About Connect Kootenai
Our community envisions a future that preserves our region’s natural beauty and provides for the health, safety, and prosperity of our citizens for generations to come. Connect Kootenai helped facilitate the creation of this shared vision, and now we are working with partners all across the Kootenai County area to make it a reality.
Thousands of voices. Hundreds of community partners.
Six key themes, all contributing to ONE VISION.
Our role in the community
Connect Kootenai is a nonprofit, community-based organization formed in 2014 to guide the creation of a shared vision for the future of Kootenai County. The Vision and Implementation Plan have brought the community’s shared vision to life through strategic actions fulfilled with and by community partners who are committed to Kootenai County’s bright future. The Implementation Plan is a living document that will continually evolve with the ever-changing resources, opportunities, priorities, and needs of our community.
Mission:
Connect Kootenai exists to create a better tomorrow.
VISION:
We envision a community where… Everyone has the opportunity to belong, thrive, and make a positive impact.
We engage, educate, and inspire our community to achieve collective and individual goals by focusing on six key areas that are essential pillars for a healthy and prosperous community.
Connect Kootenai…
Strengthens relationships
Connect Kootenai strengthens and connects all community organizations, government, and citizens together.
Improves communication
Improving communication avenues with community members and providing a forum to give everyone a voice.
Maintains a monitored, living document
Our Implementation Plan actions are appropriately adjusted as the community grows and trends change.
Facilitates collaboration
Facilitating partnerships with other agencies and organizations, leading to positive results and avoiding duplications.
Remains unbiased
Acting as a neutral convener for the community.
Fosters community involvement
We provide a venue for engaging broad community involvement.
Sparks action
Our presence and encouragement support the community by achieving its broad goals.
Monitors and tracks metrics
Guaranteeing ongoing dedication and attention to implementation.
Six focus areas of the
Implementation Plan:






Achieving the vision through action
The Implementation Plan in action is evident throughout our community, represented in dozens of strategies that have been realized because of Connect Kootenai. The collaboration between Connect Kootenai and our dedicated community partners has resulted in real, physical action within our community to move us toward the bright future we envision. Our involvement with all of our cities will continue to drive Kootenai County toward a prosperous, healthy, safe, and flourishing community for generations to come.
From idea to realization…
In 2013, we participated in the visioning process for Coeur d’Alene and shared our idea of creating a makerspace for CDA. This idea became part of the CDA 2030 – now the Connect Kootenai Implementation Plan: to create a makerspace in Coeur d’Alene as a physical community gathering place that encourages and supports design, active tool use, mentoring, and innovation. This dream became a reality when in 2014 Gizmo-CDA opened in MidTown on 4th Street in a 2800 sq ft store front with the support of University of Idaho. In 2018 Gizmo having out grown its space was invited to moved into the Hedland Building on the campus of North Idaho College.
So often when people are just coming into Gizmo-CDA for the first time you can see them looking around and slowly a smile develops on their face and their response is always ‘I’ve been looking for a place just like this.
Other completed Implementation Plan Actions:
Collaboration is the key
Our community partners are the most crucial piece of the puzzle. Collaborative partnerships between Connect Kootenai and the agencies, businesses, and people of our community are the mechanism for transforming a dream into a reality. Connect Kootenai helps establish the plan for moving a goal from inception to results, but our community partners—our citizens—make it happen.