Designing an Evaluation Process that Itself Furthers Social Justice

Creating the Future is stepping into a massive project to evaluate and document everything we have learned from the 30 demonstration projects we’ve done since our inception. And you are invited to help design that project! As we begin this effort, all sorts of questions arise. What shall we evaluate? What shall we document? What … Read more

4 Assets that build STRENGTH into Change Efforts

Changemakers are used to hearing about strength-based work, building on the assets of a community, often in circumstances where the community members themselves feel “We have nothing.” Unfortunately, when we hear those stories, many of us feel, “That can work for them, but we really don’t have anything to build upon.” We hear this a … Read more

An Update in our eJournal

For those who get your Creating the Future info at this blog (vs. our newsletter), this is so important we are repeating it here. The title of that newsletter post was “Not our Normal Newsletter.” And that’s because these are not normal times. The original post is at this link. * * * Dear friends, … Read more

Getting Grant-Ready: Catalytic Thinking in ACTION

What does it look like to apply the questions of Catalytic Thinking to seeking grants? Come join us on October 23rd as we do just that. You’ll be part of a real planning session – a case study in real time. You’ll learn, add your thoughts to the mix, and gain experience with Catalytic Thinking … Read more

Creating the Future: Coming to Your Community!

Every few years, Creating the Future’s founders take our mission on the road, sharing Catalytic Thinking with communities within a specific region. Before the pandemic, they drove from the top to the bottom of California. In years past, they’ve gone as far from their home in Tucson, Arizona as the eastern US, visiting 20+ communities … Read more

What’s Next for Our Mission: Sharing the Implementation of our Plan

Creating the Future is at a crossroads. And we are so excited about stepping into what’s next! That’s because implementing our next steps will not be done by us – it will be done by, well, everyone! Moving beyond the organization-centric model that tells each organization to excel on its own, we will be doing … Read more

Next Steps for Our Mission: Integrity Team Meeting June 2023

Creating the Future’s Integrity Body (Board) Meeting: Monday, June 12, 2023 10am-12pm Pacific time / 1pm-3pm Eastern time / 6pm-8pm UK time Topic: Next Steps for Our Mission Watch the meeting LIVE at this post. Just scroll to the very bottom of the page. Details about how to participate are below. Next Steps for Our … Read more

Communications & Engagement: Choose Wisely (Summary: Mtg #4)

Last week, Creating the Future had its 4th meeting to create our communications / engagement strategy. For background, the following are discussion summaries from the meetings that led up to this one: Meeting #1: Who will see our messages (whether the intended audience or not)? What do we want those messages to make possible for … Read more

Community Engagement: 5 Tips

This post is the 4th in a series describing Creating the Future’s first “Road Tour,” a two-month community engagement effort that saw our founders connecting with people in communities across California and Nevada in late 2018. You can read these posts from the beginning here. Last fall, we set out for two months on the road, … Read more

Collective Enoughness in Action at Creating the Future: Real-time case study

Creating the Future is in build-out mode! Having established a track record in our start-up years,  the 10-year clock towards “Mission Accomplished” officially kicked off last year – full steam ahead to a world filled with systems that bring out the best in us all. As we asked, “What will it take to accomplish the … Read more