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The goals of the program reflect the local benefits that have already been proven possible by Future Search's track record and the national benefits that are possible as an extension of local success. As a result of the program, we will see:
- Local leaders with the confidence and capacity to employ effective ways of working with large diverse groups toward a common goal.
- Ownership and engagement among community members in the future of their community.
- Communities across the country creating common ground, developing new anti-poverty strategies, and building true commitment for implementing the strategies they develop.
- Diverse stakeholders collaborating on concrete projects that create prosperous conditions for all residents.
- Citizens enabled to do things collectively that they were unable to accomplish alone.
- Citizens having a voice in community issues and working interdependently under a shared umbrella of values and principles.
- Communities across the country sharing information and resources about how they address their issues of poverty and support prosperity for all residents.
- Over time, healthier communities in which residents actively work together to ensure that all members of the community can reach their potential.
- Over time, a critical mass of supporters for new approaches to addressing poverty and creating prosperity in every region of the country.
- Over time, new policy at all levels that enable individuals, families, and communities to become and remain prosperous.
- Over time, a new embedded national culture in which residents actively work together to ensure that all members of society can reach their potential.
In addition to local implementation and strategic goals, we intend for this project to answer key questions critical to the future of poverty efforts in the United States. These questions cannot be answered with confidence at present by any research method that does not bring all the affected parties into dialogue with one another.
- How much more are local communities capable of doing for themselves beyond what they are doing now?
- What are the minimum essential services that can only be provided by state and federal government agencies?
- How can government funds be leveraged to support local initiatives that get results?
- How can the structural barriers that contribute to poverty be addressed?
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