On March 1, 2024, Envision will join the world for the third time to celebrate World Futures Day. Our guest speaker will be futurist John Smart, founder of the Acceleration Studies Foundation. He'll tell us how to maintain organizational fitness and create greater personal success, learning to "humanize" perplexing forces like AI and the metaverse. Watch for registration details, but mark your calendar now!

Alexa Naudziunas, with deep roots in community-building, has accepted the position of Executive Director of Envision. She begins her term September 8 when she joins Envision’s eighth Garry Golden Strategic Foresight Workshop series along with 23 others. In October, she will enter the University of Houston’s certification program on Strategic Foresight. Read more about our new Executive Director here.

Although the future is really in the hands of our Almighty God, we can use our wisdom to best prepare Catholic Charities for our next years of service. That’s just what we’ve been doing since 1918. Fast forward to 2023: Associate Director Tara Degrave and I enthusiastically represented the Diocese in Envision’s Strategic Foresight training program. We were excited to bring back new tools to help our team of 35 professional social workers, counselors, and case managers to prepare for and shape the future. Read about how we used our learning to lead successfully.

The world’s demographics have already been transformed. Europe is shrinking. China is shrinking, with India, a much younger country, overtaking it this year as the world’s most populous nation. But what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning. In many respects, the aging of the world is a triumph of development. People are living longer, healthier lives and having fewer children as they get richer. Experts predict things many wealthier countries take for granted will have to be overhauled. Read excerpts from the New York Times article, excerpted by Phil.

It takes 18 years to grow a worker. That makes workforce forecasting one of the easiest things that Envision can do in our efforts to identify trends and challenges. It is easy to gather live birth data for our region on an annual basis and extrapolate out into the future. We know the numbers of each age group, year by year, in NEW North. One of the most productive responses to this reality is to better align our education systems with our regional economic needs. Read the article here.

Join us at the Automobile Gallery on February 9, 2024, to begin this exciting and important training. The first session will be all day, in person, with futurist Garry Golden. Then join Garry and your cohort virtually for three Friday sessions, two hours each, along with ongoing individual learning support from both Golden and local Envision leaders. On April 12 you'll return to the Automobile Gallery to present your progress and celebrate the progress of your cohort. Learn about SF training and/or register here.