Strategic Planning 

Strategic Plan Development

At the beginning of each new four-year election term, the City of Winston-Salem’s elected body establishes a strategic plan, which provides guidance to ensure staff work programming is aligned with City Council objectives and priorities.

To begin the 2022-2025 process, the City performed a request for proposal to contract with a consulting firm to facilitate the process.  The Novak Consulting Group: A Part of Raftelis, was selected in late 2020. The process began with The Novak Consulting Group leading four focus groups and a public input session prior to the Mayor and City Council’s two-session workshop.  The four focus groups included community individuals and leaders categorized into sessions designated as local small businesses and economy, local non-profits, neighborhood leaders and residents, and other large employer institutions such as higher education and major hospitals.   The public input session allowed the opportunity for anyone in the community to speak. The Novak Consulting Group also held one-on-one meetings with each elected official.

The Mayor and City Council engaged in a two-day workshop in late March 2021 to create a strategic framework to help guide the City’s actions and priorities over the next four years. At this workshop, the Mayor and City Council discussed and processed the impact of the pandemic over the past year, evaluated resident survey data from January 2021, reviewed the information from the public engagement sessions, and assessed the results and progress from the previous strategic plan.  The elected body affirmed the six strategic focus areas identified during previous strategic planning processes. The Mayor and City Council were each asked to share the top three priorities for the new term.  From the workshop, the priorities were organized into three tiers based on rankings provided by the Mayor and City Council.  The City’s management team then created individual action items to help accomplish each of the priorities.

View the 2022-2025 Strategic Plan (PDF)

Focus Areas

The Strategic Plan is broken down into the following focus areas:

• Economic Vitality and Diversity
• Healthy Environment
• Livable Neighborhoods
• Quality Transportation
• Safe and Secure Communities
• Service Excellence

Staff will use the strategic plan to guide City actions and report on progress made toward accomplishment of stated objectives in each of the strategic focus areas.