Our Summer of Visioning

What did we do?

UN35 spent the summer engaging folks in the community in four visioning forums around a few key issue areas: Education, Public Safety, Budget/TIFs, and Community Driven Development. We engaged over 150 different people in these forums, knocked over 1,800 doors and talked to over 200 people! The visioning forums were a vehicle through which we could craft a positive vision to work towards, rather than be reactive to negative things happening in the ward and surrounding neighborhoods.

How did we do it?

Through a series of exercises and facilitated discussions we encouraged folks to set aside what is true about our schools, our streets, our budget, and the development now, and to craft a vision for what we would like to see. We asked things like: What should the purpose of our education system be? What should the role of police be and what kind of experience do you want for yourself and your neighbors? How should our public dollars be spent?” What makes a development good or bad and what would economic development driven by community members look like? After each forum, we synthesized all the notes and through these conversations we created a collective vision for our neighborhoods.

Click here to learn more about the Vision we developed together.