VVREO—The story!
The story began in almost 15 years ago (1996), with the creation of a regional economic organization—the Verde Valley Regional Economic Development Council. VVREDC was an organization built on a commitment to foster a spirit of cooperation and planned growth, to facilitate a sustainable local economy and quality lifestyle for all in the Verde Valley. It was an organization not quite ready to succeed in our community—so our regional organization was suspended until 3 years ago when over 75 people came together at a regional economic forum ready to create an integrated, regional approach to economic development.
A leadership team emerged from that economic forum and they moved forward with the recreation of a regional economic organization—Verde Valley Regional Economic Organization or VVREO in 2007. Today we have a board of 15 members that represent a well-rounded private-public partnership for economic development.
Our vision is of a regional collaborative, building sustainable economic prosperity.
Our mission is to provide comprehensive economic development expertise, tools, marketing and outreach.
And our Core Values talk about—Regional Economic Wealth Development, Stewardship, Sense of Place, Quality of Life, and Infrastructure.
But we are more than just our mission, vision, and core values—we are individuals who represent different aspects of our communities—small and large businesses, government entities, and education. We are individuals who recognize that when we work together we can make real positive economic impact in our community.
Why we believe this regional effort works now—because we have FUN! We have respect for our region and our communities and most of all for each other. We listen, we discuss, and we make decisions that we feel have regional economic significance. But most of all, we have the commitment to make this regional private-public partnership work with support from individuals, businesses as well as government entities.
We have been recognized by Yavapai County Board of Supervisors, cities of Cottonwood and Sedona; the towns of Clarkdale, Jerome, and Camp Verde, and Cornville Community Association as the official economic development organization in the Verde Valley.
We are also recognized by the Arizona Commerce Authority as the economic development organization in the Verde Valley, we are a member of NACOG’s economic development council, and we were awarded by Arizona Association of Economic Developers as the best small economic development organization in the state of Arizona.
