Thank you to everyone who participated in this planning process. The Saints JFX One Plan couldn’t have been created without your support and ideas!
Saints Joseph and Francis Xavier Parish (Saints JFX) engaged the Lakota Group, with the support of OKW Architects and Kimley-Horn, to prepare a cohesive Master Plan for the Parish in Wilmette, Illinois. The Saints JFX One Plan serves as a forward-thinking vision to strategically reinvest in the right balance of academic, religious, recreation, and social spaces and allow leadership to budget and identify opportunities for funding of these initiatives. Collective dialogue with the broader communities of leadership, faculty, parish members, students, families, and other interested stakeholders was critical to develop this long-range action strategy to reinvest and improve both internal and external facilities. The final One Plan integrates the Saints JFX community voice into realistically achievable plans, balanced programming and operational improvements, and provides a clear timeline for implementation.
Why did we create the One Plan — and why now?
The One Plan will help leadership make sound, strategic decisions about current spaces and help evaluate the needs of the two campuses. The goal of the One Plan is to best meet the needs of the current community. There is no plan to change the structure of Saints JFX School or to expand beyond current enrollment.
One Plan Guiding Principles:
- Offerings. Reinvest in the right balance of religious, academic, recreation, and social spaces.
- Community. Provide the Parish facilities that support community building.
- Faith Formation and Education. Enhance the educational experience for parishioners and the current student population.
- Leadership. Support the teachers, faculty, and parish and school staff with their operational and programming needs.
- Operations and Maintenance. Address deferred maintenance and continue to improve operations and functionality of facilities.
Thank you to everyone who supported the Saints JFX One Plan by sharing their thoughts and ideas throughout the process. The Saints JFX One Plan is truly a community-led vision for the future of the Parish.
Saints JFX Speaks | Engagement To Date:
PHASE 1: ENGAGE. The focus of Phase 1 was to establish a dynamic “community” planning process that involves a wide range of stakeholders, including church and school leadership, to create a comprehensive information base to facilitate discussion and understanding of existing conditions and opportunities. The information and maps produced during this phase determined and clearly defined the Parish’s strengths, weaknesses, constraints, and opportunities, as well as formed the basis for the master planning process.
PHASE 2: ANALYZE. During Phase 2, the Team took all data, benchmark summaries, and consolidated the information into a simple State of the Parish Report. During this phase, the Team also further examined and focused more specifically on existing site and building conditions, opportunities, constraints, and issues. Lakota’s planning and landscape architecture team worked closely with our architect/building/traffic team members and Steering Committee to evaluate more fully each of the campus’ facilities and develop concept ideas and brought them to the Parish at-large.
PHASE 3: ENVISION. During Phase 3, the Team conducted a series of internal visioning sessions with the project team and Steering Committee, created and refined concepts, and developed associated budgets for each Parish initiative. Additionally, we hosted Open House events where the community discussed and shared ideas. This phase culminated in the creation of a Final One Plan that includes proposed site, building or operational enhancements, options, and strategies for both campuses.
