An exciting new future for Morristown's downtown and surroundings is being developed and we invite all community stakeholders to take an active role in the process.

The current economic climate demands a direct and focused response to the serious challenges we face and the exciting opportunities unfolding before us. Morristown Partnership has launched the Morristown Step Ahead initiative as part of its continuing mission to see Morristown achieve and sustain its fullest potential as a town for all its community-members and visitors alike. Together, one step at a time, we can combine the most important assets that Morristown values and achieve new heights.

Bringing together community leaders including people from the business, government, education, environmental, faith, health, and cultural sectors, the groundbreaking Step Ahead initiative provides all interested stakeholders an opportunity to help shape Morristown's future with an equal emphasis on economic prosperity, environmental responsibility, and community inclusion.

Join this new effort to help make Morristown the best place it can be for business, for the environment, for people!

The First Steps

A volunteer Steering Committee of business and community representatives was assembled in 2007 under the auspices of the Morristown Partnership. The work began with resources made available through generous funding received from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The Committee, working in consultation with Design for Social Impact, created this initial set of driving principles and goals that is being used to help shape a vision for Morristown in the three critical areas of Economic Prosperity, Environmental Responsibility, and Community Inclusion.

Economic Prosperity:

A thriving local economy where community-members and visitors can get most of their needs met by local businesses.
A supportive environment to attract or grow new businesses in the area - started by people who live in Morristown.
Encouraging businesses that enhance the cultural fabric of the community.
A link between tourism and the local economy.
A link between farm economy and local downtown economy.

Environmental Responsibility:

An environmentally friendly and healthy place to live, work and visit.
Community-members and visitors who are sensitive to environmental issues and impact. Commitment to behavior that makes the environment one of the top priorities for the town.
A place that supports and fosters the innovative use of new technology to solve environmental challenges while maintaining a commitment to economic prosperity.
A town that enhances people's lives by preserving and promoting physical "greening" of the downtown.

Community Inclusion:

A community that includes all of its members and enhances the quality of life for everyone who lives, works or visits the town.
A community that utilizes the best the unique constituencies and their leaders have to offer. Not re-inventing the wheel, but identifying what people/groups are already doing and including them in the effort to enhance quality of life in the town.