Overview

The "Futures Festival" is a special event designed to engage people of all ages in constructive dialogue about community development issues. It is geared primarily toward youths and older adults, two population groups whose opportunities to participate in community activities are typically limited. Through murals, models, photographs, theatrical displays, and other communications media, the Futures Festival brings community residents and public officials together to share their ideas about community development. All participants get the chance to answer (and learn how others answer) the all-important question: "What would you like to see in the future of your community?"

There are various ways to conduct a Futures Festival. It can be organized as a separate event or incorporated into another event, such as an annual fair, for which a strong local tradition exists. This latter approach may be more feasible in rural areas where people have greater distances to travel. Futures Festival activities can be focused on development possibilities for the entire community, or the focus can be limited to the development of a particular setting, such as a local park, or to specific issues of concern. No matter how they are organized, Future Festival events provide fun, non-confrontational activities that stimulate critical reflection and constructive dialogue about the physical, social, and psychological dimensions of community living and development.

It takes a team effort to conduct a successful Futures Festival event. At the core of the team, there needs to be an official event coordinator and a home base for operations. Cooperative Extension can play a central role since Extension educators have strong ties to county agencies and organizations and have access to information about other planning discussions happening in any given area. For more detailed information about conducting Futures Festivals, see facilitator's guide: http://intergenerational.cas.psu.edu/Futures.pdf.

Objectives

1. To give community residents an opportunity to learn how local development decisions are made.

2. To increase participants' understanding of their community and the needs and concerns of its residents.

3. To heighten participants' sense of civic involvement and responsibility.

4. To provide civic leaders and community development professionals with additional information about residents' concerns.

Basic Concepts

• sense of community
• citizenship and community participation
  
• community planning and "visioning"
  
• democracy
  
• intergenerational communication
  
• history as a living, ongoing process

Skills Development

• critical thinking about land use
• working as part of a group
• communicating and planning
• recognizing and appreciating alternative perspectives
• being resourceful with materials
• public speaking

Supplies/Resources For Exhibits For Exhibits and Activities

• Name tags
• Decorations
  
• Stage area
• Newsprint
• Sketching: paper, pencils, markers, etc.
• Mural painting: 3-5 mural surfaces (e.g., 8' by 4' of homosote--a condensed cardboard-like substance), paint (assorted colors), paint brushes, paint thinner.
• Model building: 3-5 model bases (e.g., pieces of hardened cardboard, baseboard, foamcore, or other form-holding substance at least 4 sq. ft. in area), and miscellaneous arts and crafts supplies, including materials that can be brought from home (e.g., pipe cleaners, cotton balls, toilet paper rolls).
• Land-use mapping: 5-10 copies of an outline map of the community, aerial photographs of the community (current and historical), crayons, pencils, rulers, compasses, colored stickers or pushpins, and masking tape. (Maps can be obtained from local development agencies.)

Event Planning

The event planning process takes place over a two- to four-month timeframe and involves the following basic steps.

Step 1: Organize an event coordination team.

The first step is to establish an event coordination team. Members of this group will be responsible for:

• recruiting participants, exhibitors, and presenters
• publicizing the event to the media
• coordinating, facilitating, and evaluating activities on the day of the event.

Try to recruit:

• human service professionals who work with children, youth and older adults.
• planning professionals working at the community, county, and municipal levels
• volunteers with skills and interests in environmental design and development (perhaps retired architects, city planners, construction managers, etc.), community history, photography, public affairs, etc.

Step 2: Determine event location and date.

Location and timing of the event are key elements for staging a successful Future Festival. Events work well when conducted at accessible parks or large, spacious, indoor facilities. Equally important is establishing a reasonable timeframe that allows the event coordination team enough time to pull together local groups and incorporate stakeholder interests. If allowing people who work to attend is a priority, events should be held on a weekend day.

Step 3: Recruit exhibitors/presenters and generate community interest and excitement.

Every group and organization with something to say about local community development or quality-of-life issues should be encouraged to develop some sort of exhibit or presentation. To get the word out, develop and distribute a "call for presentations" flyer. The information should be distributed as widely as possible, using such methods as postings on local bulletin boards and notices in community organization newsletters. Outreach efforts might also include presentations at meetings of various school and community organizations.

Step 4: Provide assistance in exhibit/presentation preparation.

The Event

The distinctive feature of a Futures Festival event is that it employs a wide array of communications media to help people express their concerns and hopes for the future of their communities. Choose one, two or any combination of the following activity, exhibit, and presentation formats:

1. Mural painting: This activity can be structured as follows:

a. Break participants into intergenerational groups and assign a "facilitator" to each group; this person should have the skills to promote interaction/ negotiation between muralists.

b. Have facilitators engage participants in group discussions and preliminary sketching exercises aimed at illustrating ideas for community improvement. As they develop their mural plans, encourage participants to consider recreation, education, housing, shopping, and city services, and to accommodate the needs and desires of residents of all ages in the themes of their murals. Also encourage participants to be creative in their planning in terms of visualizing new community settings, transportation systems, services, and industry.

c. Allow each mural group develop an overall sketch of their plan and let them begin painting!

