As Cranberry goes, so goes the region.

Just about a year ago, Cranberry Township adopted a major new comprehensive plan. It was a huge undertaking and it had a horizon of 25 years — about as long as we think it will take for our community to become essentially built out.

In the process of developing that plan, we had to candidly ask ourselves who we were, what our real strengths and weaknesses are, what we wanted to look like, and what kind of community we really want to be by the end of that planning period.

Going through that exercise was eye-opening. It forced us to articulate — in some cases for the first time — our basic values and governing principles. Those values were captured in a document we refer to as our Sustainability Principles. Already, they have played a constructive role by informing the administrative policies, spending choices and legislative priorities of our board of supervisors.

Something similar is now in the works on a much wider scale in the region. Called Power of 32 because it includes 32 counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland, this regional visioning and advocacy initiative promises to offer its combined population of 4.2 million residents the same sense of cohesion and direction that Cranberry was able to generate through its own planning effort.

In the case of Cranberry, one important outcome was a renewed emphasis on partnership with other units of government, private sector businesses, and nonprofit organizations as being a better way — and sometimes the only way — of moving forward. Today, very few institutions have either the resources or authority to undertake big projects unilaterally. Government policy development has come to look a lot like commercial product development with multiple stakeholders offering their ideas, their feedback and sometimes their support.

In the 32-county region that includes Butler County — a region that does not yet have a proper name — the importance of collaboration is equally great. And that cooperation should be built on a foundation of mutual respect for our differences as much as on recognizing those goals we have in common.

While our interests might be closely aligned on many of the important issues affecting our economy, environment, social infrastructure and public institutions, there also are legitimate differences in our topographies, our community histories and our local aspirations. Those differences must be honored as well.

But too often we have allowed our differences to undermine efforts to unify around the issues where our interests converge. And a fragmented region will never succeed in advancing those causes its residents hold in common. So Power of 32, this ambitious super-regional effort, might become a vehicle both for coalescing around our collective interests and celebrating our distinctive differences.

The Power of 32 will hold a community conversation for Butler County residents at 6 p.m. July 27 in the office of the Butler County Community Development Corporation at 112 Woody Drive in Butler. There is no set agenda for the meeting, which is one of many that will be held throughout the region.

But we hope it will create a space for constructive, positive and forward-looking collaboration that someday will cross traditional social boundaries and established political lines.

Those interested can learn more about the initiative online at www.powerof32.org.

Jerry A. Andree is Cranberry Township manager.