Community Visioning and Leadership

Abstract

"Community" is a powerful force. And healthy communities can be created. The most important factor in building and strengthening healthy communities is "community visioning." Community visioning is the process of effectively stating what we, as a community, really want to be. The sign of a strengthened community is that its citizens have made choices as to what they realistically want to be.

This paper identifies the process of building healthy, strong communities. The process is developed with the premise that communities are unique, and that applying the visioning process presents profound challenges.

Identifed in the visioning process are: six major forces driving the visioning process; steps in creating a community-shared vision; achieving the shared vision; and living the shared vision.