize Red Oak’s historic business and residential neighborhoods through infill development and restoration that respects their unique character. Celebrate and promote the city’s rich history by expanding the historic district and highlighting what makes Red Oak truly special.
• Develop a centralized Red Oak volunteer hub, an online and in-person resource that shares current opportunities, coordinates efforts across organizations, and connects residents with causes that need support most.

Government:
• Create an animal shelter that provides a safe haven for homeless animals while striving to end pet homelessness through education, community, and adoption.
• Build a pedestrian crossing for Highway 34 between residential areas north of the highway and the schools south of the highway.
• Establish a metal recycling center.
• Launch a “Red Oak Pride: Community Clean-Up Initiative” a city-wide, year-round program where residents, clubs, businesses, and city workers team up to adopt streets, blocks, parks, and creeks, organize regular clean-up events, haul away debris, and beautify public spaces, helping restore pride and make Red Oak a cleaner, more welcoming place for everyone.
• Create a “Welcome to Red Oak” Guide, a simple, easy-to-read handbook with city rules, services, contacts, and local activities, given to new residents through landlords, the water department, and city offices to help everyone feel informed, connected, and at home from day one.

Recreation and Entertainment:
• Organize a “Jazz on Green” type event, community choir, and family bike rides, as well as enable free participation in tennis games or tournaments and promote existing and advocate for additional soccer fields. Organize kick-ball tournaments, adult education classes to continue education such as IT classes.
• Create a coordinated system to promote and communicate a wider variety of recreational and entertainment activities in Red Oak such as weekly text updates, social media posts, and local news features while expanding community events that engage all ages and make the town more vibrant for both residents and visitors.
• Utilize the Fountain Square Park with community-based programming like live music, summer art fair, and entertainment throughout the summer. Revitalize the space with activities for all ages, creating a vibrant gathering place that echoes the park’s lively past
• Build a splash pad in Red Oak to provide a fun, safe, and accessible water play area for children and families.
• Create a downtown senior center—potentially in the old Masonic Building, that offers social gatherings, games, books, and communal meals to foster connection, recreation, and support for Red Oak’s aging population.
• Organize alcohol-free events in Red Oak to create inclusive, family-friendly spaces for socializing, entertainment, and community connection.
• Introduce more outdoor games and activities in Red Oak’s parks and public spaces to encourage community engagement, and physical activity for all ages.
Some things are already in progress such as the community choir at the Red Oak First United Methodist Church, the opening of the Agora: Coffeehaus. Also, Bomgaars purchased the old Kmart building and has now opened; Red Oak Heart & Soul has organized community members to plan details for a downtown innovation center; the city has received a Brownfield grant to clean up the No Frills location; and the Red Oak Area Partnership has been formed to oversee funding for housing projects and more childcare options.
Williams closed out the session by discussing the next steps now that the action plan has been released.
“We’re forming a group called Heart & Soul Stewards, and they’re going to be working with all the organizations. They are going to take things from here and help implement, coordinate, and monitor the progress of each of these action ideas. They’re also going to help establish resources, costs, and put together a more up-to-date timeframe on when these action ideas can be completed. They’ll be working with organizations that we’ve identified who are lead solution partners, or who might be wanting to help support that action idea if they’re not able to kind of take that on as a lead support. If you have any questions or if you’d like to participate, you can reach out to us. As you can kind of tell as we were going through some of these ideas, they’re already in progress or they’re completed, which is a good thing. That’s what we want to see happen,” stated Williams.
For more information or to participate, visit roheartsoul.org/.