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The Big Table: Greater Peoria 2025 Report

From Conversation to Coordinated Action

Community voices from five counties. One shared strategic direction.

What Is The Big Table?

In 2025, 480 community members from across Greater Peoria gathered for The Big Table and a series of Rural Big Table events to strengthen regional collaboration and advance economic competitiveness. Across five events spanning Peoria, Woodford, Mason, Tazewell, and Logan Counties, participants engaged in structured dialogue about the barriers, opportunities, and strategies that will define the region’s future.

This report captures what was heard, what it means, and what it points toward — including, for the first time, a Strategy Framework with five strategic pillars and suggested Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

 The 2025 Cycle

  • Main Event — Peoria | October 17, 2025
  • Rural Big Table — Woodford County (El Paso) | October 28, 2025
  • Rural Big Table — Mason County (Havana) | November 13, 2025
  • Rural Big Table — Tazewell County (Tremont) | December 10, 2025
  • Rural Big Table — Logan County (Lincoln) | February 19, 2026

Quick Links:

What The Conversation Revealed

Across all five counties, one message was consistent: Greater Peoria lacks neither effort, resources, nor vision. What it needs is alignment.

  • Access to Opportunity: Transportation, childcare, housing, and communication systems emerged as foundational barriers. These issues are interconnected — progress on one strengthens the others. Perhaps the most repeated theme: “The resources exist. People can’t find them.”
  • Workforce & Talent Pipeline: The workforce challenge is both skills-based and system-based. Employers struggle to find skilled workers while residents struggle to access clear career pathways. The region is increasingly framing workforce development as a lifecycle pipeline — not just a training issue.
  • Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial interest is strong, but ecosystem friction remains high. Access to capital, regulatory complexity, lack of mentorship, and fragmented support systems continue to limit business formation. The region’s next phase must focus on simplification and visibility.
  • Livability & Quality of Place: Livability is no longer seen as an optional enhancement — it is framed as a necessity for retention and recruitment. Housing diversity, downtown activation, walkability, and community programming directly affect the region’s ability to compete for talent.

The Five Strategic Pillars:

2025 Strategy Framework: Five Pillars for Coordinated Action

The Strategy Framework translates Big Table insights into five measurable pillars with example KPIs. These are not mandates; they are a shared structure communities can align around.

Pillar 1: Remove Structural Barriers to Participation

Goal: Increase residents’ access to employment, training, and entrepreneurship by reducing barriers to participation.

Focus Areas: Transportation access and reliability, childcare availability and flexibility, housing inventory and affordability, and clear navigation of services and opportunities.

Example KPIs:

  • Increase regional childcare capacity by X% within 3–5 years
  • Reduce transit gaps in identified service deserts
  • Increase “missing middle” housing units permitted or rehabilitated
  • Launch a centralized regional navigation platform

Pillar 2: Align and Strengthen the Talent Pipeline

Goal: Create visible, attainable career pathways that align employer demand with resident opportunity.

Focus Areas: Early career exposure, apprenticeships and experiential learning, employer-education alignment, workforce re-entry pathways, succession planning.

Example KPIs:

  • Increase students in career exploration before 10th grade
  • Increase registered apprenticeships and internship placements
  • Improve employer satisfaction with job readiness indicators
  • Reduce youth outmigration indicators

Pillar 3: Strengthen the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

Goal: Build a visible, coordinated, and accessible support system that reduces friction for startup and growth-stage businesses.

Focus Areas: Access to capital, simplified regulatory processes, mentorship networks, incubator and shared space models, youth entrepreneurship.

Example KPIs:

  • Increase new business formations regionally
  • Reduce average time to permit or license new small businesses
  • Increase alternative financing participation
  • Increase business survival rates at 3 and 5 years

Pillar 4: Invest in Livability as Economic Strategy

Goal: Strengthen community vibrancy to retain residents and attract talent.

Focus Areas: Downtown activation, housing diversity, youth programming, arts/events/recreation, natural asset activation and tourism.

Example KPIs:

  • Increase downtown occupancy and adaptive reuse projects
  • Increase event participation and public programming
  • Track in-migration and retention trends
  • Increase tourism visitation tied to natural and cultural assets

Pillar 5: Redesign Communication and Regional Alignment

Goal: Make it easier for residents, entrepreneurs, and employers to understand and engage with the region’s assets.

Focus Areas: Centralized resource navigation, shared regional calendars and job boards, cross-county collaboration, reduced duplication of effort, clear public storytelling.

Example KPIs:

  • Expand and connect existing regional resource hubs
  • Increase cross-county program participation
  • Establish recurring inter-county strategic coordination meetings
  • Measure reduction in duplicated initiatives

Progress Since 2022

What Has Changed Since 2022

Area 2022 2025
Structural Barriers Identified as significant constraints Now framed as interconnected systems requiring coordinated solutions
Workforce Focused on skills gaps and misalignment Expanded to lifecycle pipeline, including exposure, re-entry, and succession
Entrepreneurship “We need more programs.” “We need simpler systems” — focus shifted to reducing friction
Livability Recognized as influencing retention Now explicitly framed as economic infrastructure
Communication Reported difficulty navigating resources Intensified — “The resources exist. People can’t find them.”
Rural Alignment Emphasized regional collaboration Strong thematic alignment with urban priorities; rural-specific pressures articulated

“If 2022 was diagnostic, 2025 is directional. The opportunity now is disciplined implementation, aligned around shared priorities, measured against shared benchmarks, and carried forward through genuine regional collaboration.”

Read the Full Report

The full 2025 Big Table: Greater Peoria Report includes detailed theme findings from all five events, a regional synthesis, the complete Strategy Framework with KPIs, and an assessment of the region's trajectory since 2022.

DOWNLOAD / READ THE FULL REPORT

Get Involved

What Comes Next

The 2025 Big Table is designed to bridge directly to the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS). The goal is that by the time the CEDS is released, meaningful groundwork will already have been laid — community voices embedded, partners aligned, and the region ready to move from strategy to implementation.

How You Can Engage

  • Read and share the report with your organization, board, or council
  • Reference the five pillars and KPIs in your own strategic planning
  • Participate in the CEDS process as it moves forward
  • Connect with the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council to stay informed