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Environmental
groups work to protect the environment and build a sustainable society
while attempting to serve communities and constituent groups apparently
polarized around conflicting goals. Shifting political winds can affect
funding and undermine hard won legal or legislative victories. One
challenge environmental groups constantly face is the need to forge
common ground in a deeply adversarial environment. Here is a way one community came together to talk about the environmental issues facing their region.
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A Future Search in Tuolumne County, California
In Tuolumne County, California-where polarization
over environmental and development issues had built seemingly hopeless
rifts in the community-a future search brought environmentalists
together with business leaders, government agencies, community members
and others for three days of engaged dialogue. Future search was chosen
by a local elected official who felt the polarization had become
unbearable. A planning team met for the better part of a year to bring
the necessary voices around the table. The future search resulted in a
natural resource team, which is still meeting and working on behalf of
the community-over 5 years later! Participants found it so valuable,
that it was brought to other communities in the region facing similar
issues. |
The effective use of resources and effective mobilization of constituencies is critical to environmental organizations.
Future search brings all elements of an organization or community
together in a collaborative dynamic that can help communities and
non-profits grapple effectively with both internal and external issues.
It can help like-minded people build an effective constituency for
change. At the same time, it is powerful for discovering common ground
in situations where real or imagined conflicts have made dialogue
difficult or impossible. Future search builds on shared perspectives
without requiring participants to compromise their beliefs or values in
any way.
Ways Future Search can Help Environmental Organizations:
- Build more effective organizations,
- Move deadlocked issues forward by engaging all involved parties in a way that builds deep buy-in and wide support,
- Engage all voices - staff, board members, donors and volunteers,
community members, agency counterparts, business leaders, even
adversaries - to build a common vision and commitment,
- Support engagement in communities where polarization has seemed to
stifle all hope or in situations where capacity and resources seemed at
an all time low,
- Bring large groups of people together in successful dialogue where
they can learn about and appreciate their commonalties, rather than
focus on their differences,
- Lay the groundwork - based on an honest assessment of realities - for moving into effective and collective action,
- Help groups build effective coalitions to address large scale challenges,
- Establish solid working relationships among varied sectors
(government, NGO's, scientists, citizen groups, commercial interests,
and more),
- Help groups devise legislative or policy strategies for regional, national, and international issues,
- Bring together all voices to design management plans to preserve
habitats, save endangered species, protect watersheds, conserve
undeveloped land, and reclaim urban and commercial sites.
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