Visioning

• Overview
• Getting Started
• Visioning
• Understanding your Situation
• Other Resources

The result of the visioning stage is a description of the ideal state of being which community members believe is the desirable future for their community.

This stage is an opportunity to clarify common values and broad goals that are not necessarily bound by current realities. Visioning is a creative exercise and involves the passions, desires and hopes of individuals. The vision statement becomes a touchstone or guiding framework for longer-term planning. The vision is not a plan or a roadmap in itself. It describes the desired destination. It should inspire the community to take steps to start the journey and provides reference points for determining the direction in which those steps should be taken.

A vision statement for a community may start with a broad statement of values before listing long-range goals, e.g.:

Anytown is a growing, friendly community where all families feel welcome. Local residents take responsibility for making improvements in housing and infrastructure and ensuring a healthy environment for future generations. Our schools and training institutions offer quality educational programs and lifelong learning opportunities at the forefront of technological excellence. Local citizens promote our unique heritage and value our cultural diversity. Through a commitment to cooperation Anytown organizations and businesses innovate to meet new challenges with new ideas.

A vision-making process that includes a broad representative cross-section of the community is most likely to result in a vision statement that can generate "buy-in" across all sectors. Creating some sort of round-table, including leaders from different constituent elements of the community, is one way to engage champions who can recruit further participation. Targeted outreach may be required to involve diverse communities such as youth, elderly or minorities in the visioning process. Visioning does not need to take place in a single inclusive meeting using a single group process.

A vision-making process should be well facilitated. This might require bringing someone in from outside your community to achieve neutrality in that role. Staff from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) may assist with identifying experienced facilitators.

Techniques for visioning are wide and varied.  Some are appropriate for small groups in an informal setting, and others require more preparation to bring many disparate parties together. Click here for an example of a visioning exercise.

Go to:

• Overview
• Initiating the Process/Getting Started
• Visioning
• Understanding your situation
• Links to other resources