The Prosperity for All “Movement Machine”

What do you get when you combine a proven method for creating system-wide collaborative action on important societal issues, the ability to deploy hundreds of trained facilitators to enable communities across the country, a strategy for linking and leveraging community-level results to create national change, and a neutral non-profit organization from which to launch all this? You get a “Movement Machine” for creating positive change on a national scale. The Future Search Network’s new program, Prosperous Communities, Prosperous Nation (PCPN), is a “movement machine” focused on creating prosperous communities and in the process, fundamentally changing the way the U.S. thinks about and addresses poverty. Having demonstrated for two decades that Future Search creates ripples of collaborative change on a wide range of issues in communities across the globe, FSN is now ready to demonstrate that it can create national, systemic change for addressing poverty by applying the method nationwide in a cohesive, organized way. Several national organizations are seriously considering using PCPN as a way to help them achieve their missions for improving the lives of families, children, and communities living in poverty. They see it as an enabler for their organizations' mission (e.g. as a transistor that plugs into their mission that powers it up.) Beyond the fact that FSN has the method, the people, and the organization tailor-made to create systemic change, it is taking this step to launch a national endeavor because: • There is no national “mandate” to reduce poverty, despite the increasingly high stakes the nation faces if it does nothing different. The health of the economy and the ability to ensure national security is threatened in proportion to the prevalence of poverty, and yet we have not made addressing it a national priority. • The “American Dream” is at stake. Despite working full-time, many people are still unable to provide the basic necessities for their families. As more and more families find themselves in this circumstance, the harder it is to honestly claim that our founding principles are valid. This threatens the very foundation upon which our nation was founded. • Poverty is a systemic issue that affects everyone, but we have not approached it systemically. Systemic problems require systemic thinking and action. Since no one sector (e.g. the government, faith organizations, human services, education, etc.) or individual (e.g. persons living in poverty) can solve a systemic problem alone, expectations that they can or should are unrealistic. Therefore, our current approach as a nation is fundamentally flawed. • Dozens of organizations and communities have stated their concern and commitment to action for addressing poverty, but have no feasible avenue or vehicle with which to act. Many organizations want to address poverty, but few have the capacity, method, or reach to create the kind of systemic change necessary to do so. FSN’s PCPN program offers these combined abilities as a resource to organizations and communities in this situation. The bottom line is this: We know as a nation we have a problem that needs to be solved for the good of us all. We have the methodology that provides the structure for creating system-wide commitment and action. We have the people to deploy to support communities nationwide in the collaborative work that needs to be done. It has the track record proven to create ripples of lasting improvements. It has the neutral organization that allows it to act as an unbiased enabler for communities of people to create the future they want. And, it has a strategy for tying it all together in a way that creates a whole that is larger than the sum of these parts. So, we have a systemic problem that affects us all and a mechanism that engages the whole system to solve it. What we need now are people in communities interested in creating prosperous futures for themselves and the corporate, public, or private sponsors to fund the work. If you would like to explore how you can be a part of this exciting endeavor, please contact me at nancy@futuresearch.net or at (540) 937-4897. Find out more about Prosperous Communities, Prosperous Nation at: http://www.futuresearch.net/prosperouscommunities/index.cfm