The Visioning 2026 Process

The Norfolk Visioning 2026 process will identify future challenges and strategies beyond our immediate needs and prepare the Norfolk community for the ever-changing environment in which we shall live. We must empower ourselves to shape our future.

To facilitate a culture of change in our community, the visioning process introduces future trends, enabling the community to collaborate and develop parallel processes for creating innovative action plans. Because of the accelerating changes in our global community, this evolution enhances community prosperity and establishes a sustainable process of cultural transformation.

The Visioning Process identifies a framework for gathering citizen input, and establishes a series of parallel processes to bring together interested citizens for their thoughts as well as structured capacity building experiences for an age of constant change.

Outline of Process

Dialogue Groups: Late August

• Kick off of Visioning Process; lays ground work for later components
• Deeper discussion on future trends
• Recruitment – target individuals and groups; 40-70 citizens

Symposium: Late September

• Educate public on future trends
• Keynote Speaker/Speakers
• Future’s Fair

Focus Groups: Mid-October

• Future Trends as identified in previous processes
• Recruitment – target individuals and groups; 100-120 citizens
• Recommendations from groups on possible actions

Polling: January '07

• Formal polling/Web-based polling
• Questions to be posed
• Education on topics and trends
• Marketing

Report: Late March '07

• Trends discussed and developed
• Ideas generated from process
• Evaluation of visioning process
• Plans for sustaining visioning process