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Organization Description Imagine Chicago works in partnership with individuals and local organizations – schools, museums, churches, businesses, and community groups. Together, they design and implement innovative civic projects that build meaningful connections across generations and cultures and have lasting institutional and community impact. Imagine Chicago encourages individuals and organizations to focus constructively on their capacities and opportunities to make a difference as they :
Imagine Chicago’s work encompasses a variety of initiatives but reflects three core processes. Each process focuses participant’s efforts by asking constructive questions that draw out the best of the past and build on that foundation to design and create a more vital future. The core processes are:
Imagine Chicago identifies change agents in
organizations, institutions and communities and gives them development
tools and opportunities to make a difference. Imagine Chicago creates
personal development opportunities that inspire, inform and can
sustain lasting institutional, community and systemic change. Through
its many collaborations, Imagine Chicago builds intergenerational
and intercultural networks of individuals and organizations committed
to developing a vital city-wide community. Imagine Chicago is model for other cities worldwide:
Imagine Chicago has attracted broad recognition: October 1998, Bliss Browne received the 1998
Mercedes Mentor Award for Imagine Chicago work. She was honored
in Today's Chicago Women in July
2000 as one of "100 women making a difference" and in
the "Clout" section of City Talk
in Jan. 2001. In 1995, 1996, and 1998, the Eureka Communities in Washington, D.C., selected Imagine Chicago for a national award for its "exemplary work on behalf of children and their families." It was cited in the Mayor's Youth Development Task Force Report in 1994 as one of 24 Chicago programs doing noteworthy work in positive youth development. In 1997, Imagine Chicago was one of only 24 programs selected to participate in a 2-year series of forums at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government on Civic Engagement in America. www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro Press & News Coverage:
Publications discussing Imagine Chicago:
News Archives:
Young people are particularly at risk today as they try to make sense of their lives in a society in which they are often isolated and poorly educated. They struggle to find constructive communities in which they are valued and expected to make a meaningful contribution. How can we awaken and cultivate their hope and commitment? How can we sustain it? These questions compelled Bliss Browne, an Episcopal priest, mother and former corporate banking executive, to create Imagine Chicago in 1992. What would it take, she wondered, to create a vision and action plan for the city's future that was owned by the people of Chicago? How would it be possible to create a city economy in which no one was wasted, in which everyone’s contributions mattered? Browne’s questions led her to convene a group of 65 experienced community builders in Chicago for a 2-day conference in October 1991. Together, they explored "Faithful Economic Imagination", or how individuals might collectively steward the city's resources to sustain life for everyone. The highlight of the conference was an exercise which challenged people to imagine visions of Chicago's future considered to be ultimately worthy of human commitment, and to identify what would be necessary for those dreams to become reality. On the strength of the energy and conviction that emerged from this conference, Browne resigned from a sixteen-year corporate career at the First National Bank of Chicago. She decided to work full-time on discovering what might be an effective process for "faithful economic imagination" to become a way of life in Chicago. Browne dedicated nine months to learning Chicago history, listening to people's concerns and hopes about what might constitute an effective visioning and economic development process in Chicago. Browne visited other cities with emerging citywide initiatives (such as Atlanta and Pittsburgh). She worked with the Council of Religious Leaders on articulating their vision for Chicago's future. During that time, an informal network of Chicago leaders began to gather around the questions at the heart of Browne's inquiry. In September 1992, twenty of them -- educators, corporate and media executives, philanthropists, community organizers, youth developers, economists, religious leaders, social service providers -- were convened as a design team for the project, which Browne had already initially conceptualized as "Imagine Chicago". The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supported Browne to pursue the work of designing the project's first phase, testing the project's viability, and getting the project organized and institutionalized. From September 1992 to May 1993, the design team created a process of civic inquiry. This was the starting point for engaging the city of Chicago in a broad-based conversation about its future. Two ideas emerged from the design phase that shaped the ultimate process design. First, that the pilot should attempt to discover what gives life to the city, and second, that it should provide significant leadership opportunities for youth, who most clearly represent the city's future. It was hoped from the outset that positive intergenerational civic conversation would provide a bridge between the experience and wisdom of seasoned community builders, and the energy and commitment of youth. The hope was that a common search for purpose would yield deeper insights into the collective future of the community. Two types of pilots were designed and implemented in 1993-1994: a citywide "appreciative inquiry" process to gather Chicago stories and commitments, and a series of community-based and led processes. "Appreciative inquiry" is a change methodology, developed by David Cooperrider of Case Western Reserve University, which fosters innovation in organizations through gathering positive stories and images and building on them to construct the desired future. Imagine Chicago’s citywide interviews exemplified this approach. Young adults and community builders in Chicago came together to share their hopes and commitments, within a setting of mutual respect. Intergenerational teams, led by a young person in the company of an adult mentor, interviewed business, civic, and cultural leaders, about the future of their communities and of Chicago. The interviewer asked positive questions about high points in the lives of citizens who had made a difference and their hopes for the future. The youth distilled the content for public view in ways that inspired public action and reinforced commitment. The premise was that young people could be effective agents of hope and inspiration, if released from the negative stereotypes held by themselves and others. Moving from Citywide
Interview Pilots Building the future requires a visible outcome as well as conversation. In Imagine Chicago‘s citywide intergenerational interview program, Imagine Chicago recognized that the appreciative intergenerational interview process would be more effective if it happened within structures that could move more readily to action. Therefore, Imagine Chicago spent 1995 designing structured intergenerational initiatives that gave participants a chance to be city creators in more concrete and sustained ways. Each initiative moved toward visible outcomes through dialogue, curriculum development and network formation. This enabled individuals and organizations to develop skills which deepened their hope and helped forge meaningful civic connections. Imagine Chicago designed a framework for individuals and organizations to recognize and build their own capacity to make a civic contribution as they considered three fundamental questions. These questions, relevant to any situation but especially relevant to Chicago's future, are: What is? What could be? What will be? Through ongoing structured dialogues and opportunities for joint action, citizens connect to Chicago as they ask the fundamental questions and learn how their own visions, choices, and commitments can help shape broader systems and communities in the city. Imagine Chicago has been able to build upon the initial city dialogues to develop innovative initiatives -- with institutional impact -- that create meaningful connections across generations, cultures, and neighborhoods and which develop responsible citizenship. The focus has been on education, leadership formation, and community development programs that support the important process of personal development for public service. Since the first Imagine Chicago dialogues in 1993, Imagine Chicago initiatives have expanded to include more than 1500 individuals in more than 40 neighborhoods and to create partnerships with more than 100 community organizations and schools. Many of these organizations have now incorporated the vision and approaches of Imagine Chicago into their own work. For a detailed description of the citywide interviews visit Completed Programs - Intergenerational Citywide Interviews
Dennis A. Britton
Bliss W. Browne
Barbara Young Morris
Joanna Riopelle
Scott Bernstein
Rev. John Haughey, S.J.
Therese Rowley
Alaka Wali Emory Williams
Staff She is a former Director and Chairman of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, an Advisory Board member and past Chairman of the MidAmerica Leadership Foundation, former executive Trustee of the Council for A Parliament of the World’s Religions, Trustee of the Chicago Sunday Evening Club, and Advisory Board Member of Public Allies. She serves on the Chicago Historical Society’s Community Advisory Board, the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative Advisory Board and the Voices for Illinois Children Committee of 100. Bliss has been a participant in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government Saguaro Seminar on Civic Engagement in America. Bliss lives in Uptown and is the mother of three teenage children. E-mail: bliss@imaginechicago.org Back to Top |
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