"Community visioning" refers to a facilitated process that communities can use to determine what they want to look or be like in the future. Some form of visioning is incorporated into most planning processes. Strategic planning, for example, generally requires a group or a community to do some visioning before they identify specific goals and objectives to pursue. "Community visioning," however, is a stand-alone, community-based process for community development. It provides communities with targeted outcomes and direction. It not only helps communities determine what they would like to be or look like in the future, it also helps them identify the ideal conditions for making this vision a reality.
The desired outcomes identified in a community visioning forum typically include a brainstormed list of vision statements, a concise vision statement that integrates cross-cutting themes or topic areas, and a plan for how that vision statement will guide change. By developing a community-generated vision statement, the community can organize around a shared community development philosophy and governing principles that will help them become the community they envision. Because a vision is not a static entity, however, there must also be room to modify that vision over time.
To learn more about implementing a community visioning process, see the following document by the National Civic League: The Community Visioning and Strategic Planning Handbook.
