One Voice, under the leadership of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council (BNEDC), is a pro-community campaign that has brought together leaders from the City of Bloomington, the Town of Normal, McLean County, labor, local educational institutions and local private businesses. The goal of the campaign is to make McLean County a stronger economic force and a better place to live.
Each spring, the One Voice Task Force travels to Washington D.C. to meet with our congressional delegation to show them our community stands united in support of community issues involving projects, initiatives and infrastructure improvements. For those projects needing funding, we work to meet with the federal agencies that may have grants or funds available.
During the 2018 trip we visited the Department of Transportation where Connect Transit sought funds for a transfer center in Downtown Bloomington as a way to provide more capacity for buses and better passenger amenities, and the Town of Normal sought funds for a pedestrian and bicycle underpass near Uptown Circle and the Uptown Station Multimodal facility. We also met with the U.S. Small Business Administration to build a relationship and learn about loan programs, capital investment networks and SBA grants to further build the entrepreneurship ecosystem in our community.
The ultimate goal of One Voice is to engage our federal representatives and to obtain federal funding for our community. One Voice does not lobby for policy for regulatory change and is not affiliated with any political party, movement or policy organization.
2019 One Voice Trip
The 2019 trip will choose local projects to support in their quest for federal funding. Each project must meet three criteria:
- It must have an economic development impact in McLean County
- It must improve the quality of life in McLean County
- Federal funding must be formally requested for the project
2019 Annual Washington D.C. Fly-In Details
Date: Tuesday, March 5 – Thursday, March 7
Cost: $1600 per person. This includes hotel (2 nights), receptions, most cab fares and some meals.
Registration due by January 18th
For questions about the 2019 One Voice trip, contact Amy Denham at amy@bnbiz.org or (309) 452-8437
Download 2019 Registration Form
Richard Eikenberg Scholarship
The scholarship was created in 2008 to honor Richard Eikenberg, past EDC board chair. The scholarship allows one local college student (from an EDC investor school) to participate in the One Voice trip.
Read more about the 2019 Eikenberg Scholarship
2019 Eikenberg Scholarship Guidelines & Application
Applications are due Thursday, November 15, 2018