From Long Island City – 2000 (Community Mural Day, 1987). This photo reached the front page of the local newspaper. The message: that Long Island City residents did not want its own planning process to emulate the mega-development of Manhattan (across the East River). This mural includes an amphitheatre on the water’s edge and an urban forest. The dull grey buildings in the background represent Manhattan

2. Model building: This activity can be structured in much the same way as the mural-painting activity above, except instead of painting murals, participants develop three-dimensional models to display their community development visions.

3. Theatrical displays: Invite participating groups and organizations to develop theatrical skits for display at the Festival. These skits could dramatize quality-of-life concerns, highlight new ideas for community improvement, arouse feelings about places of sentimental value, and promote a sense of civic awareness and responsibility.

4. Photography exhibits: Encourage participating groups to display photos, old and new, of favorite landmarks and other locations of significance. Images of existing and desired future settings can be taken from newspapers, magazines, drawings, and existing unpublished photographs, and woven into collage-like displays.

Senior Adult as Resource - The "Where is this Place?" exhibit and activity, Fayette County Futures Festival, PA, July, 2002. Photo: Mary Garrity.

5. Display plans for new facilities: County, regional, and municipal planning officials and business representatives can use the event as an opportunity to inform the public about future developments. Displays of sketches and models of planned facilities would be appropriate.

6. Traditional games (for display and play): Encourage active older adult volunteers to bring in traditional games (i.e., games they played when they were young). If appropriate, have materials on hand so that children and youth can build their own games.

7. Community study: Encourage community agency representatives and citizen groups to display charts, tables, and summary lists derived from their community investigation activities. This is a good opportunity to share research results and the outcomes of community action campaigns.

8. Other: Exhibit and performance possibilities are endless. Here are additional ideas:

• Videotape documentaries about local conditions
• Presentations of song, poetry, and dance to high light local hopes and concerns
• Debates on issues for which there are opposing viewpoints
• Student-conducted oral history interviews with older adult volunteers or oral history reports
• Community forum discussions about problems such as vandalism, drug use, and safety concerns.
• Local history "Test Your Knowledge" Quiz Show
• Show and Tell - For ideas for items which have generation-specific relevance and which can be used to stimulate intergenerational communication, see the "Tools and Resources for Intergenerational Action and Learning" curriculum: http://intergenerational.cas.psu.edu/TRIAL.pdf.
• "Heritage Circles" - See: http://intergenerational.cas.psu.edu/Heritagecircles.doc
• A Tree Planting ceremony as a symbol of community unity and growth.

Ideas for creating a festival-like atmosphere:

• get a band

An intergenerational planning group chose jazz as the music of the festival - not so much because it was everyone's favorite, but because this was the type of music for which nobody expressed dislike. Mount Vernon-2000 Futures Festival, 1989).

• set up high-profile activities such as a "bike rodeo."

Evaluation

For each Futures Festival event, ask one or two members of the event coordination team to circulate and conduct brief interviews with participants before they leave. The interview is simple, asking one basic question: "What did you learn from your experiences today?" If necessary, prompt respondents to describe what they learned about the community, what they learned about the needs and concerns of local residents, and how they feel about their role in the community as a result of this new knowledge.

Keep a record of each Features Festival event. Note the date, collaborating agencies, number of participants, number and nature of exhibits and activities offered, and the ideas expressed for community development and change during the course of the festival.

To assess changes in planning team members' perspectives, concerns, and visions for the target community, have them fill out questionnaires at the beginning of the planning process and again at the debriefing meeting after the event. [See http://intergenerational.cas.psu.edu/QuestEvalTool.doc
for a template of the "Pre- and Post- Event Questionnaire for Futures Festival Events."]

Working To Sustain Interest

• write a post-event press release to highlight community concerns expressed at the Futures Festival
• put Futures Festival exhibits on public display
• begin soliciting agreements and commitments to plan next year's event

Other curricular resources from the Penn State Intergenerational Program:

The Penn State Intergenerational Program, spearheaded by Penn State Cooperative Extension, aims to provide leadership and resource support for Extension educators and other professionals interested in conducting intergenerational programs. New program models are piloted in various settings; program teams include Extension educators, university faculty, university outreach staff, agency and community organization representatives, students, and volunteers. Resources posted on the Web (http://intergenerational.cas.psu.edu) include curricular materials, fact sheets, circulars, and a quarterly newsletter.

Matt Kaplan, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in
Department of Agricultural and Extension Education
College of Agricultural Sciences - Cooperative Extension
Penn State University