NEWTON COUNTY | Region leaders asked each other Thursday to "dare to dream" of a collaborative effort to boost the quality of life in Northwest Indiana.

"We will start at the local level and build on our strengths with an eye to the future," John Davies, managing director of the Society of Innovators, said. "No longer can we squander talent. No long can we squander opportunities."

Officials from seven counties in Northwest Indiana gathered Thursday at Fair Oaks Farm to discuss opening communication, creating a more skilled work force and cooperating among entities.

The Knight Foundation recently awarded a $400,000 grant to Ivy Tech Community College, which the school will use to fund a series of meetings this year. The school plans to set up 10 to 12 leadership conclaves across Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski and Starke counties.

The Times Media Co. is among the founding sponsors of the project. The Dare to Dream: One Region/One Vision initiative is a result of a challenge that Times Publisher Bill Masterson Jr. posed to local leaders, said O'Merrial Butchee, director of the Gerald I. Lamkin Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center at Ivy Tech Northwest.

"Challenging people is the easy part," Masterson said Thursday. "Acting is another thing."

The initiative depends upon leaders stepping forward and demonstrating a willingness to have open dialogue, officials said.

Jim Jessup, executive director of Leadership LaPorte County, said good leadership is underrated and underused.

"Community leadership is just like duct tape," Jessup said. "It fixes almost everything."