What happens when a whole community chooses to make a story reality?

The goal of Crossroads Charlotte is to choose and pursue a future for Charlotte, not just arrive in one. With an emphasis on creating a community that is accessible to all, inclusive and equitable, the goal of Crossroads Charlotte is to build a trusting, vibrant and sustainable home.

Since 2005, organizations, institutions and people across the community have been taking a look at possible futures and CHOOSING to take action to steer the community towards a positive future.

What's happening? Take a look at the Impact of Crossroads Charlotte.

The goal of Phase I is to engage area corporations, governmental entities, non-profits and institutions in further examination of the scenarios and their driving forces, develop story lines about the future of these organizations within the scenarios and then respond by designing a response, or initiative, that is within the organization's CURRENT program of work or mission that will help lead the community to the positive aspects of the Crossroads Charlotte scenarios and away from the negative aspects of these futures.

Phase I and Phase II complement one another. The first phase helps develop an organizational capacity for change and cultivates essential leadership for community change. The second phase spurs public will for positive change and generates a demand for sustainable change. The hope is that the culmination of the two phases will propel the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community towards a more positive scenario by 2015.

Phase II will launch in Summer 2008 and extends Crossroads Charlotte to engage the broader community, including grassroots networks, small civic groups and ordinary residents.

Phase II will employ many of the highly interactive methods and creative processes of Phase I to guide new audiences through a change process – beginning by heightening awareness of relevant issues, then by helping residents recognize differing perspectives as well as our threats and opportunities; and finally by building public will and capacity to transition to something new.

The goals of Phase II are to:

• Involve broad constituencies of grassroots particicpants in Crossroads Charlotte
• Build relationships by including bridging and bonding opportunities
• Establish a sense of urgency and timing about the community's future
• Educate the public on the large trends affecting their future, specifically, the driving forces
• Give means for the public to respond to those trends with specific deliverables that are scalable from individual to network to organization, and finally, to community

Look for updates and progress on Phase II planning in the future.