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Objectives:

• Help identify your communities collective vision that is centered around shared values
• Challenge the third face of power (invisible) by expanding people’s sense of what’s possible.
• Assist communities in imagining beyond survival and scarcity </aside>

Time Required: 90 minutes - 2 hours

Resources Needed: Large sheets of paper, markers or crayons, large surface/tables; digital whiteboard that can be used to collaborate.

Audience Setting: Community gathering, coalition, or organizational

This activity can both be done in a virtual or in-person environment, with a preference for in-person setting.

Step 1:  Frame the purpose of the activity by highlighting that the intent is to dream about what our community deserves. Assume no constraints on money or power (15 minutes)

Step 2:  Share some prompt questions to allow folks to begin envisioning their future: (15 minutes)

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• If your community had the power to decide how resources are spent, what would it look like?
• What would this community look like 10 years from now, if we had the right resources and right leaders? </aside>

Step 3: Individuals draw, write out, or diagram what the ideal community (utopia) looks like for them. The facilitator can instruct folks to dive deeper and share how the schools, hospitals, grocery stores, green spaces would look like in their vision. (15 -20 mins)

Step 4: Split individuals into smaller groups (3-6 people) and allow them to begin mapping out their individual visions as part of their small group, combining aspects of each other’s visions.

Group Discussion questions (25-40mins):

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• Look and compare your vision with others in your group, how are they similar? How are they different?
• How can you build a better community that is inclusive of at least some parts of everyone’s vision? </aside>

Step 5:  Each group shares their small utopia with the broader group. In person: each group tapes their utopia to a large wall. Virtual: Facilitator creates a virtual collage of  all of the utopias (5 mins)

Step 6: The larger group comes back together to discuss what they noticed. Some larger group discussion prompts include (15-20mins):

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• What are areas of agreement revealed in each vision?
• What areas need more attention? What is missing? </aside>

Step 7: The facilitator will gather all the data gathered from this activity and pull all the common ideas together to develop a vision statement for the group.

It is possible for this activity to be expanded upon and lengthened in time or done across multiple sessions to reach its intended objectives and goals.

Originally sourced from: https://provechocollective.org/tools-and-support/power-building-toolkit/