Strategic Plan

 

 In 2025, Barberton Community Foundation adopted a new five-year strategic plan. The plan represents a functionally different tone, with tangible forward-facing goals and objectives chosen based on research data, approaching the community’s most enduring challenges with commitment and courage.
Empower


Support Barberton to attract and retrain young families by supporting working parents and expanding opportunities to improve school readiness.

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Build a stronger local economy and increase financial stability for Barberton residents through investments in career development and scholarships.

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Draw residents and visitors to Barberton’s downtown by fostering a more vibrant, walkable, and economically resilient city core.

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Demonstrate community responsiveness and improve quality of life for Barberton residents by using responsive grantmaking to nimbly meet urgent needs and fund grassroots initiatives. 

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Strategic Priorities

The new strategic plan sets four core priorities for our work moving forward. 

Early Learning

  • Goal: Investing in education for children in their first 5 years to ensure Barberton is a place that supports families in achieving successful educational outcomes.

  • Current Situation: Longterm data and local experience make clear that having gone to preschool is an advantage for children entering kindergarten. But the cost of preschool is a deterrent for Barberton working-class families, while others aren’t aware of the developmental advantages that preschool provides.

  • Key metric: Fewer than 23% of Barberton kindergarten students were assessed as “demonstrating readiness” in 2024 under the Ohio Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, compared to 40% countywide.


What We’re Doing in
Early Learning

Career Pathways

  • Goal: Promote economic mobility by supporting growth-oriented career pathways for new high school graduates and established workers alike.

  • Current Situation: Stability and income growth often depend on an individual’s ability to adapt to changing conditions and evolving job requirements.

  • Key metric: In 2025, 52% of Barberton High School’s graduating class chose the “Employment” pathway, instead of “Enrollment” in some post-secondary education program or “Enlistment” in a branch of the military. Post-secondary learning, from a career tech certificate to a 4-year college degree, is essential to accessing a career with a living wage and long-term stability for individuals and their families.

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What We're Doing in
Career Pathways

Downtown Revitalization

  • Goal: Upgrade building stock and activate Barberton’s downtown to make the city a desirable place to live, work and play.

  • Current Situation: Downtown suffers from high vacancies and poor building conditions.

  • Key metric: 23% commercial vacancy rate in the 8-block downtown area around Tuscarawas Avenue and 2nd Street. 

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What We’re Doing in
Downtown Revitalization

Basic Needs

  • Goal: Provide support for immediate, basic needs of community members. 

  • Current Situation: The traditional work of a community foundation includes supporting basic quality of life needs in hunger, housing, safety, and mental and physical health, and wellness.

  • Key metric: ~20% of Barberton’s residents qualify for SNAP benefits. 


What We're Doing in
Basic Needs

Our Role

Funder: Direct grant and investment dollars to drive meaningful change. 

Convener: Bring experts, research, lived experience together in partnership.

Advocate: Tell our story to build a constellation of support and resources. 
 
 
Convening and advocacy work exist to align and inform funding decisions.