Community visioning
Description
Community visioning involves a group of people coming together to develop ideas about what they would like their community ideally to be like. After the vision is agreed the group will then work on looking at what needs to be done to bring about that vision and put this together in an action plan.
Potential uses
This is a useful technique to ensure that local people are involved in community regeneration planning. Visioning can be used on an area-based level or to examine specific services, such as health or education. Community visioning encourages ownership and is a positive approach to talking about change. It also gives an opportunity for the community and service providers to work together on developing agreed, shared priorities and actions.
How it works
Community visioning can involve conference or workshop events. It is likely that drawing up the vision and the action plan will take place over a period of months. Groups meet, and are assisted by a trained facilitator to agree on a vision for their area and look at ways of achieving this goal.
Alternatively, creating the vision can be tied into other events. For example, Southampton City Council held a Community Visioning Festival.
Resources required
There needs to be a process, framework and resources in place to translate community visions into action. Other resources are meeting rooms and trained facilitators.
Further information
The Sustainable Communities Network site gives some useful links demonstrating where community visioning has been used and implemented.
A Community Visioning Resource Pack can be purchased from the New Economics Foundation
