About IC

Global Initiatives

Global Imagine Projects

The Imagine Movement has spread to over 70 projects in more than 20 countries spanning six continents and continues to grow.

Since 1998, a self-organizing global Imagine movement has emerged in dialogue with Imagine Chicago's work. Each Imagine project has been locally designed and implemented. Some have been neighborhood-focused and run by unpaid volunteers. Others have been city- or country-wide and initiated and managed by government staff with public funding; others have been public-private institutional partnerships.

Imagine projects tend to share certain common features: strength-based and vision-oriented communications; intergenerational collaboration as a preferred way of working; integration of arts-based activities into civic dialogue; and a commitment to place-based intercultural communities of practice within which people share ideas, resources and practical tools that make a tangible community difference. Some large scale Imagine projects in cities like Calgary and Durban have focused on citizens’ defining a long term vision for sustainable development that can inform government decision making in the present.

Imagine Chicago has been contacted by more than 70 Imagine projects in the world, many claiming inspiration from Imagine Chicago.  Many other initiatives are infused with a similar commitment to inspired citizen imagination and commitment to place. If you have developed such a project, we would love to hear from you! 

Case Studies

• Global Imagine Conference (2002)    

• United Way

• 24 Hours to Launch Imagine Scotland

• Citizen Leaders: Inspiring Community Innovation

• The Whole World Gets Well

• Chicago Case Study in Intergenerational Appreciative Inquiry (1995)

• Bloomin’ Communities or Communities in Bloom

• Discovering the Strengths of Our Community and Our Leaders

• Imagine Durban

• Imagine St. Helens

• Connections that Work

• Imagine Celebration 2002