Summary: On this Birth2Work Radio show, we are in conversation with Vicki Haugen. Since 1982, Vicki has been at the helm of Vermilion County, Illinois' venture of mass transformation. Once prosperous from agriculture and heavy industry in the area, globalization took that away and forced massive layoffs and closures in the 1980s, threatening to leave Vermilion County as a dying part of the "Rust Belt." Refusing to passively let their county die out, however, the county's Chamber of Commerce merged with the private Economic Development Corporation, of which Vicki was President and CEO, and began the process of transforming the county into a sustainable, high tech. community in which its citizens are engaged and thrive. With Birth2Work's book, The System: Seeking the Soul of Commerce, as a road map, the stakeholder leaders have embraced the undertaking of a grass roots effort in redefinition - telling a new story of their community.
